1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
Medicaid Coverage in Jeopardy for People with Disabilities: Congress Acts This Week!
2) National News
Mother of Child with a Disability Wins $7 Million Settlement; Claims Tests May Have Prompted Abortion
“Wretches & Jabberers” to Play in 100 Cities Nationwide on May 12, for One Day Only
3) State News
Liberty Resources to Cut Nearly Half of Staff
Illinois Inmates with Hearing Impairments Sue for More Services
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
Your Help Needed: NCIL Seeks Violence Response Tools
Submit Your Work to the 2011 NYLN Disability Culture Zine Deadline: June 8!
Medicaid Coverage in Jeopardy for People with Disabilities: Congress Acts This Week!
Medicaid is an essential safety net for 8.8 million people with disabilities, and Congress is taking action this week which could substantially harm the system and reduce coverage for many individuals. Medicaid provides services that even Medicare and other existing programs do not, including personal attendant services and home health aides. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains an important provision that prevents states from reducing their Medicaid eligibility levels or modifying rules to make it more difficult for people to enroll in Medicaid. This provision is referred to as the “maintenance of effort,” or MOE requirement. The MOE requirement serves as a bridge to 2014 when the ACA is fully implemented, guaranteeing that vital health coverage remains in place until then.
Currently there are a number of states that are looking into ways to cut Medicaid. In January of this year, 28 governors sent a letter to the President and congressional leaders requesting the elimination of the MOE requirement. Doing away with the MOE requirement would allow states to cut Medicaid eligibility, meaning that many of the 14.7 million seniors and people with disabilities will be at risk of losing health coverage. This is a very big problem, and NCIL members should be concerned about the consequences of any action.
The House of Representatives is considering this issue directly, and it is important that the disability community pays close attention to these proceedings. The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), is scheduling a markup for H.R. 1683, the State Flexibility Act of 2011, on Wednesday, May 11 and Thursday, May 12, 2011, in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The markup will convene on Wednesday immediately after the completion of the full committee’s markup, and will conduct opening statements only. It will reconvene on Thursday at 10:00 a.m.
NCIL is encouraging our members to attend or follow the proceedings online. We are also urging you to contact your members of Congress to let them know there will be serious consequences for any action reducing Medicaid coverage for people with disabilities during these tough economic times.
The bill text, background memo, opening statements, amendments, and a live webcast will be available on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s website. If you have questions please contact NCIL Policy Analyst Austin Walker at (202) 207-0334 (toll-free: 1 (877) 525-3400), ext. 1008. Austin can also be reached by e-mail at austin@ncil.org.
Mother of Child with a Disability Wins $7 Million Settlement; Claims Tests May Have Prompted Abortion
Source: Boston.com, by Travis Andersen
Editor’s Note: This article has not been edited to reflect people first language.
A superior court judge approved a $7 million settlement yesterday in a lawsuit brought by a Shrewsbury woman against four medical professionals at a Worcester hospital, whom she accused of failing to offer or explain tests that could have prompted her to have an abortion rather than carry her now-disabled child to term, her lawyer said yesterday.
An obstetrician at UMass Memorial Medical Center, a nurse practitioner, a geneticist, and a genetic counselor did not tell Ran Zhuang, who is in her early 40s now, during her prenatal treatment at the hospital in 2007 that tests were available to determine if her unborn child had a genetic disorder, according to her lawyer, Frederic Halstrom of Boston.
In a press release announcing the settlement, Halstrom wrote that the testing “would have definitively revealed [Zhuang’s daughter’s] severe genetic disorder in-utero and would have [caused] Ms. Zhuang to elect termination.’’
Rob Brogna — a spokesman for the hospital, which was not named as a defendant in the suit — said in a statement that he could not comment on the specifics of the settlement because of a confidentiality agreement.
“However, UMass Memorial tries to learn from all cases where patients raise concerns regarding care,’’ Brogna said. “In regards to this case, improvements were made regarding documentation policies and communication. Events of this nature impact patients, their families, and the providers of care, and we strive to learn from them.’’ He said all four defendants still work at the hospital.
Halstrom wrote in the release that the defendants — identified as Dr. Mary Herlihy, chief of general obstetrics and gynecology; nurse practitioner Patricia Yranski; Dr. Beverly Hay, a geneticist; and genetic counselor Lisa Blazejewski — did not inform Zhuang about the tests, despite her stated desire for a normal fetus. Read More.
“Wretches & Jabberers” to Play in 100 Cities Nationwide on May 12, for One Day Only
“100 CITIES. ONE NIGHT FOR AUTISM.”, a unique, nationwide theatrical screening event celebrating the critically acclaimed feature documentary, Wretches and Jabberers . Directed by Academy Award®-winner Gerardine Wurzburg, the film follows two men with autism, Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette, who embark on a global quest to change attitudes about disability, intelligence and communication.
The event will take place on Thursday, May 12th in 100 theaters in nearly every major U.S. city, from New York to Honolulu, and is sponsored by the John P. Hussman Foundation in partnership with the Autism Society. To purchase advance tickets or for more information visit www.wretchesandjabberers.org.
The event was conceptualized in response to a surge in public demand for more showings of Wretches and Jabberers after the documentary’s New York theatrical opening in Times Square on April 1st, its West Coast run in Los Angeles on April 15th and the launch of a 40-city tour in partnership with the Autism Society during April, which is Autism Awareness Month.
“The public response to Wretches and Jabberers is overwhelming. We’ve gotten pleas from all around the world to broaden the distribution of this wonderful film,” said Kirt Eftekhar, Co-Founder of Area23a. “With ’100 CITIES. ONE NIGHT FOR AUTISM.’ we have the ability to deliver Wretches and Jabberers and educate thousands of people.” Read More.
Liberty Resources to Cut Nearly Half of Staff
Source: Philly.com, by Robert Moran, Inquirer Staff Writer
A Philadelphia nonprofit serving 3,600 people with disabilities announced Thursday that it was laying off 132 employees because of funding cuts from the state. Liberty Resources Inc., which serves the Philadelphia region and Allentown, already had stopped accepting new clients because of a $13 million shortfall in its $89 million budget, said Thomas Earle, chief executive.
Most of the employees who lost their jobs were coordinators of services provided to people living independently outside of group facilities, Earle said. The layoffs represent 43 percent of Liberty's workforce. The reduction in state funding also will affect several thousand home-care workers, Earle said.
The state in January implemented new reimbursement rates that were developed in the final months of the administration of Gov. Ed Rendell for providers such as Liberty Resources. Earle said the rates made it "unsustainable" to add clients. "There has to be a solution or the system of home community-based services is going to collapse," Earle said.
On Wednesday, an attorney representing the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living sent a letter to state officials urging "immediate and permanent modifications" to the new state funding policy.
Earle said that independent-living services save the state millions of dollars that would otherwise be used to pay for costly nursing homes.
Illinois Inmates with Hearing Impairments Sue for More Services
Source: Chicago Tribune, by Cynthia Dizikes
A group of hearing-impaired prisoners are suing the Illinois Department of Corrections, claiming the agency has discriminated against them by refusing to provide interpreters, technological assistance and other alternate forms of communication.
The prisoners cannot hear fire alarms and other safety alerts and orders, forcing them to depend on other inmates, according to the federal class action lawsuit filed Wednesday in Chicago.
In some cases, prisoners say they have missed meals and visitors because they could not hear announcements. In other instances, they say they have been unable to communicate vital health information to prison staff and have been forced to rely on writing notes to prison counselors, though many are only fluent in sign language and have a hard time understanding written English.
The lack of services has jeopardized inmate safety and unfairly isolated prisoners who have difficulty hearing, said Barry Taylor, a legal advocacy director for Equip for Equality, one of the attorney groups representing the plaintiffs. “The law is really clear that prisoners who are deaf and hard of hearing have civil rights and those rights are consistently being denied by the Illinois Department of Corrections,” Taylor said.
George Childress, who is incarcerated at Dixon Correctional Center for second-degree murder and is deaf in both ears, has been unable to control his diabetes because he cannot effectively communicate with prison staff and even slipped into a coma after his blood sugar plummeted, according to the suit. Read More.
Your Help Needed: NCIL Seeks Violence Response Tools
The NCIL Task Force Against Violence and Abuse is seeking products produced by CILs to respond to violence and abuse in the lives of people with disabilities. Product samples will be shared at the 2011 NCIL Conference during the presentation, “What you don’t know about Violence and Abuse - What You Can Do About It!”
Is your CIL addressing abuse and violence? If so, what tools are you using? Other CILs want to know. Please:
- email policy examples and products (or summary of it) to Roberta Sick, sickrobertae@uams.edu, or
- send hardcopy products to Jan Derry, Executive Director of the Northern West Virginia CIL: 601-3 East Brockway Avenue, Suites A & B, Morgantown, WV 26501 (jderry@nwvcil.org).
Thank you!
Submit Your Work to the 2011 NYLN Disability Culture Zine Deadline: June 8!
Are you a writer or an artist? Do you want to express your feelings about disability culture, pride, identity, ableism, and more? Do you want to have your work seen by hundreds of people?
If you answered YES to the above questions, consider making a submission to the FIRST EVER NYLN Zine Publication. The NYLN disability culture zine is a 100% youth-made printable online publication.
We welcome any length piece of writing (poems! interviews! essays! blog posts!) or type of printable artwork (paintings! illustrations! digital art!) by any people with disabilities between the ages of 14 - 28 years old.
Writing must be at 8th grade level or as close to it as possible. To find out more about how to make your writing accessible, please contact us.
Deadline to submit is: Wednesday, June 8, 2011 so send in your contribution today!
To submit your work, get ideas, or have questions answered, contact the NYLN Zine Co-Chairs: Sara Moussavian (Written Work), saramoussavian2011@gmail.com or Emily Holmes (Media/Art Work) Cinderella_em1@juno.com.
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May 11, 2011