I Vote because…

In conjunction with the Getting Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign, the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC) will be issuing a social media video challenge – “I’m disabled and this is why I vote…”

This is a call to arms for any and everyone in the disability community – regardless of disability type, or severity – to rise up and use your voice to demand action!

We need the disabled community to be registered to vote, to exercise their right to vote, and to hold their elected officials accountable to fulfilling their campaign promises – especially when it comes to protecting persons living with disabilities civil rights and healthcare, especially Medicaid.

Here’s how you can participate:

• Record a selfie-style video of yourself starting with the phrase, “I’m disabled and this is why I vote…”
  • If you are not a person living with a disability and would like to participate that is wonderful! Thank you! You can start by saying, “I am a person who is not disabled, but I vote for candidates who support the rights of people living with disabilities, and here’s why…”
• Post your video to your social media platforms (i.e.: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.) using the following hashtags:
  • #Vote4Medicaid
  • #ColoradoDisabilityPowerVote
  • #ColoradoDisabiltyCommunity
  • #VoteLikeYourLifeDependsOnIt
  • #DisabilityRights
  • #DisabledVoicesInAction
  • #HearUs
  • #SeeUs
  • #ProtectUs
  • #VotingForOurLives
• Make sure that your post is public and sharable, and if possible please include closed captioning with your video(s).
• Tag CCDC in your post so that we can share it.
• Share the Colorado Voter Registration website link as often as possible – https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter/pages/pub/olvr/verifyNewVoter.xhtml
• If you see someone’s post using any of the hashtags mentioned above, especially, please like and share it to help expand the post’s reach and gain traction.

The Public Charge Rule Is Now in Effect Nationwide— What Does that Mean and What Can You Do?

Update: February 24, 2020 
From the Center for Public Representation

Today, the Department of Homeland Security’s discriminatory public charge rule goes into effect. The rule puts in place a new test for people who are applying for visas or green cards. It looks at people’s health, including whether they have a disability, and whether they have used or might one day use public benefits, including Medicaid-funded home and community-based services on which many people with disabilities rely because they are not covered by private insurance. This rule will have a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities and will discourage people already in the US from using critical public benefits to which they are legally entitled. Continue reading “The Public Charge Rule Is Now in Effect Nationwide— What Does that Mean and What Can You Do?”

Colorado bill would allow disabled company owners to keep working

The Colorado Senate Health and Human Services Committee will consider whether to give disabled business owners another option.

By Ed Sealover  – Reporter, Denver Business Journal, Feb 10, 2020, 10:33am EST

DENVER — Josh Winkler became paralyzed below the waist at age 17, but that didn’t stop him from getting a mechanical engineering degree in college and working for a NASCAR team until the Great Recession hit. He then launched his own company, Cripple Concepts, which makes a variety of aides for the wheelchair-bound, including joystick knobs for movement that don’t fall off and USB chargers that allow electric-wheelchair users to charge their phones without losing use of their mobility device. Continue reading “Colorado bill would allow disabled company owners to keep working”

Action Needed! SB 20-033: Allow Medicaid Buy-in Program After Age 65

SB 20-033: Allow Medicaid Buy-in Program After Age 65

By Julie Reiskin, Executive Director, CCDC

WILL ALLOW PEOPLE WITH SIGNIFICANT DISABILITIES WHO WORK USING THE MEDICAID BUY-IN TO CONTINUE WORKING AFTER AGE 65

Program: The Medicaid Buy-In for Working Adults with Disabilities (Buy-In) has been a path out of poverty for people with disabilities since 2014. By allowing people who have a disability and a job to buy into Medicaid and, if needed, long-term services and supports, individuals can earn up to 450% of the Federal Poverty Level while only counting 50% of their earned income. Best of all, there is no asset test. ALL OTHER paths into Medicaid carry a $2000 asset limit and strict earnings limits.  Continue reading “Action Needed! SB 20-033: Allow Medicaid Buy-in Program After Age 65”

Healthcare and Prosperity in America

By Timothy Postlewaite

Healthcare is crucial to prosperity in America, as it assists in the facilitation, participation, and productivity in a multitude of aspects from the standpoint of those whom the rest of society would categorize as “underdogs,” individuals who require more assistance to find their version of “normalcy.”  Medicaid is a prime example of a program that attempts to assist with this, as it assists the impoverished and the disabled by allowing them to have the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life. From an early age, I have experienced the pros and cons of Medicaid. The program allocated funds toward my first electric wheelchair, which allowed me to enter Kindergarten with the ability to participate with a diverse group of kids.  Moreover, not only did this experience begin the process of acclimating me to social expectations, but it also assisted me in terms of forming my identity, providing me with a steadfast foundation of freedom and independence, two characteristics that have remained with me to this day. Continue reading “Healthcare and Prosperity in America”

Tennessee Set to Become the First State to Adopt Block Grants (TennCare Waiver Amendment 42)

Overview

Tennessee has submitted an application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) asking to convert the bulk of funding for its TennCare Medicaid program to a modified block grant, along with numerous other changes that threaten both TennCare and the Medicaid program nationally. Continue reading “Tennessee Set to Become the First State to Adopt Block Grants (TennCare Waiver Amendment 42)”

The Hospital Transformation Program (HTP)

Overview

The Hospital Transformation Program (HTP) aims to improve outcomes and reduce costs by attaching quality and value metrics to the Hospital Provider Fee.  For information about the program, its committees, upcoming processes, and sign up for alerts and information, follow this link: Colorado Hospital Transformation Program.

The public comment period closed on December 15, 2019. However, if you would like to read the published summary requesting comments, you can access the Notice of Public Comment Process: Transformation Program: Delivery System Incentive Payment Demonstration pdf for more information.

Continue reading “The Hospital Transformation Program (HTP)”

Medicaid’s Appellate Process Gone Wrong

By: Stacy Warden/Author of Noah’s Miracle

The legal process isn’t easy for an already struggling family who is overwhelmed with the care of a child or family member. It’s intimidating from the start.  When a family is issued a denial they are provided with a notice of the denial and advised of their rights. However, there’s a tiny little clause that says should you lose your appeal that you very well may have to pay the State back in services and legal fees.  Which, for most families is an automatic discouragement from pursuing their appellate rights before an Administrative Law Judge. Continue reading “Medicaid’s Appellate Process Gone Wrong”

The Vital Importance of Advocacy in Colorado

by Bryce Rafferty, CDASS Participant

While I wasn’t born in the state of Colorado nor did I grow up here, I am beyond thankful for this state, it’s people, and the public healthcare that makes life in Colorado that much better for persons with disabilities. Most people know Colorado for its mountains, but most don’t know that Colorado State Medicaid is one of the best in the union. Speaking with another quadriplegic like myself from Iowa, I heard about how Medicaid in his home state falls far short of the coverage and quality of care that I enjoy on a daily basis. However, being on federal health insurance anywhere has its fair share of challenges, and it is the responsibility of the people to hold the government accountable and maintain the positives when they are threatened by changes or pitfalls in policy. Continue reading “The Vital Importance of Advocacy in Colorado”

Issac’s New Chair by Jenna Crane

Five years ago, our son Isaac was diagnosed with SMA Type 1. He was four months old, and I remember talking to my family about the implications of the diagnosis. We went from coming to terms with the knowledge that Isaac would likely spend his life in a wheelchair to realizing that his prognosis was much worse than “he’ll never walk.” He would not sit. He would not eat. He would not swallow, speak, turn his head, move his hands. He would not breathe on his own. He would not likely live to see his first birthday. There was no cure. There was no treatment. All the while, he would be the sweetest, happiest, brightest little boy. We were devastated, and, even today, that word does not capture what we really felt. We prayed he would live long enough for his older sister to remember him. We prayed that when his time came, we would all be there with him.

But Isaac did live to his first birthday, and then to his second. He loved reading books and playing with switch activated toys, coloring with his sister and swimming with his daddy. He started vocalizing to communicate, and talking and playing with his eye gaze activated communication device. Fast forward to his third birthday, a few months after the FDA approval of the first treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). We knew it would not be a cure, but we hoped it would keep him from losing what strength he still had. Isaac received his first doses of the drug and promptly started turning and nodding his head. He gained strength in his extremities. He started working with his physical and occupational therapists to sit upright with support and to operate a joystick. As he outgrew his medical stroller, we started talking about a power chair. All of his physicians and therapists agreed that he could manage it, that it would benefit him, and his friends at school started getting excited to race him on the playground!

When he was three and a half years old, Isaac completed his first power chair trial at NuMotion. He was amazing! We knew the insurance process would be long. Since we had such good experiences with his Medicaid in the past, we were not overly concerned. We celebrated Isaac’s fourth birthday. NuMotion provided Medicaid with additional information. Medicaid was slow to respond. Finally, more than a year after his initial trial, Medicaid officially denied Isaac’s power chair. The only problem was that they never told us. We waited and waited for a reply from Medicaid, and finally we reached out to CCDC for help. CCDC Non-Attorney certified advocate and graduate student intern, Nicole Bishop, was assigned to our case, and from the very start, I knew we were in good hands. She was completing her internship and had additional support from what seemed like the entire CCDC staff. I remember that it was around Christmas time when we started the appeal process, and Nicole had some serious digging to do. She discovered that the chair had been denied, and then she filed for improper notice of denial. We celebrated Isaac’s fifth birthday, then we set a date for the court hearing. We began gathering evidence that Isaac could drive the chair, and that he would be able to drive it in all of the needed environments. NuMotion bent over backward to get Isaac a demo chair for us to take home for a weekend. We took so many videos of him driving!

When we had about a week left to gather documents and evidence and compile a witness list, Nicole called the court to verify the best format for submitting the videos. Late that Monday afternoon, she learned that, since we were sending videos, the court would really like all of the materials by Wednesday. Nicole and I allowed ourselves a moment of panic, but then we put our heads down and pushed on. I spent the night editing videos and sending pleading emails to Isaac’s medical team for them to rush their letters of support by the next day instead of the next week. Every single one of them responded with the letter, some of them arriving in my inbox after midnight. The next morning, as I sent Nicole yet another email (seriously, you should see the chains we had going), I noticed that her last email to me had been sent at 4:30 a.m. She had stayed up all night, literally, to prepare Isaac’s case. I was overcome with gratitude at the lengths people would go to in order to help Isaac. And we did it, we submitted everything in time! Then we waited.

Just as Nicole was starting to prepare all of the witnesses for the court hearing, we heard the best news. I opened my email, and there, in the subject line, “We won!” I opened the email, read it twice, and screamed! I ran to Isaac and told him that he was getting his power chair. He shrieked with joy, his sister shrieked with joy. My husband came in to ask what was going on, and he sighed with such relief. I cried when I heard that two other children had their chairs approved along with Isaac. We would not have to go to court because the evidence we had gathered was enough to convince Medicaid that Isaac could and should drive a power chair. Nicole, and her mentors at CCDC, were exactly who we needed to help Isaac get his chair, and for the first time in his life, a measure of independence.

This past week, we went to pick up Isaac’s power chair. It is his favorite color, bright orange. He is practicing every day so that he can safely drive it independently. We can’t wait to see where it takes him!