Tony Orlando helps Medicaid reform supporters celebrate recent legislative success

Uncasville, Conn. (Aug. 4, 2008) — Tony Orlando, the entertainer who immortalized the yellow ribbon as a symbol of homecoming, gave an hour-long concert at Mohegan Sun Aug. 2 to help more than 300 Medicaid reform supporters celebrate the success of their recent efforts to expand home-care choices in Connecticut’s Medicaid program.

Orlando donated his time for the event after striking up a friendship with Southbury resident Joe Stango, the founder of Advocates for Medicaid Choice (AMC), a grassroots advocacy movement trying to bring more consumer choice to Connecticut’s health insurance program for the disabled and low-income elderly.

In June, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law a series of reforms championed by AMC that expand home-care options for Medicaid recipients and invest in the future of health care by creating jobs that will ensure enough skilled workers available to support a fundamental shift to greater consumer choice in Connecticut’s Medicaid system. Last year, AMC succeeded in convincing Connecticut to create a program, Money Follows the Person (MFP), which would allow pa­tients to use Medicaid funding for less ex­pensive home care rather than more ex­pensive nursing home care.

Orlando voiced his admiration for the efforts of AMC, Stango and AMC spokesman Bob Veillette, 63, a Naugatuck, Conn., resident who suffered a massive brain-stem stroke in April 2006 that left him with locked-in syndrome, a condition that leaves a person “locked inside” their body, paralyzed below the eyes but totally cognizant of the world around them.

Since the stroke, Veillette and his wife have experienced severe financial difficulties because Veillette is living at home and the state’s Medicaid policies offer them few choices for assistance. The Veillettes, along with their three children, attended the Aug. 2 concert along with more than 300 other AMC supporters.

“‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ has been embraced as a way to welcome people home, from those in our armed services to individuals who have been held hostage,” Orlando told the audience. “I’m here to tell you that no one should ever feel they are being held hostage in a nursing home. If they want to come home, that’s where they should be.”

Orlando met Stango during a concert at Mohegan Sun in December 2007 that he and his wife attended as a brief respite from caring for his mother, who was terminally ill. Orlando selected Stango at random to come up on stage and then invited him to join him backstage after the event. During that meeting, Stango shared with Orlando that his mother, Dora, who inspired him to begin his quest to change Medicaid laws, was close to dying. She died several days later.

Orlando offered to help in whatever way he could, sharing with Stango that the issue of home care is also close to his heart. Orlando helped care for four loved ones at home: a sister, 10 years his junior who was born with cerebral palsy and died when she was 21; and a friend, renowned New York City DJ Murray “the K” Kauffman, as he battled terminal cancer; his mother and now his wife’s mother.

As a result of that meeting, Orlando and Stango became friends and the entertainer agreed to perform at AMC’s celebration between other public performances at Mohegan Sun.

“Joe, Bob and all of you all should be commended for the work that you are doing,” Orlando said. “I’d also like to thank Mohegan Sun, the sponsors of this event, as well as Connecticut lawmakers and Gov. Rell for supporting this important effort.”

In addition to Mohegan Sun, the event was sponsored by: Masonicare; Naugatuck Savings Bank; Lincoln Financial; Right at Home; Kernan and Henry, attorneys at law; Staywell Health Center; Party Elegance & Gifts; Harvey Boxer, CLU, ChFC, MSFS; East Coast Petroleum; Hudson Home Health Care; Western Connecticut Agency for the Aging; Help Unlimited; and Connecticut Community Care Inc.

Stango said he was gratified to see AMC’s volunteers, and others involved with the movement, have the opportunity to celebrate the success of their hard work.

“I’m not sure who was more impressed, the audience with Tony Orlando, or Tony Orlando with Bob Veillette and the audience,” Stango said. “Tony was very moved by the whole thing.”

Stango’s Medicaid reform efforts began in 2005 when he tried to bring his then 83-year-old mother, Dora, home from a skilled nursing facility. He learned, however, that because his mother’s care was paid for by Medicaid, her benefits would not follow her home. Unable to afford the cost of caring for his mother at home, Stango was forced to leave her in the nursing facility.  

That began a personal quest to bring consumer choice to Connecticut’s Medicaid policy. During his first push for legislative reform, he received thousands of letters of support from individuals and families who experienced similar inflexibility in the state’s Medicaid system. He has also received thousands of e-mails and phone calls from individuals who not only support him, but also seek his help in keeping their loved ones home. 

In 2006, Stango played a pivotal role in the passage of groundbreaking legislation that allowed Connecticut to apply for a federal grant to participate in MFP, putting it among a handful of states at the forefront of choice-centered Medicaid policy. Stango’s mother passed away before MFP could be launched. When she became gravely ill in December, Stango brought her home and she died six days later on Dec. 17, 2007.