Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

GOP Leaders Refuse To Name Candidates For Medicare Cost Control Board

Excerpt from: Kaiser Health News (click for full article)

 

House Speaker John Boehner tells reporters that he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will not nominate anyone to serve on the Independent Payment Advisory Board.

Republicans push through proposal blocking the desires of advocates for the developmentally disabled

Excerpt from: LJWorld (click for full article)

 

Republicans on the House budget committee Thursday approved a measure that says if long-term care for those with developmental disabilities is kept out of KanCare, then they won't get funding to reduce a waiting list for services.

The proposal by state Rep. David Crum, R-Augusta, flies in the face of the pleas of hundreds of advocates, parents and those with developmental disabilities who traveled to the Statehouse one day earlier.

They urged Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators to exclude long-term care services for those with developmental disabilities from KanCare, which is Brownback's revamped Medicaid system administered by private insurance companies.

They said long-term care, such as daily help with preparing meals or job coaching, does not fit in the KanCare model, and shouldn't be overseen by for-profit managed care organizations.

The Big Benghazi Theory - "If"

Daily Show Video

Patti's Comment:I just laughed & laughed when I watched this!

 

Fox News can't understand why America isn't as outraged as conservative media-fueled Benghazi hysteria suggests it should be. 

Eight Former Commissioners of Social Security Voice Support for Disability Programs

Excerpt from: Huffington Post (click for full article)

 

Last week, I wrote about concerns raised by members of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities and many others about a series recently aired on This American Life, All Things Considered, and National Public Radio stations across the U.S. ("Unfit for Work: The Startling Rise of Disability in America").

Eight former Commissioners of the Social Security Administration (SSA) have since released an open letter in support of the Social Security disability programs. The former Commissioners also raised concerns with how the series characterized the programs, stating:

"We are deeply concerned that the series 'Unfit for Work' failed to tell the whole story and perpetuated dangerous myths about the Social Security disability programs and the people helped by this vital system. We fear that listeners may come away with an incorrect impression of the program--as opposed to an understanding of the program actually based on facts.
"As former Commissioners of the agency, we could not sit on the sidelines and witness this one perspective on the disability programs threaten to pull the rug out from under millions of people with severe disabilities."

Voters to consider new tax to help people with developmental disabilities

Excerpt from: Chicago Tribune (click for full article)

 

Those who live and work with people with disabilities tell a common tale: As funding has dwindled, the need has increased. People with Down syndrome, for instance, are living longer than they used to. And as more people are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, they come out of school needing help with working, socializing and living independently.

The plea for local funding is also motivated in part by a fundamental shift in how the state treats residents with disabilities. Under a series of court agreements in the past two years, state officials agreed to move people with disabilities from institutional to community-based housing. That puts greater pressure on local service providers to help new residents learn to live with their new freedom.

In response, 14 Illinois counties have created tax-supported development disability boards, as the McHenry referendum proposal's backers seek to do. The McHenry County Board agreed to place the proposal on the ballot in response to requests by advocates for the disabled.

A similar effort in Kane County was turned down by a County Board panel. Instead, advocates there are trying to land a spot on the ballot next year through a petition initiative that requires 18,000 signatures.

Patrick Kennedy calls for unity as Michigan grapples with reforming mental health system

Excerpt from: MLive (click for full article)

 

Former Democratic congressman Patrick Kennedy on Monday called for bipartisan efforts to tackle pressing mental health policy questions as Michigan grapples with reforming its support system.

Republicans who dominate the state Legislature have sparred with Gov. Rick Snyder over key parts of the federal Affordable Care Act set to take effect next year.

Snyder last month announced the creation of two commissions tasked with analyzing Michigan's mental health system, and how various state agencies can better treat people with mental illnesses and addiction problems.

Key parts of that plan would rely on expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Medicaid expansion was struck from a recent health appropriations bill because it lacked support among Republicans concerned about its long-term viability.

But Kennedy, who has a storied history battling depression, bipolar disorder and addiction, was unwavering in his call for lawmakers to work together in addressing mental health issues.

Bono Embraces 'Inner Nerd' in Fight Against Poverty

Excerpt from: Rolling Stone (click for full article)

 

Bono put aside his rock stardom to focus on global poverty at a Ted talk in California yesterday, where he joked that he was giving up his "usual tricks" to focus instead on "evidence-based activism," the Los Angeles Times reports. 

"Forget the rock opera, forget the bombast, my usual tricks," said the U2 singer. "The only thing singing today will be the facts. I have truly embraced my inner nerd. Exit the rock star. Enter the evidence activist. The 'factivist.'"

While he's optimistic for the future, he said there's not as much time as there seems. "We can't get this done until we accept that we can get this done. Inertia is how we screw this up. Momentum is how we bend the arc of history down towards zero," he said, joking that 2030 is "only three Rolling Stones farewell concerts away."

"We're going to win because we don't understand politics," Bono said. "We're going to win because we don't play their dirty games. We're going to win because we don’t have an agenda. We're going to win because the tears that comes from our eyes actually come from our hearts. We're going to win because we have dreams. We're going to win because we are willing to stand up for our dreams."

Feds Omit ABA Therapy From New Insurance Requirements

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

Despite a heavy lobbying effort, the Obama administration declined to include autism therapy in final rules this week defining what must be covered by insurers under health care reform.

Many states have established mandates in recent years requiring at least some health insurance plans to include coverage of behavior therapy to treat autism. But with the passage of the 2010 health care reform law, advocates were hopeful that a nationwide standard would be established.

Under the federal law, most health insurance plans will be required to cover 10 so-called “essential health benefits” starting next year, one of which is “mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment.”

Autism advocates urged regulators to include a requirement that applied behavioral analysis, or ABA therapy, be covered in rules governing what exactly qualified as a “behavioral health treatment,” but a final rule issued this week makes no mention of the treatment.

Measure would create funding stream for exchange and expand Medicaid

Excerpt from: The Washington Post (click for full article)

 

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and state health officials on Wednesday outlined some of the final steps in a three-year effort to create a health benefit exchange in Maryland as part of the federal health care overhaul.

Brown, who has been working on health care legislation for Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration, testified on a bill to create a funding source to pay for the state’s health benefit exchange. The exchange is a new insurance market that will offer residents a choice of private health plans. The measure would pay for it by using money from an existing 2 percent tax on insurance plans that are state regulated.

State policies on Medicaid committee disclosure vary

Excerpt from: Reuters (click for full article)

 

Health policy researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, who set out to examine conflict of interest policies for the 47 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia with Medicaid Preferred Drug List committees, found that many have no policy, and in the states that do, rules vary widely.

"The take home message is that there is no such thing as typical. There is no such thing as a uniformed process," said Lisa Bero, the study's lead author.

For Medicaid, the federal- and state-funded insurance program for poor Americans, decisions to pay for drugs are left up to a state committee that's made up of doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the federal part of the insurance program, requires that two members of those committees be free of conflicts of interest, but the agency does not define what constitutes a conflict.