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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 10, 2011

Budget harms people with disabilities:  advocates offer alternatives

Contact: Margaret Johnson 916.497.0331

Sacramento - Disability Rights California is a statewide nonprofit that has worked since 1978 to advance the rights of Californians with disabilities, and is the designated protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities under federal and state law. We understand the difficult fiscal circumstances facing California; however, government must help people with disabilities, including seniors and children, to stay in their own homes and reduce the reliance on institutions which are much more expensive and often provide inadequate care. Creative thinking can produce economic efficiencies and eliminate out-dated models of providing services.

The Brown budget reduces every health and human services program, causing real harm to Californians with disabilities. Not only will many people lose services from more than one program, these reductions come on top of the cuts in both income and services they have borne in recent years. 

There is a better way; we propose that the Governor and Legislature do the following, details of which we can provide:

1. Reform the State's long-term care system, with a cost-effective, coordinated budget which will produce savings from decreased nursing facility use, savings which can support home and community-based services, yielding a greater benefit to a far larger number of people. 

2. Reduce state Medicaid costs by:

• Modifying the state’s existing Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers so more people can avoid expensive and unnecessary institutional placement;
• Drawing down new federal Medicaid funds for some AB 3632 mental health services for special education students via a new Medicaid waiver; 
• Increasing federal Medicaid funding for California Children Services (CCS) by issuing instructions to counties on how to qualify children who are now covered with state-only funds;
• Considering additional provider fees which increase the amount of federal Medicaid money the state can receive;
• Phasing out locked Institutes for Mental Disease, which are not eligible for a Medicaid match, and increasing the number of individuals who can move from state psychiatric hospitals to the community by expanding the Conditional Release (ConRep) program. 
• Requiring that private insurance companies cover wheelchairs and other essential durable medical equipment and not shift the cost to Medi-Cal. Approximately 11% of people on Medi-Cal have private insurance.  Medi-Cal pays for services which private companies deny, not for lack of medical necessity but because of cost caps so low as to be equivalent to no coverage at all.

3. In the developmental disabilities system:

• Implement the closure plan for Lanterman Developmental Center, and develop a plan for closing two other Developmental Centers, resulting in lower costs for higher quality services;
• Expand all options for specialized health care service homes for people with developmental disabilities statewide, and develop new     Medicaid Waiver eligible supported-living options for people with behavioral challenges;
• Consolidate state licensing/quality assurance functions for the developmental disabilities system in DDS to conserve resources and improve services.

4. Stop or slow down bonus payments to nursing homes: any bonuses should be based on evidence of  better care

5. Eliminate the IHSS consumer fingerprinting and timesheet requirements, estimated by the Department of Social Services to require spending $41 million dollars over several years to photograph and fingerprint IHSS consumers.

Watch our website, www.disabilityrightsca.org, for updates on the Governor’s budget and alternative proposals from advocates