FAN struggles to cope with budget cut

Family Access Network (FAN) of Deschutes County is losing about 60 percent of its funding. The loss amounts to approximately $650,000 and will impact the services that Sisters FAN advocates provide to the Sisters community.

"FAN will be here next year, and what we are looking at now is what model we can continue to have within the Sisters community that is going to be successful for us over the longterm," said FAN's executive director Julie Lyche.

The loss in revenue is the result of a new administrative ruling by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The ruling has made it official that schools may not bill Medicaid for certain school-based administrative and transportation activities, "because the Secretary (of Health and Human Services) has found that these activities are not necessary for the proper and efficient operation of the Medicaid state plan."

In the past FAN has been able to attain funding through such billing.

What the ruling means in plain terms is that FAN will no longer be able to provide services to families at this year's level.

"This reduction in revenue will affect all of our communities, including Sisters," said Lyche. "We will have FAN, but we will be forced to serve fewer families...."

There is, however, a silver lining. "We see this reduction in resources as a short-term problem, as the FAN Foundation is working very hard to receive local support and contributions through individual donors and businesses to help develop a long-term sustainable model for FAN," said Lyche.

The FAN Foundation was established two years ago specifically with this purpose in mind. According to Lyche, FAN has been overly reliant on federal Medicaid dollars for way two long.

In Sisters between July and December 2007, FAN served more than 265 children and family members.

"This includes 161 connections to food, help with clothing 165 times, 112 connections to shelter, 155 links to utilities and support to 113 children and family members with connections to health services, including health insurance," said Lyche.

With the goal of continuing and hopefully increasing this level of service, FAN welcomes support from the Sisters community.

"Sisters is one of those communities that has very much stepped up to the plate in the past to help support the needs of the families. We in Sisters always have a difficult time because there's not a lot of social service resources for our families here, so FAN is one of the places that families go to as a first stop in looking for what kinds of things they can access," said Lyche.

Although fund-raising efforts are generally for Deschutes County as a whole, FAN respects the wishes of its donors.

"Anytime a donor makes a contribution and they want it earmarked for a certain school or a certain community, we do that," said Lyche.

Information about FAN is available online at http://www.familyaccessnetwork.org.