A committee member commented that this methodology seemed to lead to inequities between counties. Hope was expressed that Family Care wouldn't perpetuate this and wanted the Department to work on a way to level out the dispartity. Judith noted that the historical rates was only an interim plan. In the future we continue to work towards getting the data we need to set rates based on functional status rather than historical data. Judith noted that the Intermediate Rates were also difficult because there is no good comparable group.
Additional data is needed.
The second type of risk is the risk of loss from the aggregate or entire program. Counties do not want to go back to their county boards to say they lost money. Second, the state will share in the risk if they want us to. If the state shares in the risk, we will also share in the profits. In addition the state offered individual stop loss protection for those individual high cost cases.