Indiana Family to Family

from National Family Voices: Health Care Legislation - Update As outlined in the  last Update  (July 12), the Senate version of a bill to "repeal and replace" the  Affordable Care Act (ACA)  has gone through many changes intended to attract the votes of enough Senators to pass it. After a couple postponements and apparent deaths, the bill was revived and finally brought to the Senate Floor on Tuesday, July 25. For procedural reasons, what was presented to the Senate was actually the House bill, the American Health Care Act ( S. 1628 ). In the Senate, a bill cannot be taken up without a "Motion to Proceed." Organizations and individuals opposing the bill lobbied Senators to oppose the Motion, which would have killed efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. But the Motion passed when Vice-President Pence broke the 50-50 vote. Two Republicans - Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) -- joined all Democrats in voting against it. To simplify a c

July 26, 2017   Joan Alker There is a lot of talk now about the Senate passing a “skinny” repeal bill at the end of the current floor debate — which could come as early as tomorrow. Rumor has it that the skinny bill would  leave Medicaid out  since it has been hard to appease all sides of the Republican caucus, especially the expansion versus the non-expansion states. So we don’t know exactly what will be in the “skinny” repeal bill (current rumors are that it will repeal the individual mandate, the employer mandate, and the medical device tax) but it is clearly designed to avoid the current infighting on Medicaid and  just pass something  to get to conference with the House. Republican Senators who are worried about losing their state’s expansion may see this as a viable path to yes, and Senator Heller (R-NV) today indicated exactly that. Leaving aside the damage that this approach would cause through destabilization of the individual insurance market that would send pr

July 26, 2017 Dear Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services stakeholders, families and providers, Just over a year ago, the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) opened a dialogue with all stakeholders on the need for transformation in how Indiana provides services and supports to its citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Since then, we’ve consulted with self-advocates, families, case managers, providers and other stakeholders to better understand our collective vision for services and supports for Hoosiers with disabilities and what we can do to transform our approach to move us toward supporting individuals and families in their community. As a first step, the Division chose to focus its initial efforts on Person Centered Planning (PCP) and case management. These areas were targeted due to the central role both play in supporting individuals and families in designing meaningful plans to encourage effective supports and services t

from CCD: Medicaid advocates, There’s a lot going on right now, but we’re going to try and explain some of it--as you may have heard, the Senate held some votes today. The Senate began by voting to sta rt debate on healthcare bills this afternoon. That vote passed, with both Senators Collins of Maine and Murkowski of Alaska voting no. The Senate also voted on a slightly revised version of BCRA, with the horrible per capita caps on Medicaid. Due to procedural rules, the Senate had get 60 votes and did not. (Both Senators Portman and Capito voted for BCRA--they need to hear about how harmful this vote would be for their constituents with disabilities.) We anticipate that they will vote tomorrow on full repeal; this vote will not be the final vote. Please know this voting process will continue over the next several days with many different votes. The process they're using moves fast— but currently, we think the Senate will be taking a FINAL vote THURSDAY OR FRIDAY . We do

Margaret Mary Health Pediatrics is recruiting 18-42 month old patients.  Appointment dates : August 29th at 1pm and 3pm : for known ASD diagnoses August 31st at 1pm and 3pm : for suspected ASD (based on MCHAT or ASQ) but no diagnosis Time involved : Each appointment will be 2 hours long. This will mirror how the real appointment will be with a 1 hour assessment, and 1 hour for counseling if the patient is diagnosed with autism. For  those with suspected ASD, they will leave the office with a diagnosis and resources. Insurance will not be billed for either patient group. Confidentiality : Will maintain confidentiality, standard HIPAA applies. If interested, call Dr Wang's office:  812-933-5018

from National Family Voices: The Senate took up the “Motion to Proceed” to the health care legislation (technically, the House–passed bill) this afternoon, leaving the Senators’ votes at 50-50. Vice-President Pence provided the tie-breaking vote. Now there will be 20 hours of debate followed by a “vote-a-rama” during which Senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments.  At this point we expect votes on at least two amendments – one that would repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act   in two years   (the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, being considered right now) and one that would repeal parts of the ACA and replace them with some version of the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act, including Medicaid caps and cuts.  Everything is up in the air, but it is expected that both of these will fail and that ultimately a “ skinny bill ” will pass and be taken to conference with the House.  The “skinny bill” would repeal the ACA’s individual and employer mandates and