About
Choice Centered Medicaid (CCM) is a not-for-profit, grassroots movement created by Joseph Stango, advocate for Medicaid reform. CCM strives to make Americans aware of the plight of millions of middle class seniors and disabled adults who are being forced into nursing homes in order to receive long-term healthcare.
CCM helps seniors and disabled adults who want to leave institutions and receive their care in a place of their choosing. A strong advocate for new legislation, CCM believes that cost-saving Medicaid reform that makes financial, moral, and social sense is morally the right thing to do for seniors and disabled Americans.
In 1999, Joe Stango built a home in Connecticut to accommodate his wife, two children, his mother Dora, and his wife’s mother, Alba. The plan was for Stango’s family to enjoy the time their mothers had left, all living together as a family in the Southbury house…the women growing old surrounded by family.
Instead, Stango’s mother Dora spent the last four years of her life in a nursing home, and was only brought home after a long battle with Medicaid. She died six days later.
Stango decided to go to the legislature to try to change Medicaid law. In 2006, to bring his mother home, he advocated for the Connecticut legislature to pass a Medicaid portability program called Money Follows the Person (MFP). MFP was passed with one hundred percent support among both democratic and republican lawmakers. Governor Rell signed the MFP bill in June of 2006.
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The Founder
Joseph J. Stango
The Board of Directors
Jonathan A. Harris, chairman
Francis X. Doyle, vice chairman
Joseph J. Stango
Joseph Stango is the founder of Dora’s Hope/Choice Centered Medicaid (CCM), and a Vice President/Investment Officer at one of the nation’s leading banking and investment firms. Concentrating his practice in the areas of estate and Medicaid planning and portfolio management, Stango has been providing financial advice to elderly and disabled clients for since 1986.
Originally from Waterbury, Connecticut, Stango, his wife Maria, and their three children moved to Southbury in 1999 where they built a 4700 square foot home to accommodate their children and two handicapped mothers, Dora and Alba. Dora suffered from spinal stenosis and Alba from multiple sclerosis. In 2003, Dora’s physical disability grew beyond Stango’s ability to provide for her privately. As a result, under the rules of Medicaid, he was forced to place his mother in a nursing home.
Inspired by the tragedy of his own family situation, Stango became an advocate for his mother and many of his elderly and disabled clients in Hartford, his home state’s capital. In 2006, he advocated on behalf of his mother for the Connecticut Legislature to pass a Medicaid portability program called Money Follows the Person (MFP). The program would allow people currently residing in nursing homes for at least six months the opportunity to return home and be cared for in the community, while continuing to receive Medicaid services.
MFP was passed with one hundred percent support among both democratic and republican lawmakers. The proposed bill was signed by Governor Rell in June of 2006, and the program got under way in January of 2009. In 2008, after his mother’s death, Stango submitted legislation outlining his formula to convert Medicaid into a choice-centered plan. His legislation was once again supported by both parties, and passed unanimously. Governor Rell signed the legislation in a public ceremony. Choice-centered Medicaid was hailed as an idea whose time had come. Stango received an astonishing 29,000 letters of support from the residents of Connecticut in his bid to bring portability to Medicaid, and continues his advocacy towards nationwide choice-centered Medicaid.
Stango is a published writer as well as the former business and financial talk show host of the Connecticut Financial Review, a weekly business show that enjoyed a successful four-year run. He has served as financial analyst/commentator on many state radio stations, and been a guest commentator for the NBC affiliate WVIT Channel 30’s Connecticut News. Stango has also guest lectured at the University of Rhode Island.
Senator Jonathan Harris
Senator Harris was elected state senator for the 5th District of Connecticut in November 2004, and was
overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term in November 2006. He is chairman of the Human Services Committee, vice chairman of the Planning and Development Committee, ranking member of the Regulations Review Committee, and a member of the Appropriations Committee.
Prior to his election, Harris served with distinction as the mayor of West Hartford, Connecticut. During his tenure as mayor, he successfully led the effort to reinvent town government, reducing its size while still preserving the quality of education and town services. Harris previously served as counsel to the Democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives. In 2000, he ran against a twenty-year incumbent for the House of Representatives and lost by only nine votes.
Harris has a long record of community service in West Hartford, Connecticut, including serving as a board member with the Senior Jobs Bank, the American School for the Deaf, the Noah Webster House, the Bridge, and the Jewish Federation.
An attorney, Harris grew up in West Hartford, graduating from Hall High School in 1982. He earned a BA from Brandeis University in 1986. After working for former Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, Harris earned a JD from New York University School of Law in 1990.
In his limited spare time, Harris likes to swim, work out, read, listen to music, and spend time with his family and friends.
Francis X. Doyle
Francis Doyle has twenty-five years of experience in the insurance industry. As senior vice president at AAA Southern New England, he is responsible for a $200 million, 36-location insurance agency, operating in three states.
Previously, Doyle was general manager for New York Operations at the Harleysville Insurance Company where he was responsible for $107 million in commercial and personal lines, using New York Casualty & Worcester Insurance.
In a previous role at Harleysville Insurance, Doyle served as Harleysville’s vice president of marketing for the northeast region where he led marketing for Worcester Insurance, Berkshire Mutual, and New York Casualty – a $270 million, all-lines region.
Before joining Harleysville-Worcester, Doyle held various management positions in Waltham, Massachusetts and Atlanta, Georgia for Tufts/ManagedComp.
