[Headline] Action in D.C.

[Subheading] ADAPT Lobbies on Capitol Hill

[image]
[image caption] Chanting "We're not your cash cow, meet with ADAPT now," ADAPT members packed the lobby of the Capitol Hilton Hotel, demanding a meeting with Karen Ignani, CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the trade association for many of the nation's managed care organizations. ADAPT got the meeting.

American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) activists from across American descended on Washington, D.C., for a week in September to deliver the message Americans with disabilities will accept "No more excuses," a campaign that echoes a phrase often quoted by Mark McClellan, the director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

The purpose of ADAPT's action was to tackle barriers that force people into nursing homes and other institutions or that prevent people with disabilities and older Americans from staying in their own homes in the community with the services and supports they need. Those barriers include the lack of appropriate housing, the lack of personal assistance programs and the movement to integrate long-term care services and supports into state acute health care managed care plans.

"As we move out of nursing homes and other institutions, we need affordable, accessible integrated housing to move into," said Cassie James, Philadelphia ADAPT organizer. "An obvious place to start is with the nation's Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). The PHAs have the ability to designate Section 8 housing vouchers specifically for use by people leaving nursing homes and institutions who are receiving home and community-based services. We need to make sure the PHAs do just that. No more excuses"

ADAPT members made visits to legislators that resulted in at least one new House co-sponsor for Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA), the Community Choice Act (H.R. 910, S 401). The staff of Rep. Bobby Rush (D-M.) called MiCASSA House sponsor, Rep. Danny Davis' (D-M.) office to sign on to the bill.

There were other significant highlights of the week.

Joe Shapiro's National Pub-lic Radio coverage of the ADAPT action included an interview with McClellan, who credited his work with ADAPT as the reason for Money Follows the Person (MFP).

ADAPT targeted the trade associations for the nation's Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), getting meetings with both the PHAs' Directors Association and the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA). ADAPT said that they put the PHAs on notice that they share responsibility with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for assuring people with disabilities have proper housing.

They took on the Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) that currently oversee acute health services in many states, which are beginning to take on long-term services as well. ADAPT will be meeting with the CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, an MCO trade association, to get a commitment that AHIP members won't con-tract with states to ration long-term services and supports in order to balance their budgets.

Support was garnered for MiCASSA from the civil rights-oriented National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD).

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სამ 23 ივლისი 2013

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• Washington DC, Sept. 2006

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