Maintaining Health in Our Communities


Major federal and state trends involving Medicare, Medicaid and Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) are profoundly affecting the lives of people with disabilities.

The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) requests comments regarding pending mergers of Centene-HealthNet, Aetna-Humana, Anthem-Signa, Blue Shield-Care 1st Health Plan.

  • DREDF and the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC) oppose pending mergers between Centene-Health Net, Aetna-Humana, Anthem-Sigma, and Blue Shield-Care 1st Health Plan, and recommend that a Disability and Health Foundation be established if the mergers go forward. Read the comments (PDF).

The Center for Medicare and Medicare Services’ (CMS) requests Information regarding the Merit-based Incentive Program and Alternative Payment Model in the Medicare program (RFI).

  • DREDF supports​ ​CMS proposals to include Promoting Health Equity and Continuity, and Social and Community Involvement as Clinical Practice Improvement Activity performance categories related to rewarding eligible practitioners who work to improve and maintain high quality care for people with disabilities. However, we question why the proposed rule fails to immediately adopt the subcategory of promoting health equity, which explicitly includes “maintaining adequate equipment and other accommodations”.​ Read the comments (PDF).
  • DREDF’s response to the CMS request endorses a new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) as a way to improve the delivery of Medicare services to many Medicare recipients who experience health and healthcare disparities and recommends specific actions related to topics including identification of MIPS Eligible Professionals, virtual groups, quality performance, EHR performance, and clinical practice improvement

US Department of Labor proposes Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) regulations governing payment of minimum wage and overtime for domestic workers, including personal assistance services workers.

Legal advocacy investigations