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The U.S. Department of Justice is on the hot seat amid attempts to allocate funding intended to address the needs of kids with autism and other developmental disabilities who wander.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pressuring the agency to follow through on its obligations under Kevin and Avonte’s Law.

The law, which was signed last year, called for $2 million annually through 2022 for grants to local law enforcement and nonprofit agencies. The money can be used to provide electronic tracking devices to families of those at risk of wandering or for education, training, notification systems and other efforts to prevent or better respond to elopement.

However, Schumer’s office said that rather than make funding available to local agencies as called for in Kevin and Avonte’s Law, the Justice Department folded the wandering program into a larger grant for a national center to improve police

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) released a video of its June 25, 2019 celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Olmstead.

VOR members would serve themselves well to view this video. It contains many of the key national players involved in setting disability policy, and it shows their limited views, some would say their deliberate misrepresentation, of what the Supreme Court said in Olmstead.

Hosted by Julie Hocker of the ACL, featured speakers at the presentation include Roger Severino, Director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Eric Harding, Deputy Secretary of HHS, Dr. Amy Hewitt, Director of the Institute of Community Integration at the University of Minnesota, Melissa

Amid the island’s economic crisis, citizens with severe mental and physical problems in the U.S. territory receive $74 a month of aid - about a tenth of what people in the states get.

Juanita Gomez Cruz irons clothes and fries pasteles to help support her family. At 77, she is the sole caretaker for her elderly husband Pedro and her adult son Dafner, both of whom are disabled.

Pedro, 65, lost part of his foot three years ago to diabetes. Dafner, 51, suffered so many seizures as an adult that his mind turned off, she said. Now, he can’t dress or feed himself and doesn’t recognize family members. He spends his days in bed or slumped in front of the TV.

Private 24-hour care facilities house more than 600 people in Utah who are disabled, but after legislative failures, they say they are struggling to stay alive. These Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs) are the subject of a lawsuit settled during this past legislative session aimed at expanding care options for individuals, but ICF caregivers say the suit may have had unintended consequences.

 

Tophams Tiny Tots is one of 16 private ICFs in the state, all paid for by Medicaid reimbursement. It’s where Alice Sutton chose to place her son Stephen when he was just four years old, already too fragile to care for at home.

Sutton said, “They saved my life is how I feel, and I view them as a partner. I trust them, we’ve built that trust over 28 years. They’re his second family.”

Stephen is one of 42 people currently being cared for at Tophams where individuals receive medical care, skills training, individualized treatments, and all other necessities. 

Back in 2018, the Disability Law Center (DLC) brought a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Health; it argued that the state of Utah wasn’t in compliance with a supreme court decision stating a person should be given access to community-based resources, instead of treatment in private facilities, whenever possible. 

 

Laura Henrie is an Associate Legal Director at the DLC and a lawyer on the case. She said that after visiting with people living in ICFs, her team was asked over and over to help individuals move out.

“As we looked into it, the way that the system was set up, it was actually really really difficult for a person to move out of an ICF if you wanted to take your services with you.”

The Department of Health calculates that a person in an ICF costs the state about $70,000 per year, but when that person transitions to community-based services the cost of their care goes up to $100,000 per year. 

Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed legislation sponsored by State Representative Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) to require all emergency calls made from Community Integrated Living Arrangements (CILAs) otherwise called “group homes” to be reported to the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS). The new law is in response to reports of abuse and neglect which occurred in group homes for the developmentally disabled.

“It’s about time mandated reporting of all emergency calls from group homes became law,” said Rep. Charlie Meier. “In the past the public was unaware of the emergencies which took place in group homes because emergency calls were kept secret. Thanks to this new law, these secrets are a thing of the past.”

The Chicago Tribune reported in their story titled SUFFERING IN SECRET: Illinois hides abuse and neglect of adults with disabilities, identified 1,311 cases of documented harm since July 2011 and determined at least 42 deaths linked to abuse or neglect in group homes or their day programs.

The scandal at Hacienda Healthcare is now affecting even more families after a patient was raped and gave birth, and another was found to have maggots in a surgical opening.

The shocking incidents happened within the Intermediate Care Facility, but the Arizona Department of Health confirmed Monday the neighboring unit, Hacienda’s Skilled Nursing Facility, is set to close.

Judy Shingleton says her family received a call Friday saying her grandson, Dillan Owens, would have to be moved out of the Skilled Nursing Facility by Sept. 5.

“Everything’s been going well until Friday, and it’s like, oh, it’s just so stressful,” says Shingleton.

Owens is now 21-years-old, but Shingleton says he’s been through a lot. Doctors discovered Owens had a brain tumor when he was 9 years old, and multiple surgeries followed through the years. When Owens was 15, Shingleton says one of the procedures went horribly wrong, and her grandson suffered brain damage

While many workers do an outstanding job caring for individuals with disabilities in our communities, I have also heard many deeply disturbing stories about victims of neglect and abuse. The current system is failing them and improvements are desperately and urgently necessary. Dozens of allegations related to staff abuse, patient neglect, sexual assault and even death have been reported over the last few years.

That’s why, in December, I was joined by New York representatives Peter King, Elise Stefanik, and Tom Reed in demanding accountability for the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs for their failure to protect individuals with disabilities and Medicaid recipients who have died under state care, including nine who died while in state care in Suffolk County since 2013. The Department of Justice responded stating they would “carefully consider the information in determining whether to open an investigation,” but just since December,

Indiana's most vulnerable residents are often cared for in group homes with round the clock staff.

No one disputes it can be a tough job, but when you have an industry with high turn over rates and improperly trained workers, group homes can become places of extreme abuse.

13 Investigates' Sandra Chapman uncovered troubling issues for a provider with a network of group homes across the state and the country.

One of these group homes is in a house located on Atwood Court in Fishers. The home is operated by ResCare, one of Indiana's largest residential care providers, and is where Indiana's most vulnerable are supposed to be protected.

Records show that protection wasn't extended to Anthony Harris who lived at the ResCare group home in Fishers. Harris has cerebral palsy and is completely disabled and non-verbal.

A caregiver admitted to viciously beating Harris in 2017.

Michael Anderson was charged and plead guilty to criminal battery in the case and sentenced to six years in prison.

After the death of a developmentally disabled man in Missouri's care, the state has paid more than $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit.

Carl DeBrodie's badly decomposed body was found in a garbage can encased in concrete in a Fulton, Missouri, storage locker in April 2017.

DeBrodie, 31, had been staying at Second Chance Homes, a Fulton facility contracted by the Missouri Department of Mental Health's Division of Developmental Disabilities.

"They went through that provider enrollment process, and then they were basically out there and could start making themselves available for families and guardians to select as a provider," said Valerie Huhn, director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities.

The money to pay for providers such as Second Chance Homes comes from both federal and state tax dollars.

According to the now-settled federal lawsuit and ongoing criminal cases, Second Chance Manager Sherry Paulo and her husband, Anthony Flores, had DeBrodie fight another client for their amusement.