Card Check Legislation Won’t Happen Until After Health Care Reform

UPDATE: See ANCOR's background piece on "card check" from the Governmental Activities Seminar.

One of labor’s most prized legislative goals will take a backseat to the Administration’s most pressing priority—health care reform—for the meanwhile. Reports are that President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told labor on Monday that they will not bring up the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) known as “card check” until after Congress completes its work on health care reform. Congress does not plan on picking up formal action until September 15th—the date that Finance Chairman Baucus (D-MT) has set for his committee’s draft and date that House Energy and Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-CA) has set to take up more than 40 amendments to finish his committee’s part of the final House bill. Read more!

New H.R. 868 Co-sponsors

Congressman Dennis Moore (D-KS), Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), and Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) have signed on as co-sponsors to H.R. 868. Thank you to everyone who sent messages and visited their offices during the Governmental Activities Seminar. Read more!

Federal Judge Blocks Cuts September 9th to Adult Day Health Care Services

In a major victory for disability and senior rights advocates, a federal district court judge September 9, 2009 issued an order blocking California’s budget reductions to Adult Day Health Care services, saying that the cuts would likely be in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act. Federal District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong issued a preliminary injunction – or temporary order – to stop the cuts until appropriate replacement services are in place. For a copy of the 24 page order, go to www.cdcan.us .
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Post ANCOR 2009 Governmental Activities Seminar Wrap-Up

Thank you to everyone who attended ANCOR's 2009 Governmental Activities Seminar and made it such a wonderful event. Please see ANCOR's website to access presentations and hill visit materials from the Seminar.


Please remember to fax your Hill Visit forms to ANCOR at (703) 535-7860 or use ANCOR's electronic feedback form if you do not have a copy of the form from the Seminar.
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Senate Finance Chairman Baucus Releases Chairman's Mark

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus released his anticipated health reform bill entitled America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009. The bill received praise from the House Blue Dog Coalition but was criticized by both some Democrats and Republicans. Check back on WICs Live for more information as the process continues. Read more!

New Co-Sponsor for H.R. 868

Congresswoman DeGette (D-CO) recently signed onto H.R. 868 as a co-sponsor. We thank Sharon Walters from Mosaic who spent a great deal of time communicating with Congresswoman DeGette's office. Read more!

ANCOR Releases H1N1 Issue Brief

ANCOR has recently released an H1N1 Issue Brief.The issue brief will be updated as new information comes in. To ensure you have the most updated copy check our Pandemic Flu Website. For questions contact Mary Pauline Jones. Read more!

Washington state court case

U.S. District Court Judge in Washington Rules State Violated Rights of Individuals with Disabilities in Cutting Adult Day Health Programs. Cuts to a Washington program that provides rehabilitative therapy and skilled nursing services to disabled individuals living in community-based residential settings must be restored, a federal trial court ruled Sept. 4 (Ryan v. Dreyfus, W.D. Wash., No. 2:09-cv-908, 9/4/09). The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington said a class of Medicaid-eligible individuals who had been receiving benefits under Adult Day Health programs were entitled to an injunction against the Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and its secretary, Susan N. Dreyfus, because the benefits were terminated without notice. Termination without notice and an opportunity for a hearing violates the due process rights of the individuals who, until July 1, were receiving services through the ADH programs, the court said. The class representatives are entitled to an injunction because they showed they would prevail on their claims that the state violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Medicaid Act, and demonstrated an injury that could be redressed by such relief, the court said. The class-wide case management activities that DSHS has undertaken since the commencement of this litigation have provided for post-termination hearings for those individuals who request them. The court ruled: “The class members were entitled to a pre-termination hearing, not a post-termination hearing. Pending a hearing, the class member's ADH services are reinstated. Thus, in order to remedy the due process violation, the class members' ADH services must be immediately reinstated and then DSHS can provide the notice and opportunity to be heard that it should have provided before July 1.
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HIPAA: HHS Issues Rule Requiring Individuals Be Notified of Breaches of Their Health

The breach notification notice of proposed rule making requires HIPAA covered agencies to give notification to affected individuals of breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI). Business associates of HIPAA covered agencies are required to notify the agency following discovery of a breach of unsecured protected health information maintained by the business associate. The requirement for breach notification applies only to breaches of “unsecured protected health information,” which means PHI that has not been secured by use of a technology or methodology specified in guidance of the Secretary of HHS. That guidance essentially requires encryption or destruction of the PHI. The rule is effective September 23, 2009. However, HHS specifically states, "...we will use our enforcement discretion to not impose sanctions for failure to provide the required notification for breaches that are discovered before 180 calendar days from the publication of this rule, or February 22, 2010. During this initial time period - after this rule has taken effect but before we are imposing sanctions - we expect covered entities to comply with this subpart and will work with covered entities, through technical assistance and voluntary corrective actions, to achieve compliance." ANCOR is working to develop products and other information to assist members with this new development.
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Senate Health Care Update

Senate Finance Chairman Baucus released a draft framework Tuesday and expects to have his Chairman’s report out by September 15th and proceed to a mark-up of a Finance bill the week of September 21st. Read more!

State Discriminated Against Mentally Ill, Judge Rules

New York Federal District Judge Ruled in ADA Case Against New York City. The judge ruled that the state was violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by housing more than 4,300 mentally ill people in New York City in more than two dozen adult homes. He said the residents had little hope of mingling with anyone in the wider community. The ruling, which applies to individuals with mental illness who are not considered dangerous to themselves or others, suggested that the state would have to begin finding individual apartments or small homes for virtually all adult-home residents who wanted one. Look for the article in the September 9th edition of the New York Times.
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Senator Harkin Takes Over as Chair of HELP Committee

It was announced this week that Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) will be the new Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee following the death of former HELP Chairman Ted Kennedy. This ended the speculation as to whether the committee’s most senior Democrat, Senator Chris Dodd (-CT)—who lead the committee through health care reform when Senator Kennedy became ill—would choose to become the new chairman. Dodd chose to remain Chair of the Senate Banking Committee and Senator Harkin gave up his chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.
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New HCBS Promising Practice

CMS has posted a new HCBS Promsing Practice to the CMS website entitled, "Lessons Learned from Using a Health Information Technology Program that Combines Claims-Level Data with Service-Level Data". It can be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/promisingpractices/downloads/medicaiddata.pdf. A list of all the HCBS Promising Practices can be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PromisingPractices/HCBSPPR/list.asp#TopOfPage. This new report describes how Medicaid claims data can be combined with service-level data to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of services provided in community mental health centers (CMHCs). It describes how CMHCs in three States have used a particular system, Service Process Quality Management (SPQM), to improve quality and achieve cost savings. Read more!

HHS Conference Call on H1N1

HHS will be hosting an information sharing conference call on H1N1 on September 14, 2009.

Call: 1-800-837-1935; Conference ID: 2H1N1
Date: September 14, 2009
Time: 1:30 -3:00 pm, Eastern DS Time

Opening Remarks --- Chair- Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
Co-Chairs – CAPT Clare Helminiak, Dr. Sally Phillips, and RADM Ann Knebel
Moderator – Susie Butler, CMS Office of External Affairs

Agenda
The purpose of this information session is to update and inform the provider community about issues around H1N1 preparedness and response, vaccine availability, infection control, and other questions that have come in. We will cover the following topic areas:

1. General Update

2. Vaccines and Antivirals

3. Special Populations

4. Healthcare System Surge Capacity

5. Infection Control and Personal Protective Equipment

Submit questions in advance: We invite you to submit questions now at: H1N1.listening@hhs.gov

Please note – we know that we cannot respond to each individual email question. Submitting questions prior to the call will allow us to address as many questions as possible.

Helpful websites, should you have questions:

· www.flu.gov

· www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu

· http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm100228.htm -- information on antivirals

· http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM6539.pdf -- CMS billing information

· http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Emergency/Downloads/Medicare_FFS_Emergency_Qs_As_082609.pdf --Information for Medicare Fee-for-Service Providers

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All callers, please dial: 1-800-837-1935 and use Conference ID 2H1N1.


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Virginia Announces Plan to Address FY2010 Budget Shortfall

Governor Tim Kain today announced his plan to address the FY 2010 budget shortfall of over $1.35 billion.

While there are no projected rate cuts for Medicaid services in the plan offered by the Governor today, the plan does:

• eliminate 100 of the 200 MR/ID Waiver slots which were approved by the General Assembly for January 1, 2010
• reduce funding for community services boards by 5%
• eliminate 20 DBHDS Central Office positions and require a one day furlough for all executive branch staff (for most the Friday before Memorial Day)
• eliminate direct management of the Community Resources Pharmacy

It also projects a General Fund savings of $97M because the federal Medicaid share has increased from a projected 60.19% to 61.58% for the last quarter of FY 09 and for FY10 as a result of the Federal stimulus package.

Click here to read the entire report.

Special thanks to Jennifer Fidura for providing us with this information.

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Ohio Joins Other States in Removing Condition of “Mental Retardation” from State Agency’s Name

Thanks to Than Johnson of Champaign Residential Services, Inc. for reporting to ANCOR that the “Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities” will be changing its name, following passage of bills unanimously by both state legislative chambers, to drop the term “mental retardation.” Governor Ted Strickland signed the legislation on June 7th—which becomes effective in 90 days of enactment—renames the agencgy the Department of Developmental Disabilities. More than 40 other states have made similar changes by removing the term “mental retardation.” Individual Ohio county “MR/DD boards” have already begun changing their names. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Wisconsin: HHS Extends SeniorCare Program: Governor Jim Doyle (D) and the state's congressional delegation announced August 18th that the state's prescription drug plan, SeniorCare, will be extended to 2012. SeniorCare, which was first initiated in 2002, offers a comprehensive prescription drug benefit to Wisconsin residents aged 65 and older with income at or below 200 % of the Federal poverty level (FPL) and are not otherwise receiving full Medicaid benefits. SeniorCare serves nearly 90,000 Wisconsin seniors.


In other news, the state plans to require competitive bids from managed care organizations (MCOs) to oversee the BadgerCare Plus program in populous southeastern Wisconsin for the first time. It is s part of a plan to save $600 million from the program, provides health insurance primarily for low-income families with children under 19. The state also plans to use the contracts to impose stricter performance requirements for MCOs that contract with the state for the program. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Utah: State’s Health Exchange “Open for Business”: Under the new program, participating small businesses will pay employees a stipend, which they can use to purchase health insurance. The new state-run web site then allows workers to compare the available 72 insurance plans on the site and select the health insurance plans that best fits their needs. Proponents believe it is a small step to help the state’s uninsured purchase health coverage, while critics say that the program will make things worse by encouraging companies to drop employer-based coverage and that the available policies are designed for younger—and healthier—workers. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Oregon: Despite Budget, Health Care Reform Moves Forward: State lawmakers passed several initiatives during the legislative session to continue remaking the state’s health care system. One bill, HB 2009, established a Health Care Workforce Strategic Fund to “coordinate efforts to recruit and educate health care professionals and retain a quality workforce to meet the demand that will be created by the expansion in health care coverage, system transformations and an increasingly diverse population.” The bill also creates the Oregon Health Authority, the Oregon Health Authority Fund, and the Oregon Health Policy Board, the latter of which is charged with “ensur[ing] that Oregon’s health care workforce is sufficient in numbers and training to meet the demand that will be created by the expansion in health coverage, health care system transformations, an increasingly diverse population and an aging workforce.” Another bill, HB 2116, funds the Health Care for All Oregon Children program to provide health insurance coverage for uninsured children and also channels funding to community health centers to ensure services for low-income adults. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

New York: New Law Allows Unmarried Children to Remain on Parents’ Health Insurance: The new law, signed by Governor David Patterson (D) on August 5th is available to families with children up to age 29. More than 30% of the state’s uninsured population is between the ages of 19-29. Until now, many of those people became ineligible for coverage under their parents' policy after 19 or when they graduated from college. An increasing number are also unemployed or have low-paying jobs that do not offer health coverage. The new law took effect September 1st. The law also extends eligibility for COBRA-- which allows former employees to buy insurance from their company's group health plan at its full cost -- from 18 months to 36 months. Read more!