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Heim / Albúm / Nashville, fall 1993 Opryland 45
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INCITEMENT INCITEMENT INCITEMENT Vol 9. No. 3 November. 1993 A Publication of Atlantis/ADAPT PHOTO by Tom Olin: In front of a brick wall with a large sign reading Opryland Hotel, a group of people in wheelchairs and standing chant passionately. From left to right: Terrance Turner, above him Tommy ____, and behind him Jerry Eubanks (closest to the sign), to their right Julie Nolan speaks with someone, Verlon McKay is at the center with a People Not Profits sign on the front of his scooter, to his right, standing is Suzy Polkinghorn, and in front of her are two women in wheelchairs. Caption reads: ADAPT did not let AHCA hide behind Opryland's picket fences. [Headline] ADAPT GOES COUNTRY What do Opryland, Apocalypse Now, and Mash have in common? Anyone who took part in ADAPT’ s latest action can answer in a second helicopters. Despite this new high-tech, approach to security, ADAPT’s Nashville action was the most successful yet. [Subheading] SOUTHERN GENTILITY GONE SOUR Opryland Hotel sits right on the edge of McGavock Pike, a four lane highway. Music Valley Drive leads to its front door. The huge hotel complex is surrounded with white painted fences and rolling green pastures. For most Americans it is the picture of gentile country charm, understated wealth and wholesome good living. But for ADAPT in September 1993, Opryland was the den of the American Health Care Association, AHCA, the professional lobby association of the nursing home profiteers. Marching down Music Valley Dr. we crossed the pike and headed to the Opryland Hotel. Police had been prepping for months, with "sensitivity" trainings and media releases on what s PR problem this was for them. Hotel security had created a special protest area off in their multi-acre parking lot. ADAPT had other plans With four days to get our message across, we had no time to stand on ceremony. PHOTO by Tom Olin: People in suits and casual work outfits walk past a man in a wheelchair (Terrance Turner) who is attempting to pass out flyers. The suits are ignoring Terrance. Behind him you can see more ADAPT folks in the distance. Caption reads: NO TAKERS - AHCA tries to ignore Terrance Turner. As we approached, security came forward with the unique message: if you come onto this property you will be arrested. Instead of charging, ADAPT's 300 activists began to cross the streets in an orderly, if somewhat crowded line, going around and around as we waited for AHCA. Police were stymied .They had blocked off the highway, but as we circled in the cross walks, traffic was backing up somewhere just out of sight. We simply continued to cross the streets, chanting as we marched. Overhead a helicopter circled and hung in the air, apparently getting a new angle on our protest. Earlier that day we had held our organizing meetings, orienting the new folks, discussing strategies, and hammering out a plan for the afternoon and the week ahead. Over 300 activists had come from across the nation to join in the demand to stop the warehousing, stop corporate profiteering off of people’s lives, and free our people with a national attendant services program. They came with a renewed commitment and energy for the fight. [Subheading] AHCA SETS A TRAP FOR THEMSELVES The police soon had Al-ICA outside negotiating with us. Our leadership team did a great job demanding a meeting with the AHCA leadership, a presentation to their membership on our side of the issue, and a vote by AHCA on our proposal for a national attendant services plan. Within two hours AHCA agreed to have their Executive Committee meet on Tuesday at 3:00 with 50 representatives from ADAPT. AHCA was to locate a room and let us know where. ADAPT left victorious. AHCA thought they had closed us down for two days, but ADAPT had other plans. [Subheading] HUMAN RIGHTS BEFORE STATE'S RIGHTS Tennessee has virtually no attendant services program. ADAPT members from that state have literally had to move to other states to get services. Others are trapped in nursing homes, while still others live in fear of the day their precarious support systems break down. In real life terms, Tennessee has chosen to ignore the attendant services needs of its citizens with disabilities, whether young or old. ADAPT felt it was time for that kind of unacceptable policy to be brought to light. Beyond the problems this irresponsible policy decision causes for our sisters and brothers in Tennessee, ADAPT saw national implications. Every proposal for reform of the long term care system so far has included a strong states’ rights approach in service delivery. So a state like Tennessee which chooses to do nothing except nursing homes and a few other institutional programs might well be A.O.K. with these plans. NOT OK with ADAPT! So Monday morning ADAPT members poured out into the parking lot of our Days lnn and lined up to march on the Capitol. Another helicopter hung in the air. Behind our freedom flag we marched over the Cumberland River and into Nashville. The lunch rush stopped to watch as our seven block long march proceeded through downtown, turned the corner and headed for the Capitol BOXED TEXT "I miss my family, but I don ‘t miss worrying about losing my freedom. I'd rather die than go to a nursing home. " — LaTonya Reeves, ADAPT organizer who had to move to Denver from her home in Memphis to get attendant services. The only accessible entrance led down a long basement corridor to two tiny elevators. The first folks up rushed to the Governor’s office door but were blocked by security. Our numbers quickly clogged the doorway, then the hall and finally the entire floor. They would not let us in the office, so we blocked staff and security’s passage too. The Capitol became a nursing home; no one came or went without permission. Our demand was simple: a meeting with the Governor. Since he was in Germany, we wanted staff to call him to bring his attention to a problem at home. Our chants and knocks on doors echoed up and down the Capitol’s marble halls as we continued to press our demand Staff pretended they were not able to call Germany but soon this sham became too ridiculous even for them; they tried to call and found he was out wining and dining. ADAPT decided if the Governor was dining on fancy German cuisine we should at least get pizza. So our order for pizza for 300 at the Capitol was called in and eventually believed and delivered. The afternoon wore on. Staff climbed in and out of the first floor office windows to come and go. We thought to up-the-ante by blocking intersections in the streets around the building, but found that the police had already done that for us. Finally the Governor agreed to meet when he returned. We held a press conference at 5:00pm announcing our meeting and our belief that human rights are more important than states rights. Reversing our path we marched home through a chorus of honks from the supporters in the homeward bound traffic. Our message was clearly getting out to the public and they were learning of a problem that has been hidden too long. WE WERE THERE, THE PRESS WAS THERE, BUT WHERE WAS AHCA? Day three was the show down with AHCA. They started the day hemming and hawing about the meeting, claiming they could not find a room, their people were busy in another meeting, and on and on. ADAPT stood by our original agreement, we were not changing plans. We arrived at the agreed upon location (the Ramada across from Opryland) at the appointed time, only to find AHCA had made no arrangements for a room. (Later Opryland people told us they had offered AHCA a 250 person room and AHCA had turned them down). AHCA had never spoken to the Ramada. They had no intention of meeting. Instead they sent out one of their PR mouthpieces, Claudia Askew, to spout lies and excuses to the media. Amazed that AHCA would so blatantly reveal themselves, ADAPT gave them over an hour to come through, but AHCA made no attempt. PHOTO by Tom Olin: Three uniformed police officers stand in a doorway filling the space. One is talking on a telephone. In front of them at least three folks in wheelchairs face off with them. A short person (Spitfire) in a white sweatshirt with NEVER SURRENDER printed on the back is at the front of the crowd by the door. Caption reads: Callin' Governor McWheter in Germany, Capitol Security blocked ADAPT. BOXED TEXT: Incitement is available on tape. If you or someone you know needs the newsletter on cassette tape: call Stephanie at 512/ 442-0252 or write: Incitement 1339 Lamar SQ DR #B Austin, TX 78704 As Mike Auberger put it "if there’s no meeting here, we're going to make a meeting." Forming into a line, ADAPT began to march up Music Valley Dr. to the AHCA Hotel. As the front line people reached the fence they split off to form two lines, one on each side of the entrance. Suddenly a group rushed up the middle, heading for the front doors of the hotel, bursting through their flimsy barriers. Anita Cameron was pinned face down, and Quentin "Q" Williams was dumped on his head. Bob Kafka, Cassie James, Gil Casarez and few others were pinned in their chairs, but these few opened a way for over a hundred others to rush in. [Subheading] THE RUSH "It felt like we were flying" one wheelchair warrior smiled, "and we kept coming and coming." The first few up to the hotel were able to wriggle through the guards and get inside. A little later another group found a side door and slipped in, so about 15 people in all got inside and into an AHCA workshop (ironically titled "Under Siege") which was all about how to avoid litigation under patients‘ rights laws. ADAPT chanted and yelled "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" and "El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido" until the meeting abruptly stopped. Meanwhile outside over a hundred people had made it to the front doors, which security were struggling to keep shut. Overhead the helicopter loomed, as everyone wondered what its purpose was. Hotel security had apparently underestimated ADAPT; one muttered "that was the damnedest thing" as his mind replayed the rush on the hotel. Finally the police began arrests, corralling people in the hotel driveway, thereby extending ADAPT’s blockade. [Subheading] OFF TO JAIL AGAIN Loaded into yellow school buses, 97 protesters were eventually driven off to a local privatized jail run by Corrections Corporation of America. This facility certainly took from Sparks, NV the title for most accessible jail visited by ADAPT. Booking took hours, and while we waited a couple of people were served with a restraining order, telling us ADAPT was forbidden to return to the Opryland Hotel. By 5:00 AM everyone was processed, released and back at the Days Inn where we were staying. The police tried to badger hotel staff into releasing all kinds of information about who was staying with ADAPT, but, impressively, the Days Inn staff felt no need to cater to such harassment. [Subheading] AN UNUSUAL OFFER The next morning the lawyer and chief of security for Opryland Hotel arrived at the Days Inn asking to meet with ADAPT. The leadership team listened to their offer to coordinate a media event with Country Music stars to endorse and publicize our issues if we would agree not to protest at the Country Music Awards that night. Hotel personnel were underwhelmed with AI-ICA’s double cross of ADAPT the day before. (They had offered AHCA a 250 person room for Tuesday’s meeting, and had been turned down.) After some negotiations the leadership team took the idea to the group at large and it was agreed we would do the event at 5:00 that evening. The event was a typical bizarre happening which ADAPT finds itself in from time to time. Country music stars Porter Wagoner, William Lee Golden (of Oak Ridge Boys fame), and Bill Anderson arrived at the appointed time. Live TV coverage and lots of other media swirled around as Bob Liston, Paulette Patterson, Jennifer McPhail and Mark Johnson presented ADAPT’s desire for a national attendant services program and an end to the institutional bias of our current service system. Wagoner, Golden and Anderson listened and spoke in support of freedom and independence for people with disabilities. The event ended with ADAPT vowing to confront AHCA again in Las Vegas at their convention next fall. "Many people were critical of ADAPT or simply wished it would go away. The demonstrations should be understood as what they were: the desperate, brave cry of people who know too well the isolation and everyday misery of many who are needlessly confined to nursing homes. " — Gordon Bonnyman JR, Ietter to the Editor of the Tennessean. PHOTO by Tom Olin: A long line of ADAPT folks, several people across, marches down a wide street. A police car bocks the wide intersection. The ADAPT flag flies overhead and Paulette Patterson rolls beneath it. Caption reads: ADAPT marches under the Freedom Flag in Nashville. BOXED TEXT: INCITEMENT IS LOOKING FOR YOUR NEWS What's up in your neck of the woods? Been to any good disability protests lately? Know any horror stories? Won any victories? Working on an outrageous issue? We want to know about it. Drop us a line. Your pictures, cartoons, flyers and graphics are also welcome, and your newsletters! Send your stuff to: Incitement/ADAPT 1339 Lamar SQ DR #B Austin, TX 78704 Fax: 512/442-0522 [Headline] HAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND MANY ACTIONS [Subheading] WE WILL RIDE! FREE OUR PEOPLE! ADAPT celebrates its first decade of disability rights this year. Ten years of hard driving advocacy have brought us a long way. On Page 3 of this issue you'll find a chronicle of the national actions. We've lost some friends and gained many others along the way. Some of us show the wear a trifle more than others, but our collective power has grown exponentially. People power really works. The next issue of Incitement will have a section featuring the last decade in photos and words; watch for it! Looking ahead there's still much more work to be done, so keep your calendars free for the following: January, 1994 Freedom Day April, 1994 Philadelphia Action October 1994, Las Vegas Action More later, but in the meantime happy holidays!! And when you are making your holiday toasts, remember to toast each other and ADAPT. Remember it wouldn't have happened without you!
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Incitement [Headline] TENNESSEE ADAPT MEETS WITH GOVERNOR As promised, Governor McWherter met with Tennessee ADAPT November 2nd, in an interesting follow up to the National ADAPT action. The Governor came right out and said he did not like protests, and yet there he was. With him was Health Commissioner White who announced the approval of the first statewide nursing home waiver, for 150 people. (This waiver is also known as the ADAPT waiver, thanks to the statewide ADAPT protest which got the project started.) Fourteen ADAPT representatives from across the state arrived ready for bear. Jerry Adams, using his communication board, began the meeting calling for an end to the institutional bias of support services and support for community based services Each representative introduced themselves and another piece of the problem with the current institutional bias in support services. Tennessee ADAPT had three demands of the Governor: - Establish a State Task Force (50% or more consumers) on home and community based services to make recommendations on expanding these services. - Apply for a Medicaid waiver for residents of developmental centers (state schools). - Contact the National Governors’ Association - requesting that ADAPT be given a chance to address the NGA. McWherter assigned his head legislative staff person as liaison between his office and ADAPT. He agreed to set up the Task Force and ADAPT is now negotiating the details. It was agreed the Task Force will look at the developmental center issue. (Legal suits against these centers for violations of residents civil rights, by the Department of Justice and People First, are close to final decisions and look to be trending toward closure of these warehouses.) Last but by no means least, the Governor agreed to take a resolution to the next Governors’ Association meeting related to long term care. PHOTO by Tom Olin: A large crowd marches down the street with the Capitol building behind them. The march is led by three in wheelchairs, Tim Craven, left and chanting forcefully, Paul Ford, center, and Wynelle Carson are all members of Tennessee ADAPT. Caption reads: Tennessee ADAPT led the Victory March home from the Capitol. Title: Michigan ADAPT Chant We’re the ones Who March and roll We've come today To take control SOUND OFF LISTEN — HEAR US We're the ones Who had no voice We’ve come today To make a choice SOUND OFF LISTEN - HEAR US
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[TITLE] The Battle of Opryland!
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Nashville Banner, Monday September 27, 1993 Local & State Tennessee B-2 [This article appears in photos ADAPT 812 and ADAPT 808 but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] Photo by Larry McCormick: A man (Bob Kafka) in an ADAPT T-shirt and a denim hat, with curly grey and dark hair and beard looks to the sky as he speaks. Across from him a bald heavy set policeman looks to the ground and leans on the door of his cruiser. Behind them you can see another policeman and protester. Caption reads: Bob Kafka (lefl), an ADAPT leader, negotiates for more time with police Lt. Don Heath, who was almost out of patience. 2nd Photo by Larry McCormick: A seven lane road almost devoid of cars is seen from the sky. Toward the front of the photo, two lines of people cross the entire width of the road, blocking all the lanes. Caption reads: The ADAPT protest forced police to block off traffic on McGavock Pike. [Title] Protest strands tourists; Disabled rights activists demand more funding By Rob Moritz, Banner Staff Writer When a group of disabled activists picketed the entrance to the Opryland Hotel, innocent bystanders — tourists — felt the pinch. “We just wanted to do some shopping and got stuck in the traffic," said Greg Day of Indiana, standing with his wife and son in a parking lot across from the hotel's entrance. "We had to drive all the way around to get here. It's very inconvenient," he said. “All the roads are blocked, and we can't get out and see what we came to Nashville to see,“ Guy Eskew of Toronto said. About 300 members of Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today blocked the intersection at the entrance to the Opryland Hotel for more than two hours Sunday, demanding to meet with Paul Willging, executive vice president of American Health Care Association. AHCA, which represents nursing homes, is having its annual meeting at the hotel through Wednesday. ADAPT wants to meet with association members to ask for help in efforts to divert 25 percent of all Medicaid dollars for nursing homes to home health care. Opryland officials originally had set up a demonstration area in a parking lot next to the hotel, but there was some confusion by ADAPT leaders about the location so they decided to hold their protest at the main entrance to the popular and stately tourist attraction. Because of the nearly 300 activists in wheelchairs blocking the intersection, Metro police were forced to block off McGavock Pike, detouring hundreds of motorists — many who had intended to visit the hotel and tourist shops across McGavock. Police several times warned the protesters that they were close to being arrested, but the demonstration seemed to run smoothly as ADAPT leaders negotiated with an AHCA official. After more than two hours of protesting, AHCA officials agreed to meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday with 50 ADAPT members to discuss their concerns. ADAPT officials also agreed to hold off on protests until after the Tuesday meeting “This is what we've wanted, a chance to meet with them," ADAPT member Bob Kafka said after agreeing to the Tuesday meeting. Linda Keegan, the AHCA official who negotiated the Tuesday meeting, said her main concern is avoiding interruptions to the annual convention. “We don’t want any disruptions," she said, adding that the association shares many of ADAPT’s health care concerns. There are about 1.7 million people with disabilities in nursing homes, said Mike Auberger, national organizer of the protest and co-founder of ADAPT. “These people are imprisoned in nursing homes,” he said. "They need to be able to have a choice, and presently they don't.” “We’d like 25 percent of the Medicaid nursing home budget, $5.5 billion, rebudgeted to in-home services,” he said. “We need to provide a quality of life and hope,” he said. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience to the people here, but there are no rights in nursing homes,” Auberger said about the traffic tie-up. “We’re fighting for ourselves and for future people with disabilities.”
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THE TENNESSEAN, Friday September 17, 1993 [Headline] Activists vow to disrupt Opryland care convention By BRAD SCHMITT, staff writer "If we're blocked out...we'll respond in kind." --Diane Coleman ADAPT coordinator A group of about 300 disabled home health care activists has warned that its members might disrupt a nursing home operators convention at Opryland starting next weekend, one of the giant hotel's busiest times. Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, called ADAPT, likely will try to block Opryland Hotel doors it members are stopped from going into the American Health Care Association convention inside, said Diane Coleman, ADAPT's Tennessee coordinator. “lf we're blocked out we'll respond in kind," Coleman said yesterday. Opryland officials said the timing couldn‘t be worse as the convention, slated for Sept. 25-28, comes at the beginning of Country Music Association week, an annual industry event culminating in a nationally broadcast awards show. But the conflict appears unavoidable. ADAPT wants to address conventioneers to ask them lo join in ADAPT's efforts to get 25% of all Medicaid dollars for nursing homes diverted to home health care. But Claudia Askew, spokeswoman for American Health Care Association, said, "The convention program is pretty well set." The groups have had run-ins for years, with ADAPT protests leading to arrests at the past two annual conventions of the nursing home operators. In September 1991, ADAPT members blocked doors at the Opryland Hotel during a Tennessee Health Care Association convention. This year, protesters also plan to link their wheelchairs with chains, Coleman said. But this year, Metro police will be waiting inside and outside the hotel. The police intelligence unit will have a suite inside the hotel with surveillance camera monitors, computers, photocopiers, fax machines, phones and radio equipment, Maj. John Manning said. Detectives have developed computer intelligence files, including photographs, about some of the protesters expected to show up, information that can quickly be disseminated to hotel security and patrol officers, Manning said. Police also began a sensitivity program yesterday that teaches officers how to physically arrest disabled people. "Because of the possibility of inadvertent injury to disabled persons, supervisors will ensure that specialized training is completed by all officers involved," the department's mission statement for the convention says. Coleman applauded the concern, adding that the safest thing officers can do is ask the protesters what is the best way for an officer to move them.
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The Tennessean, Monday September 27, 1993 [This article is in Images ADAPT 822 and ADAPT 821 but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] Photo by Casey Daley, staff: the picture frame is filled with marchers in ADAPT T-shirts coming toward the camera. One poster reads "Free Our People" and another "Stop Building Nursing Homes" Most of the marchers in the photo are in wheelchairs and looking determined. Doug Chastain head is in the very front, and Loretta Duefriend is behind hime. Behind her (with the posters) are Robin Stephens barefoot with no shoes, and to her left Laura Hershey is driving her chair with her mouth and has on a chest strap. Arthur Campbell is behind Laura in a white shirt with a picture of Wade and Lincoln on it. Severak riws behind them and behind a man walking are two women walking, Molly Blank with a smile and her hand by her chin, and Suzy Polkinghorn in a black T-shirt. Caption reads: Members of a national disability group protest yesterday outside Opryland Hotel where hospital industry leaders are meeting. The protesters want more healthcare dollars to be directed toward home services. [Title] Protesters block hotel for 2 hours by Elizabeth Murray, Staff Writer. John Taratino spent enough time attending a school for the blind where he was “told when to shower, when to eat and when to do my homework" that he knows a nursing home can't be much different. "This is about choice," Taratino, 28, of Long Island, N.Y., said as more than 250 people — all members of a national group called American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT — demonstrated outside Opryland Hotel yesterday, blocking entrance there for more than two hours. The demonstration literally overtook the intersection of Briley Parkway and Music Valley Drive, delaying an awards-night reception for the Association of Songwriters, Composers and Producers and backing up traffic on Briley Parkway. ADAPT's beef is with the American Health Care Association, the nation's largest lobbying group for nursing homes, which is holding a conference at Opryland this week. To ADAPT, the association represents institutionalization of people with disabilities who would rather live more independently at home. “If people had a choice, nursing homes would diminish or die out completely," said local ADAPT member Diane Coleman, who, like the rest of her group, wants at least 25% of national Medicaid dollars to be funneled into home health care rather than nursing-home care. “The way [nursing homes] make their money is kind of like how ranchers make theirs — so many head of cattle or the number of beds filled," said national ADAPT organizer Mike Auberger of Denver, who helped rally almost 500 people to travel to Nashville to protest the healthcare association. "The industry would like to tell you it’s just a bunch of old people in nursing homes, but a lot of people just have ‘disabilities. The whole idea of redirecting that money makes so much sense. If I'm in a nursing home, someone else is making my choices about what I wear, what I eat, when I sleep, and it costs more." Amid chants of “People are dying, shame on you" and “Free our brothers, free our sisters," association spokeswoman Linda Keegan negotiated with ADAPT organizers a meeting between 50 ADAPT members and the AHCA's leadership, to be held at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Keegan said her group opposes redirecting any Medicaid dollars toward home health services but said, “Perhaps the issue has come to a head because of President Clinton's [health-care reform] proposal. It provides a lot of opportunities for our organizations to work together.” Keegan said the two groups agree on the basic idea of more funding for home health care but disagree on how to go about it. AHCA supports a national policy for long-term health care. "In exchange for the opportunity to make an in-person plea to the association brass, ADAPT members agreed that for the rest of the week they will protest only in a designated area of Opryland Hotel's parking lot. “This situation is truly unfortunate and it's especially unfortunate for innocent third parties to be affected at all," Opryland spokesman Torn Adkinson said. The AHCA convention will continue this week and will feature an address tomorrow morning from retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. BOXED TEXT: [Title] What they want American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, called ADAPT, wants 25% of the federal Medicaid budget lo be directed toward establishing national policies to pay for personal attendant services so people with disabilities can live at home. The group argues that such home health care is more cost-effective and yields a higher quality of life. "We're saying that, at a minimum, 25% of people who live in nursing homes would like to live in their own home," said Mike Auberger, a national organizer for ADAPT; "But the bottom line is that 90% of the nursing homes in this country are for-profit, and allowing choice would take money from them. The American Health Care Association, the nation's largest nursing-home lobby, "absolutely disagrees“ that tunneling 25% of Medicaid dollars into home health care is a good idea, said Linda Keegan, association spokeswoman. Shifting funds in that way might deny nursing-home care to people who want it, she said. "That is essentially robbing Peter to pay for Paul." The association would rather see additional funds provided so that both nursing-home and at home health care could be offered. The two groups agree on the need for a national policy on long-term health care.
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This Week in Healthcare Photo: Protesters in wheelchairs sit in a group chanting. Their signs read: "Is there a nursing home in your future?" and "Our Homes not Nursing Homes." Front row left to right is George Roberts with Larry Biondi and another person behind him, and Stephanie Thomas and Karen Tamley with signs. Caption reads: Wheelchair-bound members of ADAPT, a patient-advocacy group, disrupt AHCA’s meeting. Title: Disabled protest AHCA approach in lobbying for reform by John Burns [This article contines in ADAPT 815 but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] Nursing home providers weren’t the only ones recommending comprehensive long-term-care reform last week during the American Health Care Associations convention in Nashville, Tenn. More than 250 people, many of them disabled and wheelchair bound, demonstrated outside—and inside—the convention's Opryland Hotel headquarters to protest the AHCA’s lobbying of the Clinton administration for increased federal funding for nursing home care. The incident was the latest in a series of clashes between healthcare provider and consumer groups reacting to President Clinton's healthcare reform plan. Last month, the American Association of Retired Persons and Families USA, a consumer advocacy group, launched separate advertising campaigns attacking the lobbying efforts of several healthcare special-interest groups (See related story, p. 60). Early in the week, Paul Willging, AHCA’s executive vice president, outlined the associations agenda for reform to an audience of more than 2,000 nursing home administrators. More than 4,000 people attended last week's convention, the largest turnout in eight years. The group represents about 10,000 for-profit facilities. Mr. Willging commended the Clinton administration for the inclusion of steps in its reform plan to improve long-term-care financing. The plan calls for the creation of a long-term-care insurance market to help residents pay nursing home costs. “We've argued for years that the private sector offers an answer to escalating Medicaid spending... and to the forced impoverishment of millions of Americans due to their long-term-care needs,” Mr. Willging said. The AHCA’s platform for reform calls for a private-public partnership for long-term-care financing. Under their vision of coverage, private insurance would pay a large portion of nursing home costs, while the federal government would pay for the poor. However, eliminating the "imprisonment” - not impoverishment—of nursing home residents was the battle cry of hundreds of protesters from a group called Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. The organization is a Denver-based patient advocacy group representing people with disabilities who would rather live at home than in nursing homes. Throughout the week, ADAPT members protested outside the Opryland Hotel, demanding that the group be allowed into the convention to debate its agenda. The group’s primary goal is to shift at least 25% of Medicaid spending now designated for nursing homes so the money could be used to develop home- and community-based long-term-care programs. The AHCA, which denied access to ADAPT members, did offer to meet with them in a closed-door session, said Claudia Askew, an AHCA spokeswoman. However, after talks broke down on Sept. 28, ADAPT protesters stormed the hotel, disrupting the convention and hotel traffic for hours. Nearly 100 ADAPT members were arrested. “We think we share a common goal of supporting additional funding for home-care services,” Ms. Askew said. “But, after today, I don’t know if we can come to any agreement.” This isn't the first time the association and ADAPT have clashed. Last year, ADAPT staged a similar protest during the AHCA’s convention in San Francisco, resulting in numerous protester arrests, she said.