Disability Rights Advocates Develop Tax Saving Update for Medicare and Medicaid.

Business Editors/Health and Science Writers

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WASHINGTON--(BW HealthWire)--May 8, 2002

Direct from Medical Newswire--(Medical Newswire)--Disability rights advocates and leaders Bob Williams and Henry Claypool have joined forces with HalfthePlanet Foundation to advocate for needed change for Medicare, Medicaid and related reforms that would enhance health, independence and productivity of Americans with Disabilities.

This change would also result in cost savings for taxpayers and common sense services for Americans with disabilities without restricting them to their homes or forcing them to work.

"Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965 when just about all of us with disabilities were largely seen as incapable of leading independent lives," said Williams. "Today, 80 percent of Medicaid funding is spent in institutional settings. This must be changed."

"Changes are necessary and through AIMMM (Advancing Independence by Modernizing Medicare and Medicaid), we are working to identify, better understand and highlight effective reforms and best practices," said Claypool. Examples of AIMMM activities include:

-- Replacing the homebound requirement for Medicare home health services with
criteria that target those most in need without sacrificing their personal
freedom;

-- Eliminating Medicare policies that keep beneficiaries from obtaining the
durable medical equipment and other services they need to lead active, healthy
lives;

-- Improving services to individuals with disabilities dually eligible for both
Medicare and Medicaid;

-- Assuring that any new Medicare prescription drug benefit meets the needs of
beneficiaries with disabilities;

-- Making certain that the Medicare and Medicaid provisions of the Ticket to
Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act truly pay off for employed individuals
with disabilities; and

-- Assuring that the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and
the Olmstead decision are applied in a consistent manner in both Medicare and
Medicaid.

Both Claypool and Williams agree that current policy regarding Medicare and Medicaid is directing services toward a major crash. As more and more people age and need these services, they will want independence, not current homebound restrictions. Also, individuals need to know what their dollars are paying for and doing, so they can evaluate what changes must be made. Women need to understand that the nation is financing long-term care on their backs and that they have a role in the change.

Williams, currently a senior policy advisor at United Cerebral Palsy Associations national office, served as the Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities and then as Health & Human Services deputy assistant secretary for Disability, Aging and Long Term Care Policy during the Clinton administration. He also worked on the passage of the ADA and the closing of Forest Haven, the District of Columbia's institution for people with developmental disabilities. Williams' personal experience with disability (he has cerebral palsy, uses a scooter and an augmentative communication device) provides keen insight into the need to update the 37-year old Medicare and Medicaid policies and provisions.

Longtime disability policy advisor Henry Claypool has spent much of his career focused on modernizing Medicare and Medicaid. Claypool also served in HHS as an advisor to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (then known as the Health Care Financing Administration) during the Clinton administration. In addition, he led a number of key community living initiatives: the development of guidance for states on the Olmstead decision; the development of Real Choice Systems Change grants to states; the implementation of the health care provision of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act; and the agency's decision to make augmentative communication devices available to Medicare beneficiaries as durable medical equipment.

As director of the disability services office at the University of Colorado campus at Boulder, Claypool was instrumental in creating greater physical and programmatic access on the campus in response to the ADA. He also managed a home health agency providing personal assistance services to people with significant disabilities at an independent living center. Claypool was once a beneficiary of both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

AIMMM is a program of HalfthePlanet Foundation. For more information, please send an e-mail to [e-mail] or call [phone].

Medical Newswire: From the Healthcare Information Center in Washington, D.C. Since 1947. To contact Medical Newswire, call 1-800-359-4454 or email [e-mail].