Healthcare Access

DREDF Supports Discussion Draft of Legislation Making Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services Mandatory

April 27, 2021
Senators Hassan, Brown and Casey, and Representative Dingell, released a discussion draft of the Home and Community-Based Services Access Act (HAA) in mid-March, seeking broad stakeholder comment. The federal HAA is in an early form but addresses a long-sought goal of the disability community to require states to offer home and community-based services and not only institutional nursing home care under Medicaid. This requirement would help eliminate the waiting lists and patchwork of eligibility and services that Medicaid beneficiaries with long-term care needs currently have to navigate. The HAA also tries to establish living wages and working conditions for the HCBS workforce that will help ensure stable HCBS for all eligible Medicaid enrollees who want HCBS. DREDF worked with the Consortium of Citizens for Disabilities to submit a detailed set of joint comments and also a shorter DREDF set of specific additional comments.[...]

DREDF and Others Press HHS OCR to Strengthen Nondiscrimination in Healthcare

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February 11, 2021
DREDF, with partners Not Dead Yet and the Patients Rights Action Fund, have assembled a total of 30 disability rights and racial justice organizations to support further regulatory action by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights. In particular, the groups want to see the formal HHS release of the recently issued but not yet published Request for Information (RFI) on "Discrimination on the Basis of Disability in Critical Health and Human Service Programs or Activities" (RIN: 0945-AA15). [...]

Elevated COVID-19 Mortality Risk Among Recipients of Home and Community-Based Services: A Case for Prioritizing Vaccination for This Population

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February 11, 2021
H. Stephen Kaye, Ph.D., published a paper setting out his analysis of mortality risk among recipients of home and community-based services. He finds that HCBS recipients between 45 and 64 years of age appear to be at greater mortality risk than the general community-resident population between 65 and 74 years of age. He concludes that this elevated mortality risk justifies increasing the vaccination priority for HCBS recipients under age 65 to equal that of the general population age 65 and older. [...]

New Analysis of COVID-19 Mortality Risk for Californians with Disabilities Under Age 65

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January 31, 2021
H. Stephen Kaye, Ph.D., released a new data analysis of COVID-19 mortality risk for Californians who receive in-home supportive services (IHSS) or services from the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) — including recipients under age 65. Dr. Kaye finds that the increased risk for mortality among IHSS and DDS service recipients puts them in a risk category equivalent to other Californians in a higher age group. He finds, for example, that disabled recipients of IHSS or DDS services between 45 and 64 years of age are at greater mortality risk from COVID-19 than the general, community-resident population between 65 and 74 years of age. [...]

Prioritizing People with Disabilities for COVID-19 Vaccination

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December 29, 2020
DREDF, along with four other disability or aging organizations that are represented on the California Community Vaccination Advisory Committee, sent a letter to the state’s Vaccination Drafting Guidelines Committee prior to its December 29 meeting. The letter advocates for prioritized vaccination for lower-income persons with disabilities of all ages who receive home and community-based long-term services and supports, as well as those with disabilities who are at great risk of COVID-19 infection and severe illness or death, particularly in light of medical rationing concerns.

People with Disabilities Not Counted in Guidance Aimed at Equitable Allocation of a COVID-19 Vaccine

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October 15, 2020
On October 2, a month after releasing the preliminary draft framework for public comment, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released its final Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine.

Know Your Rights in California: Access to Hospital Care During COVID-19

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July 1, 2020
NEW, Know Your Rights! Read about California's new guidance document for hospitals during COVID-19. The guidance document says how hospitals can prevent shortages, and how they can make care decisions during the crisis.

Joint Letter Opposing Health Care Providers’ Request for Complete Immunity from Responsibility for Negligent Health Care

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April 23, 2020
DREDF and eleven other civil rights and consumer advocacy organizations sent a letter on April 23 to Governor Newsom, opposing an April 9 request from health provider organizations, including nursing homes, for complete immunity from "any administrative sanction or criminal or civil liability" during the COVID-19 crisis.

Know Your Rights in Health Care During COVID-19

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April 30, 2020
People with marginalized bodies face historic and present discrimination in health care. Laws like the ADA and the Affordable Care Act prohibit such discrimination. But the COVID-19 crisis is heightening the risk of discrimination in health care. States, hospitals, and professional organizations have developed policies about who should receive treatment when there are not enough resources to treat everyone who needs medical care. Many of these policies could result in a denial of care of disabled people, trans people, and higher weight people. And many hospitals are failing to ensure the reasonable accommodations people need to access care, such as effective communication or allowing a support person.

Like A Bad Zombie Movie, Obamacare Repeal Is Back!

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September 18, 2017
Like an extended horror movie that just won’t end, news outlets and pundits alike are increasingly abuzz about Senate GOP efforts to squash Obamacare – yet again. The latest piece of proposed legislation to repeal/replace provisions of the Affordable Care Act needs to beat the September 30 deadline and like a pack of pesky zombies who once seemed dead the new bill, Graham-Cassidy, like the other GOP healthcare reform bills before it is suddenly making Obamacare repeal efforts seem very much alive. Or, at least, not quite yet dead.