by Andrew Morris and Peggy Hathaway
On Wednesday April 23 the United States House voted 349 to 62 to put a moratorium on seven harmful Medicaid regulations that would have had severe impacts for people with disabilities. The harmful rules cannot go into effect until April 2009 – which gives time for a new Congress and a new President to fix the rules permanently.
The bill, Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008 (H.R. 5613), has surprisingly broad support from both parties. The House Energy and Commerce Committee had an unusual 46-0 vote in support of the legislation. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The rules would affect payments to: public safety net institutions; coverage of rehabilitation services for people with disabilities; outreach and enrollment in schools as well as specialized medical transportation to school for children covered by Medicaid; graduate medical education payments; coverage of hospital clinic services; case management services that allow people with disabilities to remain in the community; state provider tax laws; and appeals filed through the Department of Health and Human Services. While the bill will help protect the whole disability community, two of the rules stand out for people with physical disabilities:
- Under the rehabilitation rule, Medicaid would have limited the kind of rehabilitation services it would pay for. If someone with disabilities on Medicaid needed services such as help with community skills training or supervised employment, Medicaid would not have allowed that cost to be reimbursed.
- Another rule would have limited targeted case management services. For example, if someone uses Medicaid and needs a case manager to help put multiple services together (housing, health, transportation, etc), the case manager would not have been able to help find needed services other than health care. Also, the rule would have put a limit on the amount of time that case managers could help people find needed services when transitioning from a nursing home or institution to the community. This would have forced people to stay in institutions needlessly.
United Spinal Association strongly supports this bill because it helps people with disabilities who need these services. Please ask your Senator in Washington to support this important piece of legislation. To find your Senators, go to www.senate.gov.
If you do not have access to the internet, your Senators are listed in the blue pages of the telephone book under federal government, U.S. Senate. We recommend that you call or fax a letter to each Senator’s office in your own state. Mail sent via U.S. Postal Service to the House and Senate in Washington can be delayed by weeks because of security
It is very important that we try to stay in touch with our elected officials on both the state and federal levels; they need to hear from the consumers. At this point, Medicaid has left the healthcare consumer out of the billing picture, but each one on Medicaid may request a copy of all invoices going to CMS–that way, we can be more responsponsible healthcare consumers, or appoint someone to do it for you. There’s too much ‘fluff’ in payments CMS makes to for-profits, and far too many unaccounted for expenses.
We’re trying to alert people to breathing conditions, so diagnoses can be accurate, and made early, especially for those with neuromuscular breathing conditions–most overlooked by the medical community until they are far advanced, and cause other harm.
At the same time, we’re trying to help the consumer be to be wise and judicious, in dealing realistically with vendors – everyone has a right to stop any equipment/supplies from entering their homes without proof their doctor approved them – someone has to pay for every thing. Vendors are suppliers, not medical professionals, but they can be lifelines as far as meeting needs go. At the same time, know who every one is who enters your care-circle…check credentials, education, state licensure, and obtain copies of all charges.
Equipment and supplies left at your home may not be removed to send back (other than that which may be sterilized and re-used like electronic equipment), such as tubing, connectors, syringes, et al…but those products are charged to your insurance companies. The consumer must be involved to bring costs into line, and stop fraud, misuse, and overspending – so every one of us will have the best care, at the right time.
For more information, contact Polio.information@gmail.com.
Thank you…a Jazzy 1122 user with an LTV vent.
Please keep a log of your daily activities, and write down the obstacles you face … those are important to our legislators and agency directors on the state and federal levels.
That is the only way they can vote for us-instead of expecting us to vote for them!
Be well. Buena salud.