Speaking out for People with
 Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

 

COVID-19 Hospitalization Form

Michelle Ballan, PhD, a professorat SUNY Stony Brook, created a COVID Disability Form to help all individuals with IDD communicate their needs in the event of hospitalization. This form is usefiul whether the patient is verbal or non-verbal.
If your loved one is going to the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms, you may fill out this form to provide useful information to his/her medical team.
Yu may download the form from SUNY Stony Brook, or through this link on VOR's website.

What is Applied Behavioral Analysis?

Applied behavioral Analysis(ABA) is a science for addressing socially significant human behavior. Licensed and/or certified behavior analysts work with individuals with autism and intellectual & developmental disabilities to observe and analyze behaviors and the events that occur before and after to improve positive behaviors and decrease negative behaviors.

Read or Download a pdf. on ABA here

VOR Advocacy Manual and Tookit for State Coordinators, Members and Choice Advocates

March 2013 (revised)

First prepared in 2005, our Toolkit has been refined and updated to further assist VOR advocates achieving our shared mission on behalf of people with I/DD by maximizing and harnessing our collective skills and strengths at the state and federal levels.

Even the most seasoned advocates will find something of value within the pages of the toolkit, and every member is invited to share the Toolkit with your members. Using this resource to reach deep into your own memberships to identify leaders and maximize participation is perhaps the greatest potential impact this toolkit can have.

Click here for the VOR Advocacy Manual and Toolkit!

 

Scrutiny of community mental health centers is scant in fraud-prone states: federal report

Scrutiny of mental health centers is scant in fraud-prone states: report
Modern Healthcare
January 15, 2013

Despite years of warnings, the private contractors that monitor for problems in Medicare community mental health centers still aren't actively looking for problems in some the states most prone to fraud for those services, such as Louisiana and Texas, a new review of 2010 data by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General shows.

And when government officials did gather enough evidence to kick a community mental health center out of Medicare, it took an average of 42 weeks to be removed from the list of approved providers. Nine agencies in Florida received payments totaling $2.5 million between when their exclusions were approved and when their bills ceased to be paid, the report says.

HHS auditors have said previously that community health centers may be particularly vulnerable to fraud, even though government contractors tasked to look for problems in the most fraud-prone areas report scant investigative activity in the area.

Safe at home: Feds, states take steps to prevent home-care crime

Safe at home: Feds, states take steps to prevent home-care crime
By Joe Carlson
Modern Health Care Magazine * January 12, 2013

As healthcare companies look toward aggressive growth in the most intimate of settings—patients' own homes—more Americans are asking how much they really know about the new home-care aide who walks through the front door.
 
They soon might learn more about these providers. Nationwide, many people who deliver home care will fall under a new program in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that will pay for background checks for any nurse, therapist or aide who comes into contact with a long-term-care patient.

CMS officials say the program is voluntary for now, but that it might be prudent for state leaders to plan for a congressional mandate in the near future. The CMS recently made such background checks mandatory for hospice workers and is considering doing so for other providers.