would then work to get you home as soon as you were well enough. Once home, you would receive another visit to make sure that you were okay and that your caretaker understood your needs.

These are some of the services Georgetown University provides through its DDA Health Initiative. These are also some of the services that — unless something is done soon — will disappear on Aug. 31, because the D.C. Department on Disability Services (DDS) has decided not to renew Georgetown’s contract.

The decision was made quietly and has unnerved those who work closest with the city’s most vulnerable residents.

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Last year, the legislature committed to funding 300 people — roughly half the “at risk” group — but the money ran out after only 133. So this year, the Mills administration asked the legislature to fund the balance of 167 remaining at-risk adults. But the administration requested nothing for the other 90 percent of the people on the waitlist.

The more modest MaineCare Section 29 “supports waiver” is a safety net for people spending years on the Section 21 waitlist. Section 29 also had a waitlist from 2009 to 2015.

But late last year, the Section 29 waitlist re-emerged, and has 183 people as of this May. Yet the administration has not requested any money to address it, and the Legislature has not appropriated any.

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When Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, it was intended to encourage the employment of individuals with a disability; instead, it has contributed to greater isolation and sustained a cycle of poverty. Most people were placed in sheltered workshops and never transitioned to typical employment environments.

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Regional centers are private non-profit corporations contracted by California's Department of Developmental Services (DDS) to find and monitor care for more than 330,000 people with disabilities like autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. One regional center executive director said the system is strained by a lack of funding and low pay rate for service providers. He and DDS officials have said the health and safety of their clients is a priority and efforts to increase funding are underway.

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Dr. Richard A. Pape, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Louisville, told Insider that Avesis said it would reduce by up to 35% the amount of money dentists will receive for the service they’re providing for Passport’s Medicaid patients. 

That’s a “pretty steep cut from what’s already a pretty low rate,” he said. Pape said, for example, that Avesis/Passport have told him that they will reduce his rate for anesthetizing a patient for a wisdom tooth extraction to $67. He charges patients with private insurance about $400, and he said it costs thousands at a hospital. “You can’t provide that service for $67,” Pape said.

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The cuts eliminate all services including preventative care like cleanings and fillings — the kind of things that Dr. James Hyer said can keep small problems from getting worse.

“And unfortunately that will lead to greater tooth loss among our poorest population who can least afford to pay for it,” Hyer said.

Continued