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VOR is the only national organization advocating for a full range of
residential and support options for people with mental retardation,
including Medicaid-certified Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally
Retarded (ICFs/MR) and home and community-based care. VOR supports choice.
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VOR Weekly E-Mail Update
January 19, 2007
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1. VOR's 2007 Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative: Please Join Us!!!
2. Sponsorship Opportunities: We welcome your referrals and suggestions
3. Calling all organizations! Consider sponsoring a participant to attend
VOR's Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative
4. The Federal and State Connection: Why your participation in VOR is
critical
5. CMS Awards Demonstration Grants to 17 states for alternatives to
institutional care
Coming Up: Kentucky: Deaths largely not investigated - Critics see gaping
hole in care of state's mentally disabled
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1. VOR's 2007 Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative: Please Join Us!!!
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Another year is upon us, which means planning for the 2007 VOR Annual
Meeting and Washington Initiative is well underway. I hope you will
consider joining us.
The connection between what happens in Washington, D.C. and your state is
very real. With your participation, you can count on making a difference at
the federal and state level. You will carry home powerful advocacy tools
gleaned from VOR programs and networking with others across the country. In
addition, with your help, our success impacting policy from Washington,
D.C. in June and year round, directly impacts law and policy in your own
state.
Not convinced? Please review the information below about the state and
federal connection, especially as it pertains to Medicaid, as well as the
final article of this update which gives information about recent federal
grants to 17 states to carry out "Money Follows the Person" plans -
designed to transfer people from institutions to the community. MFP, like
Medicaid, comes straight from Washington, D.C., to be administered by your
state.
By participating in VOR's Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative, you can
help ensure that federal policymakers keep the needs of your loved ones in
mind when making policy and law that WILL impact your state.
Full details, including a registration form and hotel information, are
available at: http://www.vor.netVORAnnualMeeting2007.htm. An Overview, plus
a summary of the agenda for the Annual Meeting and the Washington
Initiative follow. If you have any questions, you are encouraged to contact
Tamie at Tamie327@hotmail.com (I'd love to hear from anyone planning to
attend - even letting me know you plan to attend in advance of formally
registering helps my planning tremendously).
OVERVIEW OF THE EVENT
As last year, events get kicked off with an Friday Night State Report Forum
(June 8). The Annual Meeting, complete with great speakers and
presentations, is scheduled for Saturday, June 9. The Washington Initiative
begins with a Legislative Briefing on Sunday, June 10, with Capitol Hill
visits to begin June 11.
ANNUAL MEETING, JUNE 9, 2007
The theme for the 2007 Annual Meeting is "Policymaking from Governors to
Congress: A focus on the issues and the role of advocates." Speakers
include Matt Salo, Director of the National Governors Association Health
and Human Services Committee; a panel of Congressional Committee staff who
deal with health care policy (from both sides of the aisle); and Ron
Pollack (invited), Executive Director of Families USA.
LEGISLATIVE BRIEFING, JUNE 10, 2007
The Legislative Briefing is the official kick-off of VOR's Washington
Initiative. Participants will hear from a speaker who works on Capitol
Hill, to get an "insiders" perspective regarding how to effectively carry
VOR's message to Capitol Hill. Participants will also be fully briefed on
VOR's issues and receive presentation folders to leave with every office
they will visit. By the end of the week, VOR will have covered Congress
with our information, hand-carried by dedicated VOR volunteers - primarily
family members of persons with profound mental retardation.
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2. Sponsorship Opportunities: We welcome your referrals and suggestions
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Sponsorship opportunities are also available for the VOR 2007 Annual
Meeting and Washington Initiative. Corporations, small businesses,
organizations, family groups and individuals have all been sponsors of
VOR's annual meetings in Washington, D.C. in the past. Perhaps you know of
someone that would like to help financially support this important event.
Full sponsorship details can be found at
http://www.vor.net/2007Sponsorship.htm.
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3. Calling all organizations! Consider sponsoring a participant to attend
VOR's Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative
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State and Facility Family Associations often sponsor participants to attend
VOR's Annual Meeting. This is a great way to contribute to VOR. This year,
VOR will be making an effort to honor those organizations that support VOR
in this way. If your group is planning to sponsor a participant, please let
Tamie know at 605-399-1624; or Tamie327@hotmail.com. We want to include
your organization on VOR's "Honor Roll."
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4. The Federal and State Connection: Why your participation in VOR is
critical
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VOR is a national organization that advocates for a full array of
residential services and supports for the full continuum of people with
mental retardation, through all stages of life. We advocate for the
provision of services based on choice and need, with full family
involvement in the decisionmaking.
While your statewide family/guardian organization and your local
facility-based family associations play crucial roles, these organizations
are not dedicated to tracking on a regular basis what is happening at the
national level, especially with regard to Medicaid.
What Congress and the Administration do to Medicaid will impact the
services your family member receives, for better or worse. Nationally, the
FEDERAL government pays between 50 and 76% of every Medicaid bill,
depending on what state you live in (see below for how much your state
receives from the federal government for Medicaid).
Without FEDERAL funds, Medicaid programs would not exist in any state. When
FEDERAL funds are cut, or when the FEDERAL government changes the rules as
to how federal Medicaid funds can be spent, the result is felt by Medicaid
beneficiaries all across the country, including your family members.
VOR reliably lets its members know when Medicaid faces a cut or is poised
for reform. We directly communicate with Members of Congress and officials
within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We also call upon
our members to contact their elected officials by fax, phone, e-mail and
mail. Help from VOR's members is what ultimately has the most significant
impact after all, elected officials will be thinking about votes, and
numbers count.
VOR needs your membership support. We also encourage you to consider
participating in VOR's Annual Meeting and Washington Initiative (see
http://www.vor.netVORAnnualMeeting2007.htm for details). An ever growing
membership, plus participation in the Washington Initiative, ensures our
collective strength and continued success. Financial contributions also
help VOR grow and enhance all of our programs aiming to enhance choice and
empower families, including our Congressional advocacy in Washington, D.C.
VOR has its role at the national level. Your state organization has its
role at the state level. Facility-Based Family Associations have their
role at the local levels. We are all interconnected and mutually dependent
on one another to achieve success.
Please help complete the circle. Support VOR today and be assured your
national voice will be represented and heard.
# # #
Federal Medicaid Percentage Match, by State (2006)
AL (69.51%)
AK (50.16)
AZ (66.98)
AR (73.77)
CA (50.00)
CO (50.00)
CT (50.00)
DE (50.09)
DC (70.00)
FL (58.89)
GA (60.60)
HI (58.81)
ID (69.91)
IL (50.00)
IN (62.98)
IA (63.61)
KS (60.41)
KY (69.26)
LA (69.79)
ME (62.90)
MD (50.00)
MA (50.00)
MI (56.59)
MN (50.00)
MS (76.00)
MO (61.93)
MT (70.54)
NE (59.68)
NV (54.76)
NH (50.00)
NJ (50.00)
NM (71.15)
NY (50.00)
NC (63.49)
ND (65.85)
OH (59.88)
OK (67.91)
OR (61.57)
PA (55.05)
RI (54.45)
SC (69.32)
SD (65.07)
TN (63.99)
TX (60.66)
UT (70.76)
VT (58.49)
VA (50.00)
WA (50.00)
WV (72.99)
WI (57.65)
WY (54.23)
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5. CMS Awards Demonstration Grants to 17 states for alternatives to
institutional care
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IMPORTANT NOTE TO VOR MEMBERS: 17 states have been awarded Money Follows
the Person grants. Those states, plus the amount they are slated to
receive, are listed below. Before these states can receive their grant
monies, they must develop and submit to CMS for approval a "Demonstration
Operation Protocol" (DOP). This DOP must ". . . formally engage all needed
stakeholders . . .". This is your opportunity to proactively demand a seat
at the table (source: ADAPT, Jan. 11, 2007). Contact your state's Medicaid
office to determine what process will be sued to develop the DOP and get
involved. As for the 22 states that applied but were not awarded a grant,
they will reportedly be given a second chance. CMS will be sending a letter
to these states telling them that they have to revise their proposal (and
how) and return it to CMS in 30 days. A second round of awards will,
reportedly, be sent in March for those states that do the revisions
requested (Source: ADAPT, Jan. 11, 2007). This is another real opportunity
for choice advocates - get informed and involved.
For Immediate Release:
Friday, January 12, 2007
Contact: CMS Office of Public Affairs
Seventeen states will receive more than $23 million in grants for FY 07 and
up to $900 million over 5 years for demonstration programs that will help
build Medicaid long-term care programs to keep people in the community and
out of institutions.
Today's awards, announced by Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator for the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), are the first round of
grants that will total $1.75 billion over five years (2007-2011) to help
states shift Medicaid's traditional emphasis on institutional care to a
system offering greater choices for individuals and a full range of home-
and community-based services. This Money Follows the Person (MFP)
"rebalancing" initiative was included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
(DRA) currently being implemented by CMS.
"There is more evidence than ever that people who need long-term care
prefer to remain in their own homes and communities whenever possible,"
Acting Administrator Norwalk said. "States will also get more for their
money by giving the elderly and people with disabilities more control over
how and where they get the Medicaid services they need. With these grants,
the states propose to transition over 20,000 individuals from institutions
and into community settings.
"Because experience shows that money following the person's own preferences
improves satisfaction and can reduce Medicaid costs too, we intend to
continue taking steps, such as those taken through these grants, to remove
barriers, real or perceived, that prevent them from participating fully in
community life."
The Medicaid program traditionally pays for care for elderly and disabled
individuals living in institutions who need help with activities of daily
living. Previously, in order to fund home and community-based services,
states had to establish a "waiver program" apart from the approved State
Medicaid plan.
To assist states in offering greater choices, the DRA made changes in
Medicaid that will allow states to add home- and community-based services
to their permanent array of benefits without having to go through a waiver
program. Under a DRA provision separate from the MFP initiative, states now
have the option to provide home and community-based services without a
waiver program.
States receiving grants today under the MFP initiative (see list below)
will design programs with four major objectives:
1. Eliminate barriers or mechanisms that prevent Medicaid-eligible
individuals from receiving support for appropriate and necessary long-term
services in the settings of their choice;
2. Increase the ability of the state Medicaid program to assure continued
provision of home and community based long-term care services to eligible
individuals who choose to move from an institutional to a community
setting; and
3. Ensure that procedures are in place to provide quality assurance for
individuals receiving Medicaid home and community-based long-term care
services and to provide for continuous quality improvement in such
services.
All states were eligible to apply for participation in the five-year
demonstration that requires a commitment to participate in the
demonstration services for at least two consecutive years. A second round
of state grants may be announced later this year using 2007 grant money.
States receiving grant funds may be eligible to receive a higher percentage
of federal matching dollars to help cover the costs for people moving out
of institutions and into community settings. The higher matching rate will
be applied to certain services provided to an individual for a one-year
period after the individual moves out of an institution and into the
community. The state must continue to provide community services after that
period as long as the person needs community services and is Medicaid
eligible.
"These demonstration grants are a clear sign of our continued commitment to
expand choice to all individuals wanting to live meaningful lives in the
community," acting administrator Norwalk said. "These grants will help give
them the independence to live at home and be an active part of their
communities."
For more details about the New Freedom Initiative, of which this
demonstration is part, visit the CMS web site at:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom/.
2007 MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON
REBALANCING DEMONSTRATION AWARDS
State -- FY 2007 Award Amount
WI -- $8,020,388
NY -- $192,981
WA -- $108,500
CT -- $1,313,823
MI -- $2,034,732
OK -- $3,526,428
AR -- $139,519
MD -- $1,000,000
NE -- $202,500
NH -- $297,671
CA -- $90,000
IN -- $860,514
TX -- $143,401
SC -- $34,789
MO -- $3,398,225
IA -- $307,933
OH -- $2,079,488
Total -- $23,750,892
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Tamie Hopp
REFERRAL/MEMBERSHIP/CONTRIBUTION FORM
THREE EASY WAYS TO SUPPORT VOR > REFER, CONTRIBUTE OR JOIN
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
TO JOIN OR CONTRIBUTE: $25 per individual, $150 per family organization, or
$200 per provider/professional organization. Extra donations are welcome!
You may pay by credit card or check.
TO REFER SOMEONE TO VOR: Use the form below, including the additional
sections for referrals.
Mail the completed form (if joining or contributing) with payment to:
Voice of the Retarded
5005 Newport Drive, Suite 108
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
847-253-6054 fax (for referrals or credit card payments)
vor@compuserve.com (for referrals or credit card payments)
FOR REFERRALS: ____ The contact information provided is for someone I
think would consider membership with VOR.
FOR REFERRALS: _____ You may use my name in any correspondence with this
individual. My name is ________________________.
____________________________________________
Name
_____________________________________________
Address (if paying by credit card, use billing address). All forms must
include complete address including zip code)
_____________________________________________
City St Zip
_____________________________________________
Phone Fax
_____________________________________________
E-Mail
_________________________________________________
Family/Professional Organization Affiliation (if applicable)
VOR now accepts Master Card and Visa. If paying by credit card, please
provide the following information:
Amount to charge to card:
___$1,000 ___$500 ___$250 ___$150 ___$50 ___$25 $_____ Other amount
_____ Master Card
_____ Visa
Card Number: ___________________________________
Expiration Date: __________________________________
Cardholder's Signature: ___________________________
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