Hello to all of our friends. We hope all of you are ready to work because the 2007 legislative session has begun and it will be a BUSY session for CDRC and YOU.
Money Follows The Person
Congratulations to DHMH!!! We informed you in our previous newsletter that the state of Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene applied for a grant from the federal government called the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Rebalancing grant. This money can assist the state to get people out of Nursing Facilities and State Residential Centers. On January 11, Maryland received word that their proposal had been approved and that were eligible to receive nearly $70 million over the next 5 years to help get people out of Institutions, Nursing Facilities, and Mental Health Facilities. This money will assist 3091 persons back into the community in 5 years. Now the work really begins. In the next year, Maryland has to work on how the program will be implemented. We hope to be at the table when this important work begins.
Legislator
visits
CDRC met with Senator James DeGrange, Senator Edward Kasemeyer, Senator Allen Kittlemann, and Senator Rob Garagiola, Delegate Tawana Gaines, Delegate Mary-Dulaney James, Delegate Bob Costa, and others in January. We talked about the new administration, who might the new administration pick for the secretary of Department Of Disabilities, and our concerns for this legislative session. (DoD) We discussed the upcoming 2007 session with each legislator. We had good, productive meetings with all of them. We have more legislator visits in February. CDRC would like to thank all of the legislators for taking time out of their busy schedule to meet with us.
Secretarial Appointments
The announcement of the new Secretary for the Department of Disabilities came in late January. We would like to CONGRATULATE the new Secretary of the Department of Disabilities, Cathy Raggio. Cathy is the Executive and founder of Independence Now, the Center for independent living in Montgomery & Prince Georges Counties. She is also the founder of People On the Go (POG). She was the group's facilitator for five years. She has many years of experience with program development, policy analysis, agency administration and advocacy for people with disabilities. We certainly look forward to working with her during her time as DoD Secretary!!
The new Secretary for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was announced in middle January. His name is John Colmers. Secretary Colmers has been in the health field for many years. His first assignment is to review the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) and the new Money Follows the Person Demonstration (MFPD) to determine if the state will move ahead with CommunityChoice. Keep your fingers crossed. CDRC is on the case. We look forward to working closely with Secretary Colmers as well.
Legislation - bills
As we discussed in last months newsletter, CDRC will be working closely with the DD Coalition, (The Arc of Maryland, the Maryland Disability Law Center (MDLC), The DD Council, Maryland Association of Community Services for persons with developmental disabilities (MACS)) on two pieces of legislation they are introducing for the 2007 session. The first piece of legislation is the Money Follows the Person State Residential Center (MFI-SRC) bill (SB 302, HB 325). The MFI – SRC bill will allow a person living in an institution that has been determined to be able to live in the community with supports to have immediate access to a Medicaid waiver that will support their needs in the community. This way, the money will follow the person to the community. This bill also requires the Department to notify residents of State residential centers about opportunities to participate in a waiver and to live in the community.
The other piece of legislation is the Rosewood Transition Plan. This legislation would create a plan to close Rosewood over a period of two years. We don’t have a bill number for this piece of legislation as of yet.
Medicaid Conference
CDRC co-leader Kenny Capone attended a 2-day conference on Medicaid in Washington, DC. This important, fact filled conference was hosed by: The Arc of the United States and United Cerebral Palsy. The topics for the conference were: Legislative Goals, Medicaid Policy, Deficit Reduction Act information, and Medicaid Issues among other subjects. There are concerns of future obligations of Medicaid, concerns of the significant increases in the number of uninsured Americans, and increasing poverty in the United States. We learned the Federal deficit is due mostly to tax cuts and defense spending. Some things we learned at the conference are: Medicaid works for people with disabilities in many ways, No major public program has been more responsive to the needs of people with disabilities in Maryland, Medicaid is the largest funder of developmental disability services and the largest source of financing for long-term care services.
Board Of Leadership
CDRC elected its new Board Of Leadership at our January membership meeting. Our new Board Of Leadership members are as follows: James Devore, Marlene Hendler, Sylvia Matthews, Barbara Moore, and Dominic Ridgeway. We want to congratulate them for winning a spot on CDRC’s Board Of Leadership. We would like to thank the other participants for their interest in running for the Board Of Leadership and hope they will run again next year.
Rosewood Reunion /Freedom Stories Party
CDRC, Maryland ADAPT and People On the Go of Maryland hosted a Rosewood reunion for ALL Rosewood survivors. The Rosewood Reunion/Freedom Stories Party was a success. We had a good turnout, even though we had snow showers in the late afternoon. We collected 17 stories of Rosewood survivors. Everyone was interested in sharing his or her story for us to use later in the legislative session. We have great pictures and quotes from all who attended. Look for them on the CDRC website in the “stories” section soon.
The next CDRC meeting will be: