VOR's Weekly News Update
VOR is a national non-profit organization
run by families of people with I/DD and autism
for families of people with I/DD and autism.
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NOVEMBER
Our Fall / Winter Campaign for Membership and Donations
is about to ramp up.
We understand that many of our members are giving to support candidates in their local, state, and federal elections.
But next week, once the campaigns are over, VOR will still be here,
advocating on behalf of families like yours,
regardless of who wins.
Our work is never done.
Please click here to join, renew, or give a gift membership to VOR
Thank you for your support!
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Jill Barker (1946 - 2024)
Jill Barker was a long-serving member of VOR, and a personal friend to many. Her family has announced a Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, November 16, at 2 pm Eastern, in person in Ann Arbor, MI and via Zoom.
If you would like to attend, please contact us at hdwyervor@gmail.com
Jill's obituary is available online. Those who knew Jill are encouraged to share fond memories here with her family. Please click here
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More on the Uncertain Future of Medicaid: | |
We deserved to know where the candidates stand on Medicaid.!
Unfortunately, neither candidate has been clear on this issue, which affects our families like no other. Our loved ones lives depend on Medicaid, and neither candidate has made a definitive statement on the issue. \
It's up to us, as voters, and as the families of people with I/DD and autism, to try to guess where the candidates stand. That isn't easy, as there are conflicting statements, vague statements, conjectures, and accusations filling the political landscape.
Last week, we featured articles from KFF about the concerns of State Medicaid Directors. We had hoped the KFF articles would lead to definitive policy statements from the candidates, but none emerged.
Below are links to recent articles from KFF, Wisconsin'sThe Oshkosh Northwestern, and The New York Times, along with a page from Fox on several of Mr. Trump's possible policy positions (Medicaid is not among them).
We encourage our members to do their own research, and carefully evaluate the role that Medicaid plays in their lives and in this historic election.
Follow the Money: How Medicaid Financing Works and What That Means for Proposals to Change It
By Robin Rudowitz and Elizabeth Williams, KFF, October 29, 2024
Here's where Presidential Candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have stood on Medicaid
By Addie Costello, Oshkosh Northwestern, October 29, 2024
Medicaid Is Not a Top Campaign Issue. But For These Voters, It's Crucial
By Isadora Kosofsky and Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, October 26, 2024
Key Issues: Former President Donald Trump's Stance on Economy, Abortion, and Immigration
By Michael Stallone, Fox 2 News Detroit, October 25, 2024
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More from KFF:
DSPs, Family Caregivers, and Home- and Communtity-Based Services
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Who are the Direct Care Workers Providing Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)?
By Priya Chidambaram, Alice Burns, Abby Wolk, Gary Claxton, and Robin Rudowitz, KFF, October 30, 2024
More than 6 million people use paid long-term services and supports (LTSS) delivered in home and community-based settings and more than 2 million people use LTSS delivered in institutional settings, according to CBO estimates. LTSS encompass the broad range of paid and unpaid medical and personal care services that assist with activities of daily living (such as eating, bathing, and dressing) and instrumental activities of daily living (such as preparing meals, managing medication, and housekeeping). The 8 million people using LTSS only includes people requiring ongoing or maintenance therapy. Many others use similar services on a shorter-term or intermittent basis, such as care provided through the Medicare home health and skilled nursing facility benefits. Direct care workers play a pivotal role in providing these services. They perform demanding, high-stress work for low wages and often no benefits.
This analysis uses the 2022 American Community Survey to provide an overview of demographic characteristics, wages, and health insurance coverage of direct care workers, which include home health aides, personal care aides, nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and registered nurses (RNs). It focuses in particular on direct care workers in nursing facilities, residential care facilities, and home health as well as those that provide services or work in settings that provide nonresidential services for older adults and younger adults with disabilities. Key takeaways include:
- There are nearly 3 million direct care workers who are predominantly female (87%) and low-wage (65%); over one-quarter are Black (28%) and over four in ten are 50 years old or more (41%)
- Direct care workers work across a variety of settings and include personal care aides, nursing assistants, home health aides, LPNs, and RNs
- Home health aides, personal care aides, and nursing assistants (collectively, “aides”) and LPNs are more likely to be under 35, Black or Hispanic, low-wage workers, uninsured, or covered by Medicaid when compared with RNs
- Nursing facilities and residential care facilities have higher shares of nurses (LPNs and RNs) when compared to home health settings and services for older adults and younger adults with disabilities (collectively, “home and community-based settings”)
- Direct care workers in home and community-based settings are more likely to be noncitizens and work part-time when compared to those in nursing facilities and other residential care settings
Read the full article here
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Experiences of Direct Care Workers and Family Caregivers of Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
Priya Chidambaram, Anna Mudumala, Alice Burns, and Robin Rudowitz, KFF, October 30, 2024
KFF estimates that there are over 4 million people using Medicaid home- and community-based services (HCBS), which include medical and supportive services that assist people with activities of daily living (such as eating, bathing, and dressing) and instrumental activities of daily living (such as preparing meals, managing medications, and housekeeping). Direct care workers play a pivotal role in providing such services for people who need help because of aging, chronic illness, or disability. Direct care workers perform demanding, high-stress work for low wages and often no benefits. There have been longstanding challenges finding enough direct care workers, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated those issues considerably. In a 50-state survey of officials administering Medicaid HCBS programs, nearly all responding states reported they were experiencing shortages of direct support professionals, personal care attendants, and/or home health aides.
Although long-term services and supports (LTSS) is not a dominant election issue, support for caregivers resonates with voters and both presidential candidates have called for investing more in home care. Former President Trump has called for more home care for seniors, while Vice President Harris has called for increased home care for seniors and people with disabilities, and has also promoted rules and legislation to strengthen Medicaid HCBS. Vice President Harris recently put forth a proposal that would establish a new Medicare home care benefit, among other changes. Although the proposal does not yet have specifics, it proposes to lift up care workers by providing access to better wages.
Read the full article here
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A Look at Waiting Lists for Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services from 2016 to 2024
By Alice Burns, Abby Wolk, Molly O’Malley Watts, Maiss Mohamed, and Maria T. Peña, KFF October 31, 2024
Medicaid is the primary payer for long-term services and supports (LTSS) in the United States, and pays for more than two-thirds of the LTSS delivered in home- and community-based settings (HCBS). Most HCBS are optional for states to provide and are offered through “waivers,” which allow states to offer a wide range of benefits and to choose—and limit—the number of people who receive services. The only HCBS that states are required to cover is home health, but states may choose to cover personal care and other services, such as private duty nursing through the Medicaid state plan. States use HCBS waivers to offer expanded personal care benefits or to provide additional services such as adult day care, supported employment, and non-medical transportation. States also use waivers to provide specialized benefits that are specific to the population covered, such as providing supported employment only to people under age 65. KFF estimates that 4.5 million Medicaid enrollees use HCBS, and that the numbers of people using HCBS through the state plan are similar to the numbers using HCBS through waivers. A state’s ability to cap the number of people enrolled in HCBS waivers can result in waiting lists when the number of people seeking services exceeds the number of waiver slots available.
This data note provides new information about waiting lists from KFF’s most recent survey of state Medicaid HCBS programs, including a discussion of why waiting lists are an incomplete measure of unmet need and why they are not necessarily comparable across states or over time, despite KFF’s efforts to obtain as consistent data as possible. Key takeaways include:
- The number of states that maintain waiting lists or interest lists for people who would like to receive HCBS has fluctuated little between 2016 and 2024.
- In most years since 2016, there have been roughly 0.7 million people on waiting lists or interest lists, with a total of over 710,000 in 2024.
- Most people on waiting lists or interest lists have intellectual or developmental disabilities and most live in states that do not screen any people for eligibility prior to adding them to waiting lists.
- Most people on waiting lists or interest lists are eligible for personal care provided through states’ regular Medicaid programs or for services provided through specialized state plan HCBS benefits.
- KFF also recently updated the waiting list indicators on State Health Facts, which show data by state and target population.
Waiting lists provide an indication of people who may need services they are not receiving, but they are an incomplete measure of unmet need because they don’t include people with unmet needs in states that do not cover the applicable services (and therefore, have no waiting list). Waiting lists reflect the populations a state chooses to serve, the services it decides to provide, the resources it commits, and the availability of workers to provide services. In addition, states’ approaches to managing waiting lists differ in how they prioritize and screen for eligibility, making comparisons across states difficult. States are only able to use waiting lists for optional services so the number of people on waiting lists can increase when states offer a new waiver or make new services available within existing waivers; in these cases, the number of people receiving services increases, but so does the number of people on a waiting list. Finally, although people may wait a long time to receive waiver services—40 months on average in 2024—most people are eligible for other types of HCBS while they wait.
Continued
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Chocolate for a Good Cause!
What Could Be Sweeter?
Buy delicious See's Candies to show your support for
VOR'S Winter Fundraising Campaign
Visit our Yum-Raising Shop to purchase your favorites today.
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See's Candies make wonderful gifts for your friends, family,
and
The Direct Support Professionals who care for your loved ones!
They're perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or for any
Holiday Party!
We are taking orders now through December 6th.
Orders will begin shipping on November 11th.
Don't Delay! Order Now!
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Iowa - Progress Industries announces it's ending Intermediate Care Facility services
By Kayla James, KCCI News Des Moines; October 25, 2024
The announcement from one organization about its plan to discontinue its Intermediate Care Facilities services has some people in Newton shocked and concerned.
Progress Industries has been around for 45 years. The nonprofit provides services and support for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. One of those services includes Intermediate Care Facilities.
On Thursday, Pauli Zmolet-Eades says she and received a notice addressing her brother, Stuart, who she says has severe autism. She shared the letter with KCCI, which serves as a 30-day notice with the organization's "intent to discontinue ICF services," effective Nov. 25, 2024.
"The group home that he is in is mainly for people with special needs that need more care," said Zmolet-Eades.
Zmolek-Eades says her brother has been in the home and with Progress Industries for decades.
"He loves people; loves to laugh," said Zmolet-Eades. "He loves to spread love, but he can't talk very much."
She says he and others in the home he lives in need 24/7 care, which they are provided.
The notice states his needs extend beyond that which Progress Industries can provide in a Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) setting.
"Some of the housemates or clients do not currently have family any longer and they have no one to advocate for them," said Monica Obersteller, a former employee.
Obersteller tells KCCI she worked for Progress Industries for 11 years.
She left in 2023, giving her a lot of time to make connections with the people she served and helped.
"They become your family. You may be the person that they look to," said Obersteller.
It's for that reason that she says she believes the families deserve answers.
Obersteller also tells KCCI she feels Progress Industries owes answers to the community who rallied and worked to get a service like the company's to the area.
It took years of action that Zmolet-Eades remembers well. Her parents helped lead the charge to make sure these services and beyond were in the community and across Central Iowa, starting with their work back in the 1970s.
"They had a team of people that fundraised and raised money," said Zmolet-Eades. "They just went door-to-door."
Zmolet-Eades tells KCCI, her parents also spoke to state and community leaders back then, too. She says the home her brother lives in bears the family's last name.
"They died thinking that Stuart who stay where he is and be well taken care of," said Zmolet-Eades. "All of the residents would be taken care of."
Continued
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Company plans to leave troubled Oklahoma center for people with developmental disabilities
By Kayla Branch, The Frontier, October 28, 2024
he management company that runs a troubled center for people with developmental disabilities in Enid said Monday it would end management services in the coming months.
Liberty of Oklahoma, an offshoot of the national, for-profit healthcare company Liberty Healthcare, said in a statement it had informed Oklahoma Human Services that it would leave the Robert M. Greer Center in Enid and the Laura Dester Center, which serves children with developmental disabilities in Tulsa, “due to external challenges.”
Continued
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Oklahoma - New managers forthcoming at Greer and Dester Centers
Press release from Oklahoma Human Services, October 28, 2024
Oklahoma Human Services is close to identifying new managers for the Robert M. Greer Center (Greer) in Enid and the Laura Dester Children’s Center (Dester) in Tulsa. Liberty of Oklahoma Corporation (Liberty) will end its services in the coming months at the facilities. Both Oklahoma Human Services and Liberty are committed to a seamless transition with no interruption of services or support for the individuals served, their families or the facilities’ dedicated staff.
“Oklahoma Human Services continues a tireless pursuit to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the individuals we serve through these treatment facilities, as well as offering peace of mind to their loved ones,” said Jeffrey Cartmell, Oklahoma Human Services Director. “It is critical that we get these transitions right, and the agency will share more information about the transition plans for both facilities as it becomes available.”
The Greer Center is a treatment facility for adults who are dually diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and co-occurring mental illness and/or severe behavioral challenges. It is the only facility of its kind in the nation. The Dester Center is also a treatment facility, but serves youth who have the same complex needs. Both centers are managed by Liberty.
“After careful consideration, Liberty informed Oklahoma Human Services that continuation of its services at these facilities is no longer feasible due to external challenges,” said Sue Nayda, Liberty Healthcare Corporation Chief Operating Officer. “Liberty is fully committed to ensuring a seamless transition that prioritizes the wellbeing of residents and staff at both centers. The company will work closely with the agency to achieve a smooth process and ensure a positive outcome for all involved.”
More information will be forthcoming about transition plans, including the new manager(s) of Greer and Dester. Again, the agency commits to a seamless transition at both facilities with a dedicated focus on the safety and wellbeing of residents and continued communication with their loved ones.
Continued
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Texas is slashing $607 million in Medicaid funding from program for students with disabilities
By Jaden Edison, The Texas Tribune, October 28, 2024
Texas is clawing back more than $607 million per year in federal funding for special education services, a move local school district officials say will likely worsen already strained budgets for students with disabilities.
The School Health and Related Services (SHARS) program provides hundreds of school districts critical funding for special education services, reimbursing them for counseling, nursing, therapy and transportation services provided to Medicaid-eligible children.
More than 775,000 students receive special education services in Texas, according to the Texas Education Agency. It is not as clear how many of them are eligible for Medicaid, though school district officials say many of the kids who directly benefit from SHARS come from low-income families.
But in the last year, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which manages the program at the state level, began imposing strict limitations on the types of services for which school districts are able to request federal reimbursement. The changes have accumulated into a $607 million slashing to the money school districts typically expect to receive under SHARS per year, according to health agency estimates.
Bewildered by the sudden changes, school district officials and special education advocates say little has been communicated about why these drastic changes are happening.
“We're seeing an increased number of students that need more and more individualized care,” said Katie Abbott, special education director for a coalition of six East Texas school districts. “And yet, what are we doing?”
Continued
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Illinois DHS announces expansion of beds at Choate Mental Health and Development Center
By Mike Mohundro, KSIL TV-News, October 28 2024
The Illinois Department of Humane Services (IDHS) announced on Monday the expansion of beds at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center.
IDHS stated the expansion of beds will be for mental health services in the civil units at the Choate campus in Anna.
The announcement from IDHS says they plan to launch the expansion at Choate on November 1, 2024.
Currently, IDHS states there are beds for 50 patients at the State-Operated Psychiatric Hospital at Choate with up to 25 more beds expected to be added throughout the next several months.
IDHS reports the Choate campus is 229 acres which includes a State-Operated Developmental Center, a State-Operated Psychiatric Hospital, an IDHS local public benefits office and two case processing centers.
As part of the initiative, areas of the campus are expected to undergo some repurposing to meet patient capacity and other needs of the state.
The expansion is expected to help those across Illinois as it will accept former forensic patients who are ready to move to a less restrictive environment in working to return back into the community, IDHS stated.
IDHS also states this shift in expansion will help increase the capacity to provide forensic placement and in-patient restoration services more quickly. It's also reported residents at the Choate Developmental Center will continue to have opportunities to transition into community-based settings, private Intermediate Care Facilities or other centers across the state where they will receive comprehensive and personalized care.
Read the full article here
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Massachusetts - Federal IG report finds safety deficiencies at the Wrentham and Hogan Centers, but misses the big issue – What about the group homes?
By Davud Jassekm The COFAR Blog, October 31, 2024
A federal investigative agency has reported deficiencies in safety and emergency preparedness in Massachusetts’ two developmental centers for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The October 2024 report by the Inspector General with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services alleged 44 deficiencies related to life safety and emergency preparedness at the Wrentham Developmental Center and the Hogan Regional Center.
The IG’s report, however, raises a number of questions, in our view. First, will the IG similarly examine safety policies in the much larger, corporate-run group home network in Massachusetts?
The number of privatized, yet state-funded group homes has grown exponentially as developmental centers, also known as Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs), have been closed over the past decade.
Secondly, why did the IG not address the quality of care in the ICFs and the group homes? It is in the group home system today that the most serious problems of abuse and neglect are endemic.
Thirdly, why not investigate the lack of access to ICFs for people needing residential care, and the misguided efforts to close them?
Finally, how serious were the safety deficiencies at Wrentham and Hogan that the IG’s report identified? The report did not appear to provide sufficient detail to answer that question.
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DHS caregivers reach temporary agreement in labor dispute
By Ben Botkin, Oregon Capitol Chronicle, October 25, 2024
Hundreds of Oregon Department of Human Services caregivers who work in state-run group homes for people with disabilities are looking for relief from heavy workloads and mandatory extra shifts that can give them 16-hour workdays.
Earlier this month, the union for caregivers in the agency’s Stabilization and Crisis Unit group homes reached a temporary 90-day agreement with the Oregon Department of Human Services that guarantees staffers will receive extra incentive pay when they work extra shifts. The extra pay, already offered in a previous agreement and based on $3.4 million appropriated by lawmakers, did not flow to workers as they expected.
To reach that point, the union had prodded the agency’s management for months. The union also informed DHS Director Fariborz Pakseresht their membership planned to take a vote of no-confidence in his leadership of their unit, which has nearly 600 workers who serve 83 clients in 20 group homes. The clients, who usually have no place else to live, have developmental or intellectual disabilities, sometimes combined with mental health conditions.
For now, the union has paused the vote planned for October as both sides look toward a solution to extend beyond the temporary agreement, which ends on Jan. 5, 2025. And union leaders say a future vote is not off the table if workers continue to be stretched thin, often in environments that are unsafe or stressful. Though the vote is largely symbolic, the plans to hold one underscore the frustrations of workers and their low morale as they care for Oregon’s most vulnerable people.
“There’s nothing more for us to give,” said Christina Sydenstricker-Brown, a caregiver and president of AFSCME Local 124, which represents the workers. “And we’re exhausted. Our bodies are tired, and our individuals are the ones that are suffering from this, our children at home and our spouses and our loved ones. In a nutshell, it’s just like you feel stuck; you feel trapped.”
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Autism Diagnoses Surge Among Kids, Adults
By Michelle Diament, Disability Scoop, October 31, 2024
The number of American children and adults diagnosed with autism increased 175% in roughly a decade, according to new research that shows an uptick among certain groups appears to be driving the trend.
In a review of electronic health records and insurance claims data for about 12 million people between 2011 and 2022, researchers found the odds of an autism diagnosis “increased substantially.”
The study published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open indicates that autism prevalence jumped from 2.3 per 1,000 to 6.3 per 1,000 during the period studied.
The biggest change was seen in adults ages 26 to 34, a group that saw a 450% increase in autism diagnoses, the study found. There was also significant growth in diagnoses of female versus male children.
The highest prevalence of autism was seen among children ages 5 to 8, the study found. Kids from racial and ethnic minority groups saw bigger increases than white children, though that trend did not hold in adults.
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Schools Nationwide Scramble To Fill Special Ed Vacancies
By Michelle Diament, Disability Scoop, October 29, 2024
Schools struggled to fill teaching positions — especially those focused on serving students with disabilities — even as classes got underway this fall, data shows.
A report out this month from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics finds that special education positions remain some of the hardest to staff.
Among elementary and middle schools, 74% reported difficulty finding fully certified teachers to fill special education teaching vacancies. The same was true of 66% of high schools.
The findings are based on data collected between Aug. 13 and Aug. 27 from 1,392 public K–12 schools representing every state and Washington, D.C.
The schools surveyed indicated that they had six teaching vacancies on average, 79% of which were filled before classes began for the year. Most schools said their biggest hiring challenges included a lack of qualified applicants and not enough candidates overall.
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Please share this offer with your loved one's
Direct Support Professionals!
VOR ❤️s OUR
DIRECT SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS!
Our loved ones' caregivers are essential to their health, safety, and happiness.
In appreciation of their good work and kind hearts, VOR offers free digital memberships to any DSP who would like to receive our newsletter.
We encourage our members to speak with their loved ones' caregivers to extend this offer of our gratitude.
If you are a Direct Support Professional interested in receiving our newsletter and e-content, please write us at
info@vor.net
with your name, email address, and the name of the facility at which you work. Please include the name of the VOR member who told you of this offer.
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[Please click on blue link to view information about the bill]
VOR SUPPORTS:
S.4120 / H.R.,7994 - The Long-term Care Workforce Support Act - This bill would increase FMAP and offer grants to all DSPs and caregivers for the elderly and for people with I/DD and autism. VOR worked with members of the Senate Aging and Diability Policy Committee and other peer organizations to improve this bill from its original form. It is not perfect, and it contains one major flaw to which we continue to object (the permanent reauthorization of the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration Program) but we will continue to work to improve this bill and remove its flaws.
S.1332 / H.R.2941 - Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act
Sen Maggie Hassan (D-NH) / Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) This bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to establish a separate category within the Standard Occupational Classification system for direct support professionals (i.e., individuals who provide services to promote independence in individuals with an intellectual or developmental disability) for data reporting purposes.
H.R.7267 - Disability Community Act of 2023 To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to provide a temporary higher Federal medical assistance percentage for Federal expenditures under the Medicaid program that are associated with the cost of compliance with certain Federal regulations with respect to services furnished in certain intermediate care facilities or home and community-based services furnished to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
H.R.485- Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-5) - This bill prohibits all federal health care programs, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and federally funded state health care programs (e.g., Medicaid) from using prices that are based on quality-adjusted life years (i.e., measures that discount the value of a life based on disability) to determine relevant thresholds for coverage, reimbursements, or incentive programs.
S.7302 - The Credit for Caregiving Act of 2024 Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) This bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a nonrefundable credit for working family caregivers. In the case of an eligible caregiver, there shall be allowed as a credit against the tax imposed by this chapter for the taxable year an amount equal to 30 percent of the qualified expenses paid by the taxpayer during the taxable year to the extent that such expenses exceed $2,000. The tax credit is not to exceed $5,000 per year.
H.R. 553 - Workplace Choice and Flexibility for Individuals with Disabilities Act
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI-6) - This bill would amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to clarify the definition of competitive integrated employment.
H.R.1296 - Restoration of Employment Choice for Adults with Disabilities Act Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI-6) - To amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure workplace choice and opportunity for young adults with disabilities.
H.R.670 - Think Differently Database Act
Rep. Marcus Molinaro (R-NY-19) - This bill would amend title IV of the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a clearinghouse on intellectual disabilities, and for other purposes. Such clearinghouse shall include information on individual community-based services and long-term support services available to individuals eligible for medical assistance under a State plan under the Medicaid program under title XIX of the Social Security Act.
S.1298 - Supporting Our Direct Care Workforce and Family Caregivers Act
Sen. Time Kaine (D-VA) A bill to award grants for the creation, recruitment, training and education, retention, and advancement of the direct care workforce and to award grants to support family caregivers.
H.R.2965 / S.1333 - Autism Family Caregivers Act of 2023
Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) / Sen. Robert Menendez (D_NJ) To award grants for providing evidence-based caregiver skills training to family caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental disabilities
H.R.3380 - HEADs UP Act of 2023
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) This bill authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award grants to support health centers that provide services for individuals with developmental disabilities, including dental care. Grant recipients must provide specialized treatment to individuals with developmental disabilities as necessary.
VOR OPPOSES:
H.R.8109 - To Make Permanent the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration Program. MFP has been used to erode the ICF system. We call for congressional hearings, studies by the GAO, and audits by the Congressional Budget Office before any action should be taken to reauthorize this program.
S.533 / H.R.1263 Transformation to Competitive Employment Act
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) / Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA 3) - This bill would support employers who wish to transform their facilities to provide only competitive integrated employment while forcing the elimination of programs that offer employment opportunities under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This bill would be unlikely to create a significant increase in employment for people with I/DD and autism, but would deprive over 120,000 individuals of the opportunity to work, develop skills, and be part of their community.
S. 1148 - The Guardianship Bill of Rights
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) - A bill to establish rights for people being considered for and in protective arrangements, including guardianships and conservatorships, or other arrangements, to provide decision supports. This bill would give ACL power to create a Guardianship Council and appropriate more money to P&As so they may encourage people to leave guardianships and move to Supported Decision Making. Dangerous over-reach in response to media hype on Britney Spears, et al.
S.1193 / H.R.2708 - The Latonya Reeves Freedom Act of 2023
Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) / Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) Allegedly written and strongly supported by ADAPt and other self-advocacy groups, this is a watered-down version of the Disability Integration Act. It is strongly biased against care in larger congregate facilities, and falls just short of seeking the elimination of ICFs.
VOR HAS SIGNIFICANT CONCERNS WITH:
S.100 / H.R.547- Better Care Better Jobs Act
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) Rep. Debbie Dingell (D MI) This bill establishes programs and provides funds for state Medicaid programs to improve home- and community-based services (HCBS), such as home health care, personal care, case management, and rehabilitative services.
The bill also makes permanent (1) the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration Program (a grant program to help states increase the use of HCBS for long-term care and decrease the use of institutional care), and (2) certain provisions regarding Medicaid eligibility that protect against spousal impoverishment for recipients of HCBS.
S.762 / H.R.1493 - The HCBS Access Act
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) Rep. Debbie Dingell (D MI) While this bill purports to eliminate waiting lists and provide more Home and Community-Based Services for people with I/DD and autism, it favors the aspirations of those individuals who are most independent and neglects the very real needs of those most dependent on Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports. It would not distribute funds appropriate to the varying needs of individuals, but to providers of HCBS programs. It fails to recognize the severity of the DSP and Nursing Crises, and paints an unrealistic picture of a simplistic solution. This is a purely political bill that would ultimately fail to make the extensive changes that the DD/A system needs.
S.3118 - The HCBS Relief Act of 2023
Sen. Boby Casey (D-PA) A bill to provide for an emergency increase in Federal funding to State Medicaid programs for expenditures on home and community-based service. This bill, like others above, only provides funding for people receiving Long-Term Services and Supports through HCBS, denying any support for people in nursing homes or ICFs.
VOR supports increasing funding for people with I/DD, but we have concerns that the above bills, in their current form, would discriminate against people with the most severe I/DD and autism and jeopardize the higher-care facilities that are most appropriate to their needs.
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