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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
October 27, 2006
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1. CMS Confidentiality Concerns
2. Americans with Disabilities Act News
A. Sensenbrenner/Hoyer Introduce Bipartisan
Legislation Restoring Americans
with Disabilities Act Protections
B. ADA Case Demographics
3. Medicaid Spending Rises Only Slightly - Some
States Will Expand Program
4. JOIN VOR TODAY - see membership form at the
end of this update!
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1. CMS Confidentiality Concerns
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Capitol Insider
Disability Policy Collaboration
Volume 11, Issue 40
October 9, 2006
The Government Accounting Office has found
serious flaws in computer
security that could lead to improper disclosure
of personal identification
and medical information. The report faults the
Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services (CMS) for failure to use
strict password controls;
failure to encrypt data; and failure to keep
complete records of who uses
the network, among other things. The CMS
Administrator indicated that CMS
has moved aggressively to implement corrective
actions and taking steps to
ensure that information security policies and
standards are fully
implemented.
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2. Americans with Disabilities Act News
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A. Sensenbrenner/Hoyer Introduce Bipartisan
Legislation Restoring Americans
with Disabilities Act Protections:
On September 29, H.R. 6258, "Americans with
Disabilities Act Restoration
Act of 2006" was introduced. The bill was
introduced in response to recent
Supreme Court decisions which "slowly chipped
away at the broad protections
of the ADA," according to sponsor Rep. Jim
Sensenbrenner, who is also the
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
According to co-sponsor Steny
Hoyer (D-MD), "The Supreme Court's
interpretations of this historic law
have been largely inconsistent with the original
intent of Congress and
President George H.W. Bush in enacting the ADA.
For example, people with
diabetes, heart conditions and cancer have had
their ADA claims kicked out
of court because, with improvements in
medication, they are considered too
functional' to be considered disabled.' This is
not what Congress intended
when it passed the ADA. We intended the law to
be broadly not narrowly
interpreted." For the complete House Judiciary
Committee press release, see
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/ADAbillintro92906.pdf
B. ADA Case Demographics:
According to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,
in the past five years,
1,800 out of 2,000 private cases involving the
Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA), as well as 151 cases against state
and local governments, were
settled through mediation.
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3. Medicaid Spending Rises Only Slightly - Some
States Will Expand Program
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Introduction: Recently, a question was relayed
to VOR - "Why does VOR
always send out e-mail alerts and feature news
items on Medicaid funding?"
Many people do not realize that public ICFs/MR
receive all their funding
from Medicaid AND that the ICF/MR program, along
with the Home and
Community-Based Services Waiver and a whole host
of other Medicaid
programs, are OPTIONAL programs. State's do NOT
have to provide this level
of service. So, when Medicaid is cut by
Congress, the impact of these cuts
are felt at the state level by virtue of states
having less Medicaid money.
Programs serving people with MR/DD could easily
be impacted by funding
cuts, implemented at the state level, depending
on state priorities. To see
a list of optional Medicaid programs, visit:
http://www.vor.net/Mandatory%20and%20Optional%20Medicaid%20Services.html.
By Christopher Lee
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Medicaid spending rose by 2.8 percent in fiscal
2006, the smallest increase
in a decade, according to a study released
yesterday by the nonprofit
Kaiser Family Foundation.
At the same time, state tax revenue grew by 3.7
percent as the economy
continued to improve, the survey of 50 states
and their Medicaid directors
found.
Together those trends signal that the
state-federal program that pays for
health care for the poor and disabled is
emerging -- at least temporarily
-- from a period in which many states limited
eligibility, benefits and
reimbursement rates for health-care services in
a drive to corral costs.
For 2007, only five states plan to restrict
eligibility, while 26 indicated
they will restore benefits, relax application
and enrollment restrictions
and undertake new outreach efforts.
"The program continues to grow, but it is not
out of control," said Diane
Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser
Commission on Medicaid and the
Uninsured.
"We now see that as the economy is improving
that the states are looking at
how they can best meet the needs of their
citizens using the tools they
have available to them."
With total annual costs of more than $300
billion, Medicaid serves more
than 50 million people and its fortunes rise and
fall with the economy. In
tough economic times, when more people are out
of work and hurting
financially, Medicaid rolls swell. But that is
when it is hardest for
states to pick up their 40 percent of overall
Medicaid costs, because a
slumping economy also sends state tax revenues
plummeting. (The federal
government pays the balance of the costs.) The
crunch typically leads
Medicaid officials to scramble to impose
cost-containment measures as part
of broader efforts to rein in overall state
spending.
Everything tends to turn around when the economy
improves, with state
coffers more flush and fewer people eligible for
Medicaid. While 2002 and
2003 were lean years for states, the past two
were better.
The slower growth in Medicaid spending
documented by the Kaiser report was
a product of both the improving economy and
continued cost-containment
efforts, Rowland said. Spending growth would
have been even slower, but
states had to fork over billions of dollars to
help pay for the new
Medicare drug benefit, which covers about 6
million low-income people who
used to get prescriptions through Medicaid, the
report found.
Even in good times, there is upward pressure on
enrollment as the
population ages and an increasing number of
people lack health insurance.
Medicaid enrollment grew by 1.6 percent in
fiscal 2006, the lowest rate
since 1999, the survey found. It does not take
many people to drive up
costs, however. About 4 percent of the Medicaid
population, generally the
elderly and disabled, accounted for 48 percent
of the program's
expenditures in 2001, the survey showed.
Anne Marie Murphy, Medicaid director for
Illinois, said officials there
have combined expansion and outreach in recent
years with a new emphasis on
prevention and managing health-care services.
"We have been very focused on controlling
utilization," she said. "We want
people to get health care, but to get necessary
health care. We want to
spend our money wisely and be a prudent
purchaser of care."
Although pressure to hold down costs continues,
many states plan to expand
coverage in 2007.
In California, about 95 percent of
Medicaid-eligible children are already
enrolled -- but officials will go after the
uninsured 5 percent, said Stan
Rosenstein, the state's deputy director of
medical care services. "The
governor has put in major funding for outreach,
and we are making major
simplifications to our application and
redetermination process," he said.
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Tamie Hopp
REFERRAL/MEMBERSHIP/CONTRIBUTION FORM
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