Families across Nebraska are expressing concerns about the state's decision to end its 26-year partnership with the League of Human Dignity, which provides service coordination for people with disabilities.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services plans to terminate its contract with the League and take over coordination services internally, starting April 1.
For families like Tricia Gushard of Omaha, who cares for her 25-year-old son Elijah, the transition raises questions about continuity of care. Gushard has worked with the same service coordinator for eight years.
"He's not going to be able to push his wheelchair much longer, shoulders are starting to give out," Gushard said. "Well, the service coordinator is the person who's like, 'hey, I know this and I know this grant and I know this thing' and they can help get it all coordinated. Now where do we go? What do we do?"
Similar concerns echo across the state. Eddie and Lisa Larsen in Arthur have worked with their daughter's coordinator for 10 years, while Anna Keyzer in Lincoln has had the same coordinator for her son for four years.
Each family worries about losing not only assistance in navigating complex systems but also an advocate for their children with disabilities.
"A society is kind of judged by how they treat their most vulnerable," Keyzer said. "And I don't feel like the most vulnerable should be the ones where we're starting the cuts."
Eddie Larsen questions whether state employees will provide the same level of advocacy as LHD coordinators.
"With the league, they didn't have to be afraid about advocating for someone that needed care," Larsen said. "If you're just working for the state and your paycheck depends on the state...nobody's gonna say no."
According to DHHS the change affects 4,420 participants in the state's Aged and Disabled Waiver program and is projected to save $7.4 million.
Kathy Hoell, co-chair of the Olmstead Advisory Committee and former executive director of Nebraska's Statewide Independent Living Council, questions whether the transition will actually achieve cost savings when factoring in new state employees with benefits, equipment, and office space needs.
"When you look at them hiring 100 people that work for the state, and they have to give them benefits...equipment and new office space, all this stuff—is it going to be comparable in cost or is this going to be an added burden to the budget?" Hoell said.
Hoell also raises concerns about federal compliance, noting that removing the League of Human Dignity from the process represents a substantial change that may require rewriting the entire waiver program and restarting the federal approval process.
"The League of Human Dignity not being part of the process is a really substantive change," Hoell said. "So are they going to rewrite this whole waiver again and start all over, or are they just gonna say, 'oh no, it's nothing to be concerned about'?"
The state has worked with the League of Human Dignity since 1998. DHHS says it will "hire the necessary additional staff to cover the increase in service coordination through the department, with the intention of hiring high-performing staff from LHD to minimize disruption to families," according to a statement from the department.
The state also said in a statement that "relevant stakeholders have been notified of the transition and will receive additional information as needed." But families say they've received minimal information about the change.
Gushard says she only has a name for her new coordinator—no contact information. Keyzer says she wasn't directly notified about the change at all, learning about it through a forwarded email from her agency.
With less than two months until the transition, families say they still don't know who will coordinate their care or how the change will affect the services their loved ones depend on.
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