Please introduce yourself. Tell us your name, city or county where you live in Georgia, age and occupation.
My name is Pete Fowler. 75 years old, I resided in Snellville, Georgia. For my occupation was by the home care provider. I came into the Georgia Medicaid program in 2020. And I have uh been in the program since that time. There are number of things that this program provide for me. Uh And because my disease is a neuromuscular disease and which renders me unable to walk and I can't get in and out of bed by myself. So I need assistance with all of my A PLS as well as getting in and out of bed uh without the Georgia Medicaid program, then I would only option I would have be in a nursing home, which is not an option for me. And so this program gives me an opportunity to live independently or with one of my Children. But both of my Children do work and I are unable to work with kids uh during the daytime hours. And if AIDS don't come to me in the morning, I don't, I'm not able to take my medicine, I'm not able to get out of the bed. And if they don't show up, then I end up in the bed all day long, as well as laying in human soak garments from overnight. However, I found out that the, the, the, the providers that are out here now, which the last count I did in the Atlanta Metro area, there was 27 pages of providers given to me to choose from that list. A provider. I don't know these agencies, I don't know how competent they are. Know absolutely nothing about these agencies. And in some cases, I don't even trust these agencies, but, uh, it has had a very negative effect just being able to choose an agency off of that list and people are being sent out that are obviously not trained. The communication is very, very poor on the side of the provider as well as the aid. And on a number of occasions, I've requested paperwork from the agencies, they refused to give the paperwork. And I think that there are some things that could and need to be done to bring a level of efficiency back into the program. And also, uh, one of the other things that, uh, it doesn't seem like a lot of people are clear on the roles of the provider and the case management, people and the aids and having worked in the program. I am somewhat familiar, but it doesn't appear that anyone will give me an opportunity. I've tried communicating with them and it just ends up in a worse situation than it was. So I do have some concerns about the retaliation based up on what they do and my current provider, no one in the office staff, the owner, the nurse, the secretary, no one has ever laid eyes on me and I don't have any paperwork that was signed with them. I asked for other information and they refused to give it. Uh, I would hope that there would be some opportunities that they would start to bring some level of efficiency back into this program.
