Washington, DC Update 6/29/23

Both chambers of Congress are on break for the July 4^th holiday. They will return July 10^th.

On the horizon when they return… the budget. Unfortunately, we all know that often means proposed cuts to Medicaid and other essential services for kids with disabilities and their families. Consider reading this blog by Georgetown Center for Children and Families that reviews a recent Republican Study Committee plan.

Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act (H.R. 4189/S. 2016)

The CONNECT for Health Act was first drafted and introduced in 2016 and since then, several provisions of the bill have been enacted into law or adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). On June 15, a bi-partisan group of senators --Brian Schatz (D-Hi.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Representatives Thompson (D-CA), Matsui (D-CA), Schweikert (R-AZ), and Johnson (R-OH) -- led the re-introduction of the CONNECT for Health Act.

Specifically, the legislation would build upon previous efforts to:

• Permanently remove all geographic restrictions on telehealth services and expand originating sites to include the home and other sites;
• Permanently allow health centers and rural health clinics to provide telehealth services;
• Allow more eligible health care professionals to utilize telehealth services;
• Remove unnecessary in-person visit requirements for telemental health services;
• Allow for the waiver of telehealth restrictions during public health emergencies; and
• Require more published data to learn more about how telehealth is being used, impacts on quality of care, and how it can be improved to support patients and health care providers.



Read the full press release, including links to the bill, here.

ICYMI

CMS has called all hands on deck to get the word out about that the Unwinding of Medicaid continuous coverage has begun! They issued a Partner Call to Action and updated Outreach and Educational Resources that partners can use in a number of languages to reach children and families. They have also updated their webpage Medicaid.gov/Unwinding.



SHVS States of Unwinding updates on a number of state-specific efforts around data and outreach.

HHS: Honor and enforcement- Olmstead, Curtis and Heumann

On June 22, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) celebrated the 24^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Olmstead v. L.C., with a new national initiative to help drive compliance with the integration mandate and protect the rights of people with disabilities. Olmstead recognized that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act protect the right of people with disabilities to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. OCR enforces these statutes as well as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, to ensure that the promise of Olmstead is realized for persons with disabilities nationwide. 

HHS also honored the memory of Lois Curtis, a named plaintiff in the Olmstead case who passed away in November 2022, and Judy Heumann, one of the founders of the independent living movement who was instrumental to the passage of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, who passed away in March of this year. 

OCR is building upon their legacies by reinvigorating its enforcement efforts to address OCR complaints and barriers to community living. These actions also build upon OCR’s proposed regulation under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which, if finalized as proposed, will strengthen provisions to ensure health programs and activities comply with Olmstead, and planned proposed regulations this year under Section 504 that will update and clarify disability rights obligations, including those under Olmstead. 

For more information about community living and the Olmstead decision, please visit OCR’s website.

ICYMI: The Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Senate HELP Committee hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday, June 20, about the importance of Olmstead v. L.C. ACL’s Acting Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging Alison Barkoff participated as a panelist. The event starts at the 20-minute mark in the video.

HHS OMH: Resource Guides

HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) released a series of resource guides to provide guidance on best practices to advance cultural competency, language access, and sensitivity toward Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NH/PI) communities in the context of the federal COVID-19 response.

In line with the Presidential Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, this series includes:  

• The Language Access Resource Guide: a guide on best practices, strategies, and actions to meet the specific language needs and preferences of AA and NH/PI communities in COVID-19 response activities.  
• The Community Engagement Resource Guide: a guide on best practices, strategies, and actions to develop and sustain partnerships with AA and NH/PI community members, community-based organizations, and coalitions to ensure a diversity of voices and perspectives inform and contribute to the creation and implementation of COVID-19 response activities.  
• The Data Disaggregation Resource Guide: a guide on best practices, strategies, and actions to improve the collection, use, and reporting of disaggregated data on AA and NH/PI populations related to COVID-19.  

The guides were developed by HHS OMH based on input and information gathered through a request for information, a literature review and environmental scan, engagement of community subject matter experts, and a listening session with leaders from AA and NH/PI organizations.

Department of Commerce: Broadband Funding

The Department of Commerce announced funding for each state, territory and the District of Columbia for high-speed internet infrastructure deployment through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program—a $42.45 billion grant program created in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered by the Department of Commerce. This announcement—the largest internet funding announcement in history—kicks off the three-week Administration-wide Investing in America tour, where President Biden, Vice President Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Cabinet members, and Senior Administration Officials will fan out across the country to highlight investments, jobs, and projects made possible by President Biden’s economic agenda.

Resources: 

• Fact sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet | The White House
• Fact sheet: Biden-Harris Administration and Civic Nation Bring Together Over 300 National and Community Organizations to Help Students and Families Cut Costs and Access Affordable High-Speed Internet | The White House

SHVS: State Health Equity Measure Set: Measures to Assess and Improve Equity

NOTE: Although crafted for state agencies, this measure set might be useful to F2Fs developing their diversity plan that is required in the grant.

The recently published State Health Equity Measure Set introduces a curated set of existing health equity measures in areas where consumers experience disparate outcomes. States can use the Measure Set to assess how their performance on the measures varies by race and ethnicity and compare it to the performance of other states. The companion issue brief describes key steps and considerations for states when operationalizing the State Health Equity Measure Set.

Sign-On Opportunity: Children's Health Community Response to CMS Medicaid Access Rules

CMS unveiled two notices of proposed rulemaking that aim to ensure Medicaid enrollees have access to timely health care and services, one specific to Medicaid Fee-For-Service (Access Rule) and one specific to Medicaid Managed Care (Managed Care Rule). This letter, led by AAP and several other child-health organizations, highlights general support for key policy changes that are included in one or both proposed rules and provides recommendations for additional actions to strengthen the proposed rules for children in the following areas:

• Network Adequacy
• Payment Transparency
• Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
• Medicaid Advisory Committees
• Strengthening EPSDT

Though CMS has proposed separate rules to define and oversee enrollee access to care in Medicaid FFS and Medicaid Managed Care delivery systems, we strongly urge CMS to adopt a unified approach to mitigate and further prevent disparities in access to care for children in these different delivery systems. As such, this letter will be submitted in response to both proposed rules.

This letter is open to both national and state organizations. The deadline to sign on is Monday, July 3rd at 12 PM Eastern.

Please note that given the quick turnaround, AAP is not able to take edits. If you have any questions, please reach out to Nick Wallace at AAP (nwallace@aap.org).

• Letter
• Access Rule
• Managed Care Rule
• Survey link to sign-on