Laura
08-16-2011, 09:06 AM
http://adaptold.adapt.org/adaptpr/archive.php?mode=A&id=309;&sort=D
Disability Rights Group, ADAPT, is Outraged by CMS Guidance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2011
Contact:
Bruce Darling, 585-370-6690
Dawn Russell, 303-884-1471
Disability Rights Group Outraged and Demands to Meet with Secretary
Sebelius after CMS Issues Guidance on Cutting Home and Community Based
Services
ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights organization, is outraged
by a Dear State Medicaid Director letter issued by the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday, August 5th. That letter
explained how states can cut Medicaid home and community based services,
which provide alternatives to institutionalization, and not run afoul of
the maintenance of effort requirement in the Affordable Care Act.
The organization is particularly upset because Secretary Sebelius spoke
before national disability rights groups in July, highlighting how the
Affordable Care Act benefits people with disabilities, including the
potential to improve access to home and community based services. While
the Secretary gave rousing speeches and was applauded by our community,
her staff were crafting guidance to states on cutting our services, said
Rahnee Patrick, an ADAPT Organizer from Chicago, IL. This is
reprehensible.
The national advocacy group has other concerns about the federal agency.
Although the United States Department of Justice has taken action to
assure that Americans with Disabilities are not forced into institutions
as mandated in the Supreme Courts Olmstead decision, the Health and Human
Services Office for Civil Rights has done little to address Olmstead
concerns identified in the states. Though talking tough about the need
for states to comply with the Olmstead decision, CMS has not developed any
accountability criteria to monitor states to assess if states are really
complying with the decision" said Bruce Darling, an ADAPT Organizer from
Rochester, NY.
Additionally, the group is frustrated by inconsistency within the federal
agency. The guidance issued Friday was developed in response to concerns
by states which face increasing costs as Medicaid enrollment increases
because more Americans are eligible for the program due to lost income and
expansions mandated in the Affordable Care Act. This same federal agency
misinterpreted statutory language establishing the Community First Choice
Option and developed proposed rules that would require states to provide
more expansive services beyond what the statutory language would require.
Ultimately that means fewer states would select the option and fewer
Americans will have the opportunity to live in freedom, said Ms. Patrick.
The fact that the federal agency took this action despite being told
directly by the provisions sponsors that this was not Congresss intent is
particularly upsetting to advocates.
The only thing these policy directions have in common is that they
negatively impact Americans with disabilities and older Americans who want
to stay in their own homes, said Darling who indicated that ADAPT is
seeking to meet with the Secretary. We intend to take our concerns
directly to the Secretary, one way or another.
For more information about ADAPT, please visit http://www.adapt.org
ADAPT is also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nationaladapt
FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/
Disability Rights Group, ADAPT, is Outraged by CMS Guidance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2011
Contact:
Bruce Darling, 585-370-6690
Dawn Russell, 303-884-1471
Disability Rights Group Outraged and Demands to Meet with Secretary
Sebelius after CMS Issues Guidance on Cutting Home and Community Based
Services
ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights organization, is outraged
by a Dear State Medicaid Director letter issued by the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday, August 5th. That letter
explained how states can cut Medicaid home and community based services,
which provide alternatives to institutionalization, and not run afoul of
the maintenance of effort requirement in the Affordable Care Act.
The organization is particularly upset because Secretary Sebelius spoke
before national disability rights groups in July, highlighting how the
Affordable Care Act benefits people with disabilities, including the
potential to improve access to home and community based services. While
the Secretary gave rousing speeches and was applauded by our community,
her staff were crafting guidance to states on cutting our services, said
Rahnee Patrick, an ADAPT Organizer from Chicago, IL. This is
reprehensible.
The national advocacy group has other concerns about the federal agency.
Although the United States Department of Justice has taken action to
assure that Americans with Disabilities are not forced into institutions
as mandated in the Supreme Courts Olmstead decision, the Health and Human
Services Office for Civil Rights has done little to address Olmstead
concerns identified in the states. Though talking tough about the need
for states to comply with the Olmstead decision, CMS has not developed any
accountability criteria to monitor states to assess if states are really
complying with the decision" said Bruce Darling, an ADAPT Organizer from
Rochester, NY.
Additionally, the group is frustrated by inconsistency within the federal
agency. The guidance issued Friday was developed in response to concerns
by states which face increasing costs as Medicaid enrollment increases
because more Americans are eligible for the program due to lost income and
expansions mandated in the Affordable Care Act. This same federal agency
misinterpreted statutory language establishing the Community First Choice
Option and developed proposed rules that would require states to provide
more expansive services beyond what the statutory language would require.
Ultimately that means fewer states would select the option and fewer
Americans will have the opportunity to live in freedom, said Ms. Patrick.
The fact that the federal agency took this action despite being told
directly by the provisions sponsors that this was not Congresss intent is
particularly upsetting to advocates.
The only thing these policy directions have in common is that they
negatively impact Americans with disabilities and older Americans who want
to stay in their own homes, said Darling who indicated that ADAPT is
seeking to meet with the Secretary. We intend to take our concerns
directly to the Secretary, one way or another.
For more information about ADAPT, please visit http://www.adapt.org
ADAPT is also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nationaladapt
FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/