Direct Service Providers (DSPs) both paid family members, and nonfamily are critical to the wellbeing, autonomy and safety of people with disabilities. DSPs provide support with bathing, dressing, eating, transportation and more. Medicaid's home and community based services(HCBS) is specifically designed to ensure that people with high disability related care needs remain in their communities while being safe and thriving. Recent federal government actions, with the specified goal of eliminating fraud have raised questions about the entirety of HCBS and paying family caregivers. The three guests appearing today wrote an article about this entitled "The caregivers you've never heard of are in crisis"We discuss the importance and value of HCBS, the power of caregiver voices, why HCBS is too important to cut and actually saves a lot of money in addition to it's very real impact on quality of life for care recipients. We emphasize the mportance of all of us coming together to protect and in fact, expand, improve and enhance HCBS. We all agree that it's important to stop fraud, however it is also extremely important to provide necessary services for disabled people.Quoted in the episode is an article published by KFF, written by Elizabeth Hinton, Jessica Mathers, and Robin Rudowitz. They say “There are no reliable measures of fraud against Medicaid…Recent analysis of the FY 2023 HCFAC report found no beneficiary fraud in the listing. Providers convicted (of different kinds of fraud against Medicaid and Medicare) included ambulance service providers, durable medical equipment suppliers, diagnostic labs, nursing homes, pain clinics, pharmacies, physical therapists, physicians, and substance use treatment providers… Medicaid Paid an Estimated 94.9% of Total Outlays Properly, and Improper Payments are Mostly Due to Insufficient Information...What is known about fraud in Medicaid is that it’s not unique to Medicaid (fraud also occurs in Medicare and private health insurance) and is mostly committed by providers. There are checks on fraud, waste, and abuse at both the federal and the state levels“Also mentioned are examples of family member advocacy that are really impactful. One is the families which advocated for Tensy's Law in Oregon, starting at about 13 minutes in this video. And another example was at some recent Medicaid legislative hearings in Ohio. Have some tissues handy before you watch these! Diane Wilush began her career in social work in 1977 at a state institution in Miami. She served as President and CEO of United Cerebral Palsy of Georgia and United Cerebral Palsy of South Carolina in the early 2000s. After retiring from her CEO roles in Georgia and South Carolina, Diane continues her work as the part-time Senior Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for UCP of Georgia. In addition, she stepped into the role of Interim President and CEO of UCP National in the fall of 2025, continuing her commitment to leadership and advocacy at the national level.Barbara Merrill joined the staff of ANCOR in 2012 as Vice President, Public Policy, and since 2014 has served as Chief Executive Officer. Barbara has been a leader in the disability field since 1992, working first as an advocate and later as an attorney and state legislator whose diverse background has been united by a commitment to strengthening community providers and the services they deliver to people with I/DD. Among her many accomplishments, she successfully orchestrated the passage of legislation to increase wages for Maine’s direct support professionals and to codify Maine’s Mental Health Parity law. In 2002, Barbara became the first Executive Director of the Maine Association for Community Service Providers.Kendra E. Davenport, MPL, CFRE, is President and CEO of Easterseals, a leadingorganization that makes a lasting difference in the lives of 1.5 million people each yearby providing essential services to children and adults with disabilities, older adults,veterans, and their families. Kendra oversees the National Office and a federatednetwork of 70 Affiliates whose markets cover 48 states and Washington, D.C.For more than three decades, Kendra has been a leader and innovator in the nonprofitsector, with a consistent focus to facilitating critical services and interventions withorganizations specializing in health and human services and disability rights, ensuringeveryone can lead full lives.If the links above aren't working for more detailed biographies and topic information, copy/paste the following into your browser:The article on caregivers in crisis: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5883644-home-community-care-crisis/Diane Wilush: https://ucp.org/about-ucp/national-staff/Kendra Davenport: https://www.easterseals.com/about-us/people/kendra-davenport-mpl-cfreBarbara Merrill: https://www.ancor.org/people/barbara-merrill/KFF's article on Medicaid Fraud: https://www.kff.org/medicaid/5-...
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