Seawright Heralds Passage of Bills That Streamline Elder Care

Upper East Side State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright is touting two freshly passed bills that she says will streamline elder care for New York State’s nearly 5 million older residents, which is only her latest move as the head of the body’s Aging Committee up in Albany.

One bill expands access to the Expanded In-Home Services (EISEP) program—which provides aging-at-home services as an alternative to institutional care, such as nursing facilities—by eliminating a “physician’s prescription requirement” for non-medical in-home care, respite care, and ancillary services. It also “empowers” Area Agencies on Aging, which implement the EISEP program, to dispose of cost-sharing analyses that Seawright’s office calls “fiscally unsound” and “counterproductive.”

Meanwhile, another bill mandates that the state Department of Health produce a report on the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program, examining data on enrollees between 2022 and 2026. Seawright says that one fruitful area of study would be to determine what amount of EPIC enrollees are eligible for the state’s Medicare Savings program (which helps some seniors with Medicare premiums), as well as determining participating provider pharmacies.

”My Upper East Side district has the largest concentration of seniors of any Assembly district in Manhattan, and I’m hearing a lot from seniors at my storefront office that want to participate in the EPIC plan, or they’re already participating in it . . . or they don't know about it,” Seawright said in an interview with Straus News. “So, this would require the DOH to produce a report on the utilization and activity of the program. . . . I’m looking forward to getting the word out that seniors should be taking advantage of it, if they qualify.”

As to the bill eliminating the prescription requirement, Seawright said that she hears from a lot of seniors who have to “take Access-A-Ride or the local bus to their hospital appointments,” which could be avoided under the new bill if they get adequate at-home care.

“It’s all about making life simpler, and easier—less paperwork and red tape. Especially with all the cuts coming out of Washington, we want to make it easier for state programs. . . . New York is a leader on so many fronts,” she added. “It’s Older Americans Month, and New York has the designation of being an age-friendly state. We want to continue that, and look at our existing laws on the books.”

One of those existing laws, which Seawright wants everybody to know recently got renewed under her direction as well, is the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program; it’s essentially an advocacy office for older New Yorkers, which can field complaints about elder care and mediate issues at long-term facilities.

As far as her priorities moving forward go, Seawright said that she’s focused on affordable housing, which is certainly an instrumental part of aging-in-place. She praised Project CART, a new initiative spearheaded by the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens that provides free rides to medical appointments.

“That is key. People are living longer. I have a lot of 90-year-olds who call the office, and want to know how they could get an escort or transportation,” she explained. “They can take advantage of this new ride service.”