Dr. M.I. (Matt) Conaway)

Why is a Doctor in the institution?

It cost SIGNIFANTLY more in healthcare dollars and taxpayer money to have individuals with disabilities housed in institutions (i.e. hospitals or nursing homes) vs. living in the community.

For example Dr M I Conaway, Ph D in Biomedical engineering, Doctor of Bioethics, law scholar, and professor at the University of Iowa, who happens to need only five hours of unskilled care per day, has been living at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) since October, 2019 due to no available home care in Iowa City. Dr. Conaway just happenes to have been born with severe cerebral palsy over 50 years ago and broke down the Special Education barriers in Georgia in the ‘70s and ‘80s before being the first one in his condition to go through Georgia Tech for engineering  and premedical studies. And, as he holds a doctorate from Iowa and Loyola-Chicago, he is a third generation Doctor to boot.

As it is Dr. Conaway is a quadriplegic in a head controlled power wheelchair and works via mouthstick. He has autistic characteristics, pseudobulbar affect, and PTSD/anxiety disorder. Despite having garbled speech, he is bilingual in English and German. For the past 26 years he has lived in his own apartment and had intermittent morning and evening help with daily activities. His roots are in Iowa and he considers Iowa City to be his hometown. With his vast education and experience, he relished making more contributions to society, preferably in academic, government, or some combination thereof.  

However, his ongoing hospital stay is needlessly costing Medicare $2500 a day.  Most interestingly no nursing home or agency would accept him because they are unable to meet his needs for just five hours of unskilled care per day.  In 26 years of  living on his own without so called natural supports, Dr. Conaway has never encountered such a wholesale gap in care. He does not understand why that is. As a result, he was forced to vacate his apartment in downtown Iowa City at the end of 2019.  Technically he is homeless.

On the rare occasion that exceptions to the policy are approved, if Dr. Conaway was allowed to pay for trained and qualified care at $30 an hour, it would be the same about as reimbursed for a nursing home, but Dr. Conaway would be able to work, volunteer, and participate in the community, shop, worship, and even pay taxes.  As a third generation doctor he has every right to demand better from society than a life of homelessness in a hospital.

Please help get Dr. Conway out of the hospital. He wants to go home.

This is what the end result of EVV will be in Virginia. Numerous people who were living for years in the community will be placed in higher cost settings with far less freedom and crappy quality of lives.  EVV makes hiring and keeping attendants impossible.  EVV is causing attendants to not get paid.  Everyone is being threatened to have their consumer directed services taken away, but it is impossible to use EVV because of all the issues with the applications.  PLEASE STOP EVV, AT LEAST FOR LIVE IN PROVIDER.