DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus will leave at the end of this year to lead Families International, Inc., the nonprofit parent organization of three national nonprofit organizations: Alliance for Children and Families, United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA), and Ways to Work. The group also inclues one for-profit company, FEI Behavioral Health.

DSHS is the largest state agency. In a statement sent out by Gov. Chris Gregoire, it says Gregoire is “expected” to name an interim replacement by the end of special session.

“I want to thank Governor Gregoire for the opportunity to serve in this beautiful state. I have come to love Washington and to respect and admire its people and those who have devoted their lives and their careers to public service,” Dreyfus said in the press release. “My life is forever blessed for the time I have spent here.”

Dreyfus, who was appointed to her current role in mid-2009, will continue to head the agency through the special session that starts Nov. 28.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said in the statement that her departure “is a loss to our state and to my team,” but that she understands and respects her personal and professional decision to return to Wisconsin.

Tags: Budget, Dreyfus, DSHS, Gregoire

The bill sponsored  by Sens. Debbie Regala and Mike Carrell to reform how Electronic Benefit Cards are used is now headed to Gov. Chris Gregoire. EBT cards are issued as part of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. They are loaded each month with cash so the cardholder can use it like a debit card.

The bill will make it  illegal to use the cards for certain nonessential expenses — and will require those businesses to disable their ATM machines from accepting the EBT cards. What businesses are affected? Liquor stores, bail bond businesses, erotic entertainment venues, tattoo shops, taverns, casinos and other adult-only establishments. Cardholders who violate the law will be subject to a civil infraction.

The bill also creates an Office of Fraud and Accountability within DSHS, charged with sniffing out illegal card use and other fraud.

Tags: DSHS, EBT cards

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is considering a bill to create the Office of Fraud and Accountability within the Department of Social and Health Services. The office would be responsible for sniffing out fraud.

Sen. Mike Carrell, the bill’s sponsor, told the committee that when welfare reform was passed in 1997, employees were testifying about the large number of fraud cases with food stamps. “Now we have an EBT, electronic benefit transfer card — a debit card,” he said. On that card, food stamps and cash can be loaded. “Well last fall, King 5 TV came to me and they had found that these cards were being used at gambling casinos,” he said — about $2 million was cashed out in casinos. He says the state has since worked with casinos to make sure that doesn’t happen — but there are other abuses.

“Now we only have four real prosecutors that have criminal justice experience,” he said — this bill would increase that to 10. “I think it will pay for itself.”

He also showed a Craigslist post, offering the sale of an EBT card. “I understand that DSHS is there to help people and they should help people, but if somebody is defrauding the system … we need to do something about it.” He said 29 percent of those with EBT cards were issued three or more cards last year. He says he suspects those people are selling their cards.

Dennis Eagle with the Washington Federation of State Employees said his group is supportive. “Front line workers see examples of waste, fraud and abuse all the time and they really aren’t empowered to do anything about it. It’s frustrating, they feel helpless and it drives them nuts,” he said. He said he applauds the way the program would be set up to preserve independence — and it has whistleblower protections, too.

Sen. Rodney Tom asked why front line employees aren’t empowered to report fraud. “There’s two elements to that,” Eagle said. “Maybe you see something that looks funny, you send it up the chain, you never see anything happen … it’s disheartening in that regard. And then I think the other issue is that rightly, wrongly … most employees are afraid to say anything that might be deemed as negative or critical of the agency.”

No one else signed up to testify on the bill.

Tags: DSHS, EBT, fraud

A proposal is on the board again to break up the Department of Social and Health Services. Today it’s up for discussion at the House State Government & Tribal Affairs committee hearing.

Representative Mike Armstrong claims the department is too big, with too many agencies within agencies to operate as it should. His measure, House Bill 1029, would rename DSHS the Social and Health Care Authority and create three new departments: Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Services, Long-term Care and Rehabilitative Services and Children and Family Services.

“When you have smaller agencies they are more accountable,” Armstrong, R-Wenatchee said. “It is assumed there is coordination between the agencies but I can tell you right now – there isn’t.”

He made a similar proposal last year with HB 2197. Read coverage how the public reacted in 2010 here.

Armstrong said that since then he has been working with different stakeholders to evolve the bill and gather more support. This time around the bill gives more authority to the Governor and DSHS by giving them two years to figure out how they want the reorganization to look. Still, he said over the phone this morning, “They are not on board. They want to leave it as is.”

Currently DSHS, according to their website, assists more than 2.2 million children, families, vulnerable adults and seniors. Programs within the Department include: aging and disability; alcohol and substance abuse; child support; children’s services; deaf and hard of hearing; health care assistance; juvenile rehabilitation; mental health; research and data analysis; residential rehabilitation centers; special commitment center; state hospitals and vocational rehabilitation.

Testifying on behalf of Governor Gregoire Kari Burrell said that the Governor wants to stretch every state dollar as far as it will go. To do this she has proposed consolidating several agencies. This bill, said Burrell, goes in the opposite direction, although the goals are things we all share.

Doug Porter, head of Health Care Authority, said he wants to see more a connection between the Health Care Authority and DSHS. By working together to secure Federal Medicaid dollars he has found a way to help offer services to people on the Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline.

Susan Dreyfus, Secretary of DSHS, testified against the bill . “I simply feel is that what this bill does is it creates the very organizational structure that I have been working to change.”

Dreyfus said that the problems that DSHS respond to can be labeled in many different ways and intersect the different agencies. For example, she said, 70 percent of cases that Child Welfare works with are neglect. Neglect, she said, often times ties into other issues like poverty, alcohol and substance abuse and mental illness. “All these programs are integrated, not separate,” Dreyfus told the committee.  Our hardest to serve population cuts across child welfare, drug and alcohol, etc.  ”It works like this -” she raised her linked hands.

In terms of being more efficient Dreyfus said that in the past couple of years DSHS has been serving 30 to 40 percent more people with less staff . Child fatalities, she said, are down 22 percent and child safety complaints are down by 7 percent.

“It is about integration, not separation that will make the biggest difference for the  state of Washington when going forward,” said Dreyfus.

No one else signed up to testify.

Tags: abolishing DSHS, DSHS

The 6.3 percent across-the-board cuts to state government go into effect on Friday, so we’re starting to get information on where agencies will make those cuts. Today’s news comes from DSHS, the largest state agency. In a news release, the agency said it will cut 380 full time equivalent positions. DSHS already employs 2,000 fewer people than in 2008.

In addition to those cuts, DSHS will implement temporary layoffs, sending workers home one day per month without pay. Workers who are already subject to the 10 temporary layoffs (or furloughs) under last year’s budget cuts will take two additional furloughs for a total of 12.

As for other cuts? “Major reductions in state spending will come in long-term care services ($40 million), Disability Lifeline ($6.1 million), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for non-citizens ($7.2 million), Children’s Administration ($19.3 million) and Mental Health ($25.6 million).” There’s no word on precisely what those cuts will mean.

DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus said in the release that the cuts were difficult and “the rigidity of the way our budget is structured limited many of our choices,” she said, adding that this isn’t just a reduction, it’s the beginning of a reset.

For more information, visit the DSHS budget site here.

Tags: budget cuts, DSHS

The Department of Social and Health Services today announced that it has shut down or restricted admissions for two boarding homes and two adult family homes.

DSHS:

- Stopped admissions to Patriots Landing Operations LLC, a boarding home marketed to veterans at 1600 Marshall Circle, DuPont, for failing to ensure seniors were smoking in proper areas (including a reference to oxygen tanks. See below).

- Stopped admissions to  Bonaventure, a boarding home at 4528 Intelco Loop SE, Lacey, for six offenses including ongoing verbal, mental and physical abuse.

- Stopped admissions to and revoked the license of Renton Highlands Elder Care Home, an adult family home located at 4514 NE 17^th Place, Renton, for four offenses, including having no system to prevent residents from wandering off.

- Stopped admissions to and revoked and suspended the license of Honeydew Estates, an adult family home located at 1060 Whitman Court NE, Renton, for five offenses, including not reporting changes in medical conditions of multiple patients.

There are about 2,850 adult family homes and 550 boarding homes licensed in the state, according to DSHS. All of the above actions were taken between March 17 and March 26. Each of the facilities had 28 days to request a hearing.

The Seattle Times published a package of stories on Washington’s adult family homes, called “Seniors for Sale,” in January. The multi-part story has drawn attention to state-supervised senior care.

For the full information on the charges by DSHS and what happens to seniors in the facilities’ care, read after the jump. (more…)

Tags: adult family homes, DSHS, senior care

Right now, the House Ways and Means Committee appears to be getting ready to vote on the bill to abolish the state’s largest agency, DSHS.

Here’s some previous coverage of the bill.

Stay tuned. They’re being briefed on a list of bills to be exec’d, and I’ll update here if and when they take a vote.

Tags: DSHS

Right now in the House (and live on TVW) is a bill to abolish DSHS — the largest state agency. The bill passed out of House Health and Human Services last week, and now is in Ways & Means. DSHS would be disbanded and separated into four different agencies under the bill. I’ll update here as the hearing continues.

Here’s some public testimony from last week.

Rep. Ruth Kagi asked Chris Blake, committee staff, what the cost would be. The answer: No one knows right now. “There would be some savings from eliminating the current administrative structure, but there would be some additional costs” to four different administrative structures.

“I consider this bill to be kind of a study bill with teeth,” said Rep. Mike Armstrong, the sponsor. “Since this is a fiscal committee, I’m not even going to bring up the 16 children per year that die” while under the supervision of DSHS. “How do you quantify what you can save financially when looking at the death of 16 children?”

“Where do the savings come from? Right now, DSHS has over 19,000 employees and operate a total budget of $20 billion,” he said — $10 billion from the state, $10 billion from the federal government. He said the savings comes in cutting layers of management. He cited the Department of Health as an example — the Legislature carved it out of DSHS and it’s doing just fine.

Kari Burrell with Gov. Chris Gregoire’s office, said Gov. Gregoire shares the goals outlined in the intent section of the bill. But: Gregoire has introduced bills of her own to reform and streamline DSHS and  “this bill proposes going in the opposite direction,” she said.

And now Susan Dreyfus, Secretary of DSHS. “We are in unprecedented times. And to pass this bill would decrease productivity,” she said, and derail the department. “This bill will not get you better results.” “I know that you have many frustrations with the child welfare system in this state … I really need to share with you that what I am finding in the review of the state system here is that we simply are not focused … on quality, consistency and accountability.”

Public hearing is now closed on that bill. Dreyfus and Burrell were the only two to testify.

Tags: abolishing DSHS, DSHS

Susan Dreyfus, Secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, is now testifying before the Senate Human Services Committee. Here’s a Q&A with Dreyfus from this summer.

DSHS is the largest state agency, with a $20 billion operating budget. There have been proposals this year to abolish the agency.

“Often times we end up working in silos across the organization,” she said — and now is not the time. “This is the time for alignment and integration … not the separation.”

Dreyfus said part of the department’s strategic plan is “making sure that the measures are quite clear” — meaning the department has to measure their results and take accountability. She said the department has six state regions and citizens in those regions may get “radically different services.”

“The vast majority of my employees are out there doing a fabulous job and living the mission” of DSHS, she said. But there are “a few employees” who either need more guidance or maybe don’t belong at her department.

She said they need to improve the adult family home system. The Seattle Times just did a multi-part story, called “Seniors for Sale” about the dysfunction in adult family homes.

Sen. Val Stevens said DSHS has gone through a long journey. She said many promises have been made and few have been kept by former DSHS administrations. Dreyfus said “it’s not about some new initiative, new program. It’s about fundamentally changing our work,” she said.

Dreyfus is now done with her testimony.

Tags: Dreyfus, DSHS

Right now, the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee is holding a public hearing on a bill to abolish the Department of Social and Health Services. Watch here.

Cindy Van Winkle, chair of the state rehabilitation council for the Department of Services for the Blind, said the bill would hurt blind people. “The needs of blind people and the way DSB meets those needs are unique, specialized and life-changing,” she said. “When a parent comes home from the hospital after learning their baby is blind, when someone suddenly loses their vision at the height of their career … when someone who is blind wants to work but doesn’t have the skills to prepare a meal … the services they need can be found at DSB.”

David Roberts: “I’ve received services from DSB twice in my life … without the help of that agency, I really don’t think I would have done a lot of thigns that I have done,” he said — namely, he has been able to work. He said departments within DSHS like the Department of Services for the Blind helps people make a living for themselves.

Mary Helen Shiver, member of National Federation of the Blind, also said she wouldn’t have been able to work without services from DSB. She warned against “destroying DSHS into total confusion, into four or more whatever agencies you want to create… Do not destroy what is working.”

Tags: DSHS