July 18, 2005

Secretary Anthony McCann

Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

201 West Preston St.

Baltimore, MD

Dear Secretary McCann,

Thank you for taking the time to meet with members of the Cross Disability Rights Coalition on July 12, 2005. We greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with you and Ms. Coughlin to discuss the very important issue of participating in the CommunityChoice Advisory Group Subcommittees.

As per our discussion, CDRC is thankful to the Department for agreeing to provide our members with Transportation and Personal Care support as needed in order to participate in the Subcommittee meetings. The provision of these necessary supports will help our membership of Medicaid/Medicare consumers to give input at these meetings.

During the course of our meeting it became apparent that there may be a miscommunication regarding the level of Technical Support being offered by the Department. Our view of what is being offered is different from yours and you stated that you would investigate and get back to us once you had found out what is, in fact, being offered. We feel it essential that we be able to work with people/groups: who are familiar with disability issues, we are comfortable working with, are able to address particular subcommittee issues individually (not discuss all six subcommittee materials in one session), don’t have a vested interest in the passing of the proposal. At that time you stated that you believed that the Department had agreed to help us with the Independent Technical Support we had requested. We look forward to hearing from you on this matter.  

Finally is the, as yet, unresolved issue of our request for participant stipends. CDRC has asked that our Medicaid/Medicare consumer participants on these committees be given a stipend of $50.00 per person, per meeting. We stated that these stipends would only be paid to consumers and not to those who are professionals or who are otherwise being financially supported to attend these meetings. These stipends would only be given to those who are the most needy. The purpose of the stipends is to value the participant’s dedication to taking part in these very intensive meetings and valuing their time spent in preparation and attendance. Federal regulations permit the funding of Independent Technical Assistance, and Financial Support, if needed, for consumer participation on state MACs. CDRC believes that because the waiver proposal is a Medicaid/Medicare issue, the state will likely be able to receive a federal match for a portion of this amount. At this time you stated you would discuss the issue with Ms. Coughlin, DHMH staff, and CMS. Again, we look forward to hearing from you on this issue very soon.

Throughout our meeting you emphasized the importance of our attendance at the subcommittee meetings while these matters are being addressed. CDRC will agree to participate in the subcommittee meetings effective July 15, 2005. However, until these issues are resolved, we will only participate in a limited capacity, and on the record as under protest. What this means exactly is that we will only provide 1 CDRC member per subcommittee and that we must be on record as participating under protest. At the beginning of each subcommittee meeting we will distribute to all in attendance a document stating our issues that are under discussion so that all participants will understand our perspective.

We trust that the state of Maryland will find a way to help us help them and work the leadership of CDRC to swiftly resolve these concerns. Please contact me as soon as you are able.