Historic Common Ground on Health Care Reform Reached by Diverse Group

An 18-member group including AARP, America's Health Insurance Plans, the Business Roundtable, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce unveiled last week a long-awaited consensus on health care reform principles. Two significant points of agreement from the groups: 1) Establish a nationwide floor for Medicaid eligibility for all adults no lower than 100 percent of the federal poverty level; 2) Provide subsidies to people who are ineligible for public programs. The group also agreed that the ultimate policy goal is to increase value for consumers and the system as a whole. Two groups originally part of the effort (SEIU and AFSCME) did not sign the document because a "public plan option" was not addressed. Read more!

CMS Delays Rule on State Flexibility for Medicaid Benefit Packages

CMS published a notice in the Federal Register today that the agency will delay implementation of a final rule giving states greater flexibility in designing Medicaid benefit packages. The rule was to go into effect April 3, 2009 but has been delayed to December 31, 2009 and the comment period has been reopened through May 4, 2009. The rule implements part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Read more!

Spotlight Resources - FMAP

• PowerPoint Presentation and Audio Recording from ANCOR's Popular Webinar: Federal FMAP and State Medicaid Programs: What the Stimulus Means for ANCOR Members
• CMS Fact Sheet on Increased FMAP in ARRA
• Kaiser: Health Care and Medicaid -- Weathering the Recession

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Spotlight Resources - Economic Recovery

• Stateline: Interactive Map of State Recovery Websites and ‘Implementation Czars”
  
• GAO Website for Reporting Waste, Fraud, Abuse or Mismanagement of Recovery Act Funds
• NGA: State Implementation of the ARRA
• Staterecovery.org: Tracking How the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of State Government are Responding to and Impacted by the ARRA and Medicaid & Economic Stimulus: State by State Web Update Resource
• Kaiser: Health Care and Medicaid -- Weathering the Recession

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Senate Passes Budget Resolution Including Reserve Fund for Health Care Reform

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) hailed its passage as a step towards comprehensive health care reform. Read more!

Department of Education Releases 50 Percent of ARRA VR State Grant Funds to States

The remaining funds will be awarded by September 30th and are allocated to state VR agencies under the program's allotment formula. These funds are in addition to the funds received under the regular FY 2009 appropriation for the VR State Grants program. This month, the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) is planning on conducting a number of webinars on the ARRA VR funding. The guidance, released this week, states that funds should be used for short-term investments that have the potential for long-term benefits, rather than for commitments that the State may not be able to sustain once ARRA funds are expended. State VR agencies are encouraged to: consider serving individuals on waiting lists in agencies currently using an order of selection; increase services to eligible consumers; and expande services to traditionally underserved and unserved populations in the state, including students with disabilities transitioning from school to the workplace. The DoEo also issued a Guidance and Fact Sheet to accompany the release of funds. Read more!

DCA Releases Policy Brief on Using Recovery Act Funds to Improve Direct Care Jobs and the Quality of Direct Care Services

This is the first brief in a series about the direct care workforce issued by the Direct Care Alliance (DCA). It provides an overview of direct care work and discusses how Recovery Act funds can be used to address some of the challenges faced by direct care workers. Read more!

AFP Launches Employment Initiative

The Alliance for Full Participation (AFP) has announced a national effort to increase employment in the U.S. for people with developmental disabilities. The Alliance's initiative includes: networking among state teams; nationally webcast education and town-hall events; national and state-level policy change advocacy; and local efforts to increase and enhance employment for people with developmental disabilities. Also anticipated is an October 2011 national summit to share leading practices, process recommendations and establish national outcomes. This effort stems from goals voiced and agreed upon by self-advocates and advocates participating in the 2005 Alliance for Full Participation national summit in Washington, DC. The AFP is comprised of 13 national nonprofit organizations in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Read more!

Senator Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Davis (D-IL) Introduce Community Choice Act

Introduced last week, the measure's (H.R.1670 and S.683) purpose is to allow people with disabilities, who need an institutional level of care, the choice of receiving their Medicaid supports and services in their own communities, rather than an institution. Read more!

Spotlight Resources - Health Care Reform

• Families USA: Americans at Risk: Report on the Uninsured - State Reports
• Alliance for Health Care Reform Sourcebook: Covering Health Issues
• Obama Administration's Health Care Reform Website
• HHS Report on Feedback Gathered during Health Care Community Discussions
• Kaiser: National Health Insurance - A Brief History of Reform Efforts in the U.S.
• Kaiser: Health Care and Medicaid -- Weathering the Recession

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House and Senate to Debate Budgets Next Week

The House and Senate Budget Committees each passed this week their version of the FY 2010 non-binding spending blueprint. The Senate is devoting next week solely to consideration of its $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which does not contain any reconciliation instructions. However, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) said the possibility of using reconciliation is not "off the table." The House will turn its attention to its own version of the $3.5 trillion FY 2010 spending outline. Unlike the Senate version, the House resolution includes reconciliation instructions to help implement the president's health and education policies. Read more!

Section 811 Reform Legislation Reintroduced in House

Representatives Murphy (D-CT) and Biggert (R-IL) Re-Introduced on Monday Section 811 Reform Legislation. The Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act (H.R. 1675) would modernize the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program and create a Project-Rental Assistance Demonstration program to expand the supply of permanent supportive housing for low-income persons with disabilities. The Section 811 program is the only Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) permanent supportive housing program exclusively serving persons with disabilities. The new Section 811 legislation (H.R. 1675) was re-introduced with the same language as the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2008 (H.R. 5772), which passed in the House unanimously in September 2008. For more information, see the ANCOR Fact Sheet on this bill and information on ANCOR's Housing Web page on H.R. 5772. Read more!

CLASS Act Reintroduced in the Senate

Senator Kennedy (D-MA), Representatives Pallone (D-NJ) and Dingell (D-MI) Introduced this week the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. The measure (S. 697), would provide a cash benefit that would help adults with severe functional impairments obtain the services and supports they need to live and work independently in their communities. One of the main purposes of the ANCOR-supported bill is to reduce the number of individuals forced to live in poverty just so they can qualify for Medicaid. For more information, see the CLASS Act Fact Sheet. Text of the bill is not yet available. Read more!

Individuals with Disabilities in Washington Increasingly Struggle to Find Employment During Recession

As unemployment rates rise, the competition for jobs is having an increasingly negative effect on individuals with disabilities seeking employment in Washington state. The state's policy shifted recently to focus more on integrating people with disabilities into the community through individual job placement but the troubled economy has made it difficult to implement this policy. Read more!

Federal Officials Scrutinizing North Carolina's Spending of Stimulus Money

North Carolina is one if sixteen states selected for special federal oversight of stimulus spending. Federal investigators are on the ground in North Carolina to ensure that money is spent for its intended purposes and to examine whether the spending is getting results. North Carolina Governor Perdue says she will focus on transparency and accountability in spending federal relief dollars. Read more!

State Spending Choices Key to Economic Recovery

Stateline reported this week that the way in which states spend stimulus money will determine how effective stimulus dollars are in aiding the economy. Read more!

Senate Committee Examines Long-Term Care Options for Health Care Reform

The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care held a hearing today entitled “The Role of Long-Term Care in Health Reform.” Subcommittee chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV) began the hearing by telling witnesses that long-term care is an essential component of health care reform and must be included in current efforts to reform the health care system. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) also spoke of his strong support of home and community based services. Witnesses including Judy Feder, PhD., Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and Dennis G. Smith, Senior Research Fellow in Health Care Reform at The Heritage Foundation, discussed the benefits of home and community based services, long-term care financing and options for improving long-term care programs funded through Medicaid. Witnesses emphasized the benefit to people with disabilities of strengthening home and community based services within the Medicaid program. Click here to download a video of the hearing.
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CMS Issues Fact Sheet and Q&A on Medicaid FMAP in the Recovery Package

CMS has released a fact sheet on new FMAP methodology and grant issuance, clarifications on the eligibility maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements, procedures for states to regain eligibility for the increased FMAP, and specific questions raised by states regarding the FMAP increase since the enactment of the ARRA. Read more!

Arizona’s Share of Enhanced FMAP at Risk

Arizona may be ineligible for $1.6 billion in enhanced FMAP funding through the economic recovery package due to state program changes prohibited in the recovery package rules. The state passed legislation in June 2008 that requires some Medicaid recipients to requalify for benefits every six months, rather than annually, beginning in September of 2008. CMS has determined that this rules change violates a recovery package maintenance of effort provision which prohibits states from receiving enhanced FMAP funds if the state tightened eligibility rules or procedures after July 1, 2008. Arizona has until July of this year to change the law and receive the enhanced FMAP. State officials say they will contest CMS’s determination because the new rules were passed into law before the July 2008 deadline. Arizona has already budgeted for $500 million of stimulus money and spent $300 million.

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President Obama Nominates Kathy Martinez to be Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy

Martinez currently works at the World Institute on Disability (WID) where she directs a program to increase employment opportunities for Latinos with disabilities in the United States, and Access to Assets, an asset-building project to help reduce poverty among people with disabilities. She also serves on the State Department advisory committee on disability and foreign policy and the National Council on Disability.
Read the press release.

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