Previously, Ms. Howe was a Vice President of the Columbus Group, a service provider with a very wide reach. I found this on Mass.Gov
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eo…
The organization specializes in offering a full range of services to Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICFMRs) and both state and private sector community service organizations.
No wonder why the service providers think they’re “in like Flynn?” They have a service provider running the department!
Ms. Howe has reportedly made some very interesting statements of late. She allegedly told a COFAR sibling that “this is a provider-driven department!” Does that mean she’s working for the providers…and not the state, which signs her check? She reportedly said at the joint infomational hearing on the planned closure of the facilities last week that “community first” is the philosophy of the Dept. and she doesn’t care what it costs to achieve it.
It’s always about the philosophy…until it’s really about funneling contracts to the service providers.
Exactly – which is why she’s fighting the feasability study.
This just goes on and on. The more I learn the worse it gets. I always suspected she was a hired gun.
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p>I knew the service provider industry was lucrative but never really knew how lucrative.
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p>I did a quick search of public records on the mass.gov website myself. It led me to a private provider whose reported gross revenues were $42+ million with $41+ million from the taypayers (federal & state). That was only ONE! I’m still searching trying to figure out exactly how may service providers there are in Mass. I am at 500 and counting. Do the math.
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p>Easy to see why we have the comment “provider-driven department”.
Blah, blah, blah.. What difference does it make where she worked? She is commish here in MA working for the Department of Disabilities (take note of the name change)
The state is moving ahead we have a Governor and administration that believe in progress and community first for individuals. Community service providers are providing the services and supports that individuals with disabilities and their families are requesting. Get with this century!
the name change of the DMR goes into effect on June 30th.
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p>And where Commish Howe is double-dipping does matter. Double-dipping in two states…where have we seen that before? Didn’t the Herald report on one Daphna Krouk Gordon, a service provider, who took two full time checks in NH and MA, while sitting on the Governor’s Commission on DMR a few years back? Yeah…they know every trick in the book.
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p>And the state is moving backwards by shoehorning people into inappropriate medical models under which these fragile people cannot survive. The only thing the state is doing…is helping funnel contracts and sweetheart deals to service providers…while watering down services for the consent decree clients….while lying about the cost savings…and taking out union jobs in state ops. And this is moving forward how?
or anyone still currently living in the facilities. And you’re right – I am angry. I’m angry that a guy ( a Democrat, no less!!!) who promised so much is in the tank with the service providers. And it’s the lies they tell about the facilities that just piss me off. It’s the Mack truck to roller skates cost comparisons, and the insinuations about the facilities, implying isolation and abuse which isn’t factual about today’s facility. It’s the BS that the vendors have been feeding families on the waiting list about how all this money is going to be freed up if only those rotten facility parents would just shut up and get out of the way. Except…it’s not true. DCAM owns the land and buildings…and that money will not be going to the DMR/DDS. It takes YEARS to get property ready for reuse. And the services/residential money will follow the class clients, no matter where they go. And the start up costs to re-create these programs are going to be enormous. So how will evicting these people save a dime and address the waiting list?
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p>I have read a number of peer reviewed pieces of literature on the topic of deinstitutionalization, and the mort stats are troubling. In California, the Straus study found that “movers” from the facilities dies at a 72% higher rate than the ones who stayed. Las Vegas has better odds on some of their games. Couple that with the cost study from 2003, which pretty much debunked the notion of savings….I’m hard pressed to understand why we’re doing this. People at Fernald have regular trips for shopping, vacations, etc. They have celebrations of the holidays. They attend church services and participate, just like anyone else. They cook…play piano….play games….and go to work. Just like anyone else.
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p>The only thing different is that they live in a centralized service delivery model…and the vendors can’t make any money on them, because they’re state ops. So- no money saved and a body count? Might explain the DMR/DDS opposition to the feasability study.
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p>So- no dog in this fight…except that I can’t stand to see the underdogs piled on by multimillion dollar service providers with hired guns at the State House.
and it’s the agenda she was brought to the state to carry out: closing state facilities. She is a professional facility closer. Her mind was made up when she came to Massachusetts.
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p>In New York, she “presided over the shrinking of the state’s institution system for the mentally retarded,” according to The New York Times.
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p>The website of the Columbus Organization, where Howe subsequently worked, states that the organization has “collaborated with states in developing plans for facility rightsizing or downsizing.”
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p>I really have to wonder Whether Howe has any other interests, other than downsizing. The Massachusetts Advocacy Network reports in its latest newsletter, for instance, that the group has asked Howe twice for the DMR’s protocol for handling funeral arrangements for DMR clients. Currently, DMR does not inform the Network about the passing of members of the former Belchertown State School plaintiff class. The Network newsletter stated that Howe promised nearly a year ago that she would “get the ball rolling” immediately to answer the Network’s question. They’ve still heard nothing from her.