IHSS:

Living disabled by cuts: Those in need of care, caregivers on budgetary roller coaster ride

Record Searchlight, March 31 2012
By Alayna Shulman

At first glance, Cindy Monaghan’s Redding home seems nothing out of the ordinary.

Books sit stacked on an end table. Pink flowered curtains are slightly parted to show the rain-slick pavement of the street outside. Spot, Monaghan’s faithful dog, lies curled up on the floor by her feet.

But the halls and doorways are a wider than normal, and there’s a chair in Monaghan’s oversized shower.

Monaghan, 49, is a quadriplegic.

“I need a 24-hour shadow,” said Monaghan, who has cerebral palsy and spinal stenosis.

Since Monaghan is completely dependent on a team of care providers, and she lives in fear of state budget cuts to the departments of Developmental Services and Social Services, which fund the workers who take care of virtually all her needs. Their recent years already have been a budgetary roller coaster ride.

“It’s always at the back of my head,” Monaghan said.

The state already has made annual cuts to the Department of Developmental Services in the past several years, including $100 million when one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s “triggers” was pulled in December.

The latest budget proposal in January threatens to slash another $200 million from the Department of Developmental Services for the 2012-13 fiscal year, leaving a budget of $4.7 billion.

Meanwhile, cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services program, which is managed by the state’s Social Services department, also are on the horizon.
Read full story, Record Searchlight >

Budget Legislative Language Released for Governor’s Proposed “Coordinated Care Initaitive”

CDCAN DISABILITY RIGHTS REPORT
CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#056-2012 – MARCH 26, 2012 – MONDAY
Advocacy Without Borders: One Community – Accountability With Action

State Budget Crisis
BROWN ADMINISTRATION RELEASES BUDGET LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE FOR GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED “COORDINATED CARE INITIATIVE” THAT INCLUDES IHSS, MSSP

Proposed Language Requires Approval from Legislature – Outlines Implementation of How IHSS and MSSP Would Work As Medi-Cal Managed Care Benefits Under the Dual Eligibles Demonstration Project

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 03/26/2012 12:20 PM ] - The Brown Administration released this afternoon proposed budget related language – known as “budget trailer bill language” that includes specific provisions dealing with implementation of the Governor’s proposal to expand from 4 to 10 counties, a demonstration project to transition people with disabilities and seniors who are eligible for Medicare and Medi-Cal into Medi-Cal managed care-type plans beginning in January 2013, and to include in that project In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Multipurpose Senior Services Program (MSSP) and other long term services and supports. The Governor’s proposal would expand, if approved by the Legislature, the demonstration project to all counties by 2015. Read the rest of this entry »

Big Week for Health & Human Services Issues At State Budget & Policy Hearings

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
Advocacy Without Borders: One Community – Accountability With Action
#055-2012 – MARCH 25, 2012 – SUNDAY

State Budget Crisis

BIG WEEK FOR HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES ISSUES

MONDAY - US Supreme Court Begins Hearing on Federal Health Care Reform Law (7 AM PST) and State Senate Budget Subcommittee Hearing on Developmental Services (10 AM Room 4203)
TUESDAY - Senate Human Services Committee Info Hearing on IHSS Managed Care Issue and Assembly Health Committee and Aging & Long Term Care Committee Hearings on Bills & US Supreme Court Hearing Continues
WEDNESDAY – Assembly Budget Subcommittee Hearing on Developmental Services (1:30 PM Room 4202) & US Supreme Court Hearing Continues
THURSDAY – Federal District Court Hearing in SF on Adult Day Health Care Settlement (9:00 AM) and Olmstead Advisory Committee Public Meeting (10 AM to 4 PM)

Read the rest of this entry »

March 29th Disability, Mental Health & Senior Rights “Olmstead Advisory Committee”

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#048-2012 – MARCH 19, 2012 – MONDAY NIGHT

STATE CAPITOL UPDATE
CA HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY SECRETARY DIANA DOOLEY TO CONVENE MARCH 29^th DISABILITY, MENTAL HEALTH & SENIOR RIGHTS “OLMSTEAD ADVISORY COMMITTEE”

Focus of Advisory Committee Meeting on Progress of Mandatory Enrollment of “Medi-Cal Only” People With Disabilities and Seniors Into Medi-Cal Managed Care – Also Update on Transition of Adult Day Health Care Medi-Cal Benefit That Ends March 31^st To Be Replaced By “Community-Based Adult Services” Program Medi-Cal Managed Care Benefit on April 1st

US Supreme Court- Opinion of the Court (Olmstead Decision) Jun 22 1999. 22 Pages (pdf)
Olmstead Advisory Committee Meeting Notice and Agenda (pdf)

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 03/19/2012 07:00 PM ] – The issue of Medi-Cal managed care and the mandatory enrollment of hundreds of thousands of “Medi-Cal only” people with disabilities and seniors will be the main focus of a key disability, mental health and senior rights advisory committee to California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley, known as the Olmstead Advisory Committee, that is scheduled to meet March 29, Thursday, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, at the Department of Rehabilitation building, Room 242, 721 Capitol Mall in Sacramento. Interested persons who cannot attend the meeting can also participate via a toll free phone line:

1-888-232-0362 Passcode: 785453. Public comment is taken at various points during the meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Legislative Analyst Office Releases Budget Update on In-Home Supportive Services

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#047-2012 – MARCH 19, 2012 – MONDAY
LAO Report (pdf)

STATE CAPITOL UPDATE
LEGISLATIVE ANALYST OFFICE RELEASES BUDGET UPDATE ON IN-HOME SUPPORTIVE SERVICES
Recommends That Legislature Consider Other Alternatives to Governor’s Reduction Proposals – Proposes Extension of 3.6% Cut In Service Hours Scheduled to Expire June 30, 2012 and Reduction In State Participation in IHSS Worker Wages After A Study Determines Impact of IHSS Recipient Access

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 03/19/2012 10:30 AM] - The Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) released this morning a brief 12 page update on the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program that finds that the Governor’s proposed reductions “…presents significant legal and implementation challenges” and instead recommends that the Legislature consider two other ways alternatives to save State general funding, including extension of the existing 3.6% across-the-board reduction in service hours that is set to expire at the end of the current year, and consider re-enacting a reduction in state participation in IHSS provider wages to a level, determined by a study, that does not impact recipient access to services. Read the rest of this entry »

Department of Social Services Releases Draft Notice to County for Comment That Clarifies Their Responsibilities re IHSS

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#046-2012 – MARCH 15, 2012 – THURSDAY

Advocacy Without Borders: One Community – Accountability With Action

STATE CAPITOL UPDATE
Department of Social Services Releases Draft Notice to County for Comment That Clarifies Their Responsibilities of Receiving & Processing New Applications for Services Under IHSS

Read Draft, All County Information Notice (pdf)

Comment Deadline Is March 22 – No Major Controversy Regarding Draft Notice

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 03/15/2012 05:50 PM] - The California Department of Social Services, the state agency that oversees statewide the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program released late this afternoon a draft of a notice that it intends to send to all the counties, that is meant to clarify their responsibilities of receiving and processing new applications from children and adults with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind and seniors seeking eligibility for services. While the subject of the draft notice is of major importance – especially in the objective of clarifying responsibilities of receiving and processing applications for IHSS services – the information in the notice does not appear to raise any controversial issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Jonathan Glidden and Nicki Pecchenino: Legislature dismantling services for elderly, disabled

Santa Cruz Sentinel March 11, 2012
Jonathan Glidden and Nicki Pecchenino

A program once hailed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan as “A dynamic framework on which we shall build a comprehensive system to assure that people with disabilities develop to their potential” is now under attack, some 42 years later by his successors, both Republican and Democrat.

The legislation Gov. Reagan was lauding is now known as the Lanterman Act, the Bible by which services to persons with developmental disabilities are made available. Those disabilities include autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and a host of other developmental delays.

A year ago, California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office [LAO], warned that the state was starting down the path toward decimation of our 42-year commitment to the developmentally disabled, some 250,000 Californians. Read the rest of this entry »

Joint Informational Hearing on Governor’s Proposal Impacting People With Disabilities & Seniors Dually Eligible for Medicare and Medi-Cal

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#035-2012 – MARCH 06, 2012 – TUESDAY
Advocacy Without Borders: One Community – Accountability With Action

California Budget Crisis:

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 03/06/2012 01:49 PM] – The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services and the Assembly Aging and Long Term Care Committee released this afternoon the hearing agenda and background information for the joint informational hearing scheduled for March 7, Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 PM, at the State Capitol in Room 4202 on the Brown Administration’s proposal to expand an existing demonstration project proposal to shift people with disabilities and seniors eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal from Medi-Cal “fee-for-service” to Medi-Cal managed care type plans from 4 counties to up to 10 counties in 2013 and statewide by 2015. The Brown Administration is calling the proposed expansion plan the “Care Coordination Initiative”. Read the rest of this entry »

Orange County Holds Informational Townhall Meetings

UDW Orange County held two meetings in February to update members on proposed major changes to the IHSS program. Orange County providers also participated in CA Independent Provider Training. Center Surveys

UDW providers meet at IBEW hall in Orange County.	Ly Nguyen, UDW lead organizer, speaks to members at Feb 16th Town Hall meeting.
UDW members discussed proposed changes to IHSS.	Members completing CA. Independent Provider Training Center Surveys

Home care fraud unit gets Stanislaus County supervisors’ support

By Garth Stapley The Modesto Bee
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012 Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012

Weeding out people who cheat Stanislaus County’s home care program helps keep it healthy for those who need and deserve it, county supervisors said Tuesday.

They voted unanimously to spend more local money on a fraud unit rather than let it dissolve because state leaders are withdrawing financial support.

Mike Loza, regional coordinator for a union representing thousands of home care providers, said the money should be used to improve orientation instead of policing In-Home Supportive Services. Providers receive only two hours of training, hardly enough to grasp a “complicated, sophisticated program,” he said.

“We have never stood before you supporting fraud,” Loza said, although dozens of United Domestic Workers members previously protested what they called strong-arm tactics by fraud investigators.

The unit has saved more than $4 million in tax money since forming in 2009, said Christine Applegate, the county’s Community Services Agency director. Referring to her report, county Supervisor Jim DeMartini noted that investigators save $8.12 for every $3 spent in a combination of local, state and federal money. Read more

Remarks by Doug Moore, IHSS Reform Capitol News Conference

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Year after year, we have come to this building to battle for our lives and for IHSS.

Year after year, hours and services for IHSS consumers have been cut again and again.

Year after year, we have had a target on our backs.

Brothers and sisters, that ends TODAY!

The current IHSS program is fragmented and uneven. The kind of care an IHSS recipient currently gets too often depends on where he or she lives.

In some counties, IHSS consumers get good support and have a strong voice. But in many counties they do not.

We can fix that, starting TODAY!

The current IHSS isn’t ready to meet the needs of the future. The number of Californians who need home care will double in the next ten years. Read the rest of this entry »

US Supreme Court Decision on 3 Medi-Cal Cases 20 Page Opinion

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#028-2012 – FEBRUARY 22, 2012 – WEDNESDAY

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 02/22/2012 09:00 AM] - Attached to this CDCAN Report is the US Supreme Court’s 20 page opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer that, in a narrow 5 to 4 decision, sent back to the US 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals the three Medi-Cal provider rate reduction cases for further review, keeping those lawsuits alive – and for now, the lower court orders from those cases that continue to block the State from implementing Medi-Cal provider reductions. The 20 page pdf document file is titled “2012022 – US Supreme Court Opinion (Independent Living Center of Southern CA v. Toby Douglas) 09-958.pdf” The document was saved as a pdf document file which means people who are blind or sight impaired should be able to read it using a screen reading device. Read the rest of this entry »

Former UCLA Student Fights Budget Cuts to Disabled and Elderly

NBC Southern California, Friday February 17, 2012

Dr. Bruce Hensel talks to Raul Carranza, a young man with muscular dystrophy who had to drop out of school because he could no longer afford medical care. Carranza is fighting healthcare cuts proposed in the latest California State budget.

Governor Jerry Brown recently introduced a new state budget calling for deep cuts in many departments. Looking through the huge document, it’s easy to get lost in the fine print – the line items, the pie charts — and overlook the people who will actually be affected in a very real way.

Raul Carranza is one of these people. The 22 year old was born with muscular dystrophy and can’t move or breathe independently; but his mind is alert and he is determined to speak it.

“It’s how you deal with these obstacles that define you as a person,” he said in a recent YouTube video, speaking through a voice-enabled computer. Read more

A Proposed Federal Rule Would Give Dignity and Rights to Home Care Workers Across the Nation

For 37 years, homecare workers have been denied minimum wage and overtime protections under the US Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because, historically, they’ve been understood to be just “companions” , with no more status under labor laws than casual teen age baby sitters.

Even as homecare work has become a multi-billion dollar industry; even as this work makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of elders and people with disabilities to remain in their communities; even as the high turnover of this low-wage workforce threatens the availability and stability of these crucial services; this deplorable situation has not changed. Read the rest of this entry »

IHSS Rally in Eureka

KIEM TV; NEWS CHANNEL 3
Submitted by KRecede on Tue, 02/14/2012 – 17:59

Hundreds marched up to the Humboldt County Courthouse asking the Board of Supervisors to “have a heart” and pay In Home Support Service Caregivers more than minimum wage.
News Channel 3′s Kay Recede has that report.

Care workers demonstrate for higher wages

Grant Scott-Goforth, The Times-Standardtimes-standard.com/
Posted: 02/15/2012 02:07:07 AM PST

More than 100 homecare workers and their supporters marched from the Red Lion Hotel to the Humboldt County Courthouse on Tuesday to bring attention to program cuts and their desire to raise wages for in-home care workers.

The In-Home Supportive Services program suffered a 3.6 percent cut to its 2011-2012 budget and may be facing other cuts as well as a reorganization that would place it under state control.

The group of care workers, recipients and community members chanted, sang and waved signs as they moved down Fourth Street, eliciting honks of support from passing traffic. The group demonstrated in front of the courthouse for several hours and about a dozen demonstrators spoke during the public comment portion of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Steve Williams, a homecare worker of three years and a member of the In-Home Supportive Services workers bargaining team, said that he and other workers are paid minimum wage, with no chance of earning a raise, and receive no benefits. The low wages, combined with the lack of a career ladder, create high turnover, he said.”I think we deserve a raise,” Williams said. “We’re not asking for pie in the sky.” Read more..

Updated Schedule of Budget Hearings

CDCAN DISABILITY RIGHTS REPORT
#022-2012 – FEBRUARY 10, 2012 – FRIDAY

California Budget Crisis:

DISABILITY ADVOCATE RANDY HORTON PASSES AWAY
UPDATED SCHEDULE OF BUDGET HEARINGS

Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health & Human Services Sets Mar 28^th Hearing Date for Developmental Services and April 11^th to Hear Governor’s Proposal to Eliminate IHSS Domestic and Related Services For Many Recipients

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 02/10/2012 02:30 PM] – The following is the latest update on scheduled public legislative hearings and meetings by various state agencies that have some impact on people with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind, seniors or low income families. CDCAN will issue an updated schedule every FRIDAY on these statewide meetings. Read the rest of this entry »

Brown Administration Releases Budget Related Language Proposing Expansion of Managed Care for Medicare Medi-Cal “Dual-Eligible”

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#020-2012 – FEBRUARY 07, 2012 – TUESDAY

California Budget Crisis:

Legislative Language Part of Governor’s 2012-2013 State Budget That Requires Legislative Approval In Coming Months – Would Expand Existing Effort To Implement 4 County Demonstration Project to 10 Counties

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 02/07/2012 06:30 AM] – The Brown Administration yesterday released proposed budget related legislative language – called “budget trailer bill language” – that would provide authorization to expand an existing effort to move hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities and seniors eligible for Medicare and Medi-Cal into “coordinated care” or managed care plans in California. Brown’s proposal builds on an existing plan passed last year as part of the 2011-2012 State Budget, that already authorizes the Department of Health Care Services to move forward with submitting a demonstration project proposal to the federal government this spring for approval, that would beginning in January 2013, shift thousands of people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal – known as “dual eligible” – into managed or coordinated care plans in at least four counties. Read the rest of this entry »

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS & HEARINGS Impacting People With Disabilities, Mental Health Needs, The Blind, Seniors & Low Income Families

CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#020-2012 – FEBRUARY 06, 2012 – MONDAY

California Budget Crisis:

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS & HEARINGS IMPACTING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS, THE BLIND, SENIORS & LOW INCOME FAMILIES

Feb 09 – Healthy Families Program Transition to Medi-Cal Meeting
Feb 23 – Autism Task Force on SB 946 Health Insurance Implementation
Feb 23 – Senate Budget Info Hearing on Governor’s Managed Care Proposals
Mar 07 – Assembly Info Hearing on Long Term Care & Managed Care Proposals

SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 02/06/2012 06:30 PM] – The following is the latest update on scheduled public legislative hearings and meetings by various state agencies that have some impact on people with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind, seniors or low income families. CDCAN will issue an updated schedule every Monday on these statewide meetings. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Tharp: They thought she would be a vegetable

Merced Sun-Star, February 4, 2012

What if you had to learn to think again?
What if you had to learn to speak again?
What if you had to master the act of typing only with your left forefinger?
What if you had to eat through a tube in your stomach?

Angela Ronson blogs, she tweets, she consults dozens of websites every day and carries on a lively email correspondence -- all with her left index finger

Photo credit: Merced Sun-Star – BEA AHBECK

Angela Ronson, a 42-year-old Atwater native, has had to do all that — and more.

And she’s done most of it all by herself.

In 2002 while at work in Sierra County she had a bleeding stroke, an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) burst. She wrote about it all in a 2009 article in a publication called “Stroke Connection.” Even after the AVM burst, she didn’t feel bad enough not to drive home for lunch. While driving, she passed out and had an accident, but was taken back to work. With a bad headache, she walked to a nearby clinic. Read More

Women, families hurt most by recession, budget cuts

Healthy CA.org Feb 3, 2012
By Kate Karpilow

Every once in a while a report comes out that’s a game-changer, it makes you look at an issue in a different way . . . or at least it offers the opportunity to do so.

Falling Behind: The Impact of the Great Recession and the Budget Crisis on California’s Women and their Families is such a report, released Wednesday by the California Budget Project (CBP), along with the study’s funder, the Women’s Foundation of California.

CBP compiled truckloads of data to reveal the disproportionate impacts that the recession and California’s budget wars have had on women and their families. Read the rest of this entry »

Riverside UDW Members Protest IHSS Cuts in Front of State Building

Published; The California Report
January 31, 2012 • Bobbi Albano

San Bernardino In-Home Health Care Workers Fired Up

“They are always implementing cuts [and] their target is always the most vulnerable,” says Ramiro Cordoba, regarding the Governor’s proposed cuts to health and human services. These cuts could be devastating for in-home health care workers like Cordoba who make between $8 and $11.50 per hour. “If the hours are cut for the client, then there are cuts in our pay.” Cordoba is an organizer for the UDW Homecare Providers Union in Riverside.

On January 10, members of the UDW protested against these cuts in front of the State building in downtown San Bernardino. “We were out there to find ways to have more revenue,” Cordoba continued. Read the rest of this entry »

Cuts to Medicaid Programs Avoided Due to ADA Compliance Issues

Published by PHI.org January 26, 2012

Separate court proceedings in California and Louisiana last week upheld the right of elders and people with disabilities to receive care in their homes under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In California, federal judge Claudia Wilken issued a preliminary injunction on Jan. 19 blocking the state from enacting a 20 percent cut to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, which provides care to nearly 450,000 elders and people with disabilities who have Medicaid.

The cuts were initially scheduled to take place on Jan. 1, but were temporarily halted by Wilken last December due to concerns that they violated the ADA. Wilken reiterated those concerns in her latest injunction.

If ever enacted, the IHSS budget cut would cause 372,000 IHSS consumers to see reductions in home care services, possibly forcing them into nursing homes or other institutions — a violation of the ADA. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that the ADA gives seniors and people with disabilities the right to live at home if their care needs can be reasonably met there. Read More

Stop “Dangerous” Budget Cuts Threatening Disabled Patients, Disabled San DIiego Man Implores: RALLY SET FOR FRIDAY

San Diego East County Magazine
By Miriam Raftery

Photo credit East County Magazine

January 25, 2012 (San Diego) – Raul Carranza has Muscular Dystrophy. He cannot walk, move his arms, eat or even breathe on his own. He requires round-the-clock nursing care—care denied after Medi-Cal slashed his nursing hours due to state budget cuts.

“Last year I moved away to UCLA by myself and lived away from my family for a whole semester,” he said. “Unfortunately I had to come back home to San Diego at the end of December.” That’s because the state cut his nursing hours, leaving him unable to survive on his own.

Now Carranza is asking for help to draw attention to how budget cuts are hurting disabled Californians. “Please join us so we can stop these cuts and save not only my life,” he says, “but thousands of others.”

Over the course of the last three years the state of California has approved approximately $15 billion in cuts to health care and social services, hurting those who cannot afford to care for themselves. These cuts have created hardships for California’s seniors, low-income families, children and people with disabilities and have cost the state thousands of jobs because of cuts from In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and Medi-Cal.

The tragic consequences of these cuts will likely be that many patien Read the rest of this entry »