CHEYENNE - Between 800 and 1,000 more elderly or handicapped people will get help with household chores so they can stay in their homes at a cost of about $800 each under a bill that passed the Legislature this year.

Currently there are 2,700 slots for the state-financed, community-based in-home program.

"That in our opinion is the most efficient program for keeping elderly people in their homes as they age," said Tim Summers of AARP.

"It's very efficient, administered largely through the senior centers," he added.

These people do not qualify for the Medicaid program but can get services, such as help with cleaning, bathing or grocery shopping, on a sliding pay scale.

Summers and other advocates for the elderly said the Legislature maintained this program and other important core services in Senate File 89 after lawmakers revised the language and cut the price tag in half to $3.59 million in state dollars.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal is scheduled to sign SF 89 into law Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the Casper senior center.

The bill also expands the number of slots in the home- and community-based waiver program from 1,150 to 1,450.

It also retains some innovations, such as an adult foster care pilot program and a study of elder care facilities.

Alternative elder care facilities will encourage pilot programs such as the greenhouse concept, Summers added, which provides care in a group home-like setting.

"That was one of the big advantages of the bill. Not so much for the seed money that the bill provided, but it set up some of the logistical things needed to get more alternative forms of care in the state, and that's what we were mostly concerned about happening," he said.

Former Rep. Doug Osborn of Buffalo, who had been chairman of the House Committee on Labor, Health and Social Services during work on the bill, tracked it throughout the session, Summers said.

Osborn also is on the team that is putting together a greenhouse project in Sheridan, he added.

"All in all, we're just really thrilled with the bill," he said.

Beverly Morrow, administer of the aging division of the state Department of Health, agreed that the core pieces of the bill remained.

The expansion of the Medicaid community-based service waiver is a big piece of bill, a program that is run through the aging division.

"They help us to allow people to receive services in their homes rather than in a nursing home," she said.

It also costs about half as much as a nursing home "and is the right thing to do," Morrow said.

She explained the state has two Medicaid program waivers, for long-term care for people in their homes and for the assisted living program. These waivers enable states to cover a broad array of home- and community-based services for targeted populations as an alternative to institutionalization.

About 20 percent of the people in Wyoming on the long-term care waiver can choose whom they want to provide their care, Morrow said.

Instead of a home health agency, they can choose a son, daughter or friend.

"It works very well, and it does give people more control over what is happening with their lives," Morrow said.

In the assisted living waiver, the facility is paid a certain per diem amount depending on the needs of the client. The program does not pay for room and board.

The bill authorizes expansion of the assisted living waiver from 146 to 168 slots. The state has a waiting list for these slots.

"It's getting much more popular, and we don't have very many assisted living facilities in the state, but it is becoming something that people are wanting. It is one more option people have to stay out of a nursing home," Morrow said.

She said she is happy the Legislature focused on long-term care and the needs of the future.

It's important, she said, because Wyoming now ranks fifth nationally for the proportion of the population aged 50-64.

"That's the boomer generation that is aging right into the senior population," Morrow said. "I think the Legislature showed some vision in looking at this bill and actually allowing the really important parts to make it through."

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at {M3joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.