CDCAN
CALIFORNIA DISABILITY
COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
DISABILITY RIGHTS
NEWS REPORT
Prayers For Charlotte
Colton & Her Family
#0017-2006 January 31, 2006 Tuesday
Advocacy Without Borders:
Connecting people with disabilities
& seniors to rights and unified action
1225 8th Street Suite 480 - Sacramento, CA 95814
916/446-0013 Fax: 916/446-0026
Marty Omoto - director
email: martyomoto@rcip.com
website: www.cdcan.us
MEDICARE PART D DRUG
PROGRAM CRISIS
* FEB 1 HEARING BY SENATE/ASSEMBLY
HEALTH COMMITTEES
* BUDGET & LONG TERM CARE COMMITTEES ALSO INVOLVED
*
FOCUS ON WHAT FEDERAL AND STATE IS DOING
* MAJOR IMPACT ON SENIORS AND PEOPLE
WITH
DISABILITIES
SACRAMENTO - A joint informational hearing
on the status of the Medicare Part D
Prescription Drug crisis is scheduled to
be held February 1, Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 PM by the California
Legislature's committees responsible for health and human services, including
the Senate and Assembly Health Committees. The hearing is scheduled to be
held at the State Capitol in Room 4202. The State has estimated that the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug
crisis has impacted over 200,000 of the 1.1 million persons with developmental
and other disabilities, mental health needs and seniors who are recipients of
both Medi-Cal and Medicare and were unable to obtain needed medications.
However implementation of the new federal program will also impact tens of
thousands more of seniors who are only recipients of the Medicare program, which
until January 1, did not pay for any prescription drug coverage. Persons
who are only eligible for Medi-Cal and not also eligible for Medicare, are not
impacted by the new federal Medicare drug program.
US Department of Health and Human Services Region 9 Officials
Scheduled
Six committees are involved in the informational hearing, that
will include reports, comments and recommendations from four panels, including
representatives from the federal government's Centers on Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS). Scheduled to appear is Jeff Flick, Regional Administrator
for the Federal Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services and Calise
I. Muñoz, Esq., Regional Director, of Region IX of the US Department of
Health and Human Services, whose offices are based in San Francisco, with a
region covering the western states. Stan Rosenstein, chief of the state's
Medi-Cal program, is scheduled to provide comments from the state's perspective,
along with several other representatives from private and associations and
agencies. A panel of advocates is also scheduled to provide comments and
recommendations.
Senate and Assembly Health Committees Will
Lead the Informational Hearing
Both the Senate Health Committee, chaired
by Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento, 6th District), and Assembly Health
Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Wilma Chan (D-Oakland, 16th District) are
the two main committees leading the hearing on the crisis. The hearing will
focus on that crisis and the status of California's efforts to address it, but
also on further implementation of the Medicare Part D Drug Program, that
includes seniors who are only eligible for the federal Medicare health
coverage.
Other committees who are part of the informational hearing
are:
* Senate Subcommittee on Aging & Long Term Care - Chair, Sen. Elaine
Alquist (D-Santa Clara, 13th District)
* Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 on
Health & Human Services - Chair, Sen. Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego, 40th
District)
* Assembly Aging & Long Term Care Committee - Chair,
Assemblymember Patty Berg (D-Eureka, 1st District)
* Assembly Budget
Subcommittee #1 on Health & Human Services - Chair, Assemblymember Hector De
La Torre (D-Southgate, 50th Dist)
Situation Critical for Persons with
Disabilities & Seniors Who Are "Dual Eligibles"
* The informational
hearing will likely be an important next step in how California continues to
resolve the initial crisis that resulted in confusion and panic by tens of
thousands of people with disabilities and seniors, eligible for both Medicare
and Medi-Cal, but unable to obtain prescription drugs from their pharmacies when
the new federal Medicare drug program took effect on January 1.
*
According to committee background information, approximately 53% of dual
eligibles are seniors and 47% are persons with disabilities.
* These
seniors and people with disabilities who are dual eligibles generally must have
incomes well below the federal poverty line and minimal assets to qualify for
Medi-Cal (Medicaid), and as a group, dual eligibles are much poorer than other
persons who are only eligible for Medicare.
* Persons with disabilities and
seniors who are dual eligibles also tend to have far more extensive health care
needs than those persons who are only on Medicare. According to the committee's
background report, more than 50% of persons with disabilities and seniors who
are dual eligibles are limited in activities of daily living, and have higher
rates of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease and stroke than those
persons who are only on Medicare. According to the committee background
information, nearly four in ten or 400,000 of the dual eligibles have a mental
or cognitive disabilities that makes it difficult to understand and navigate
complicated program changes even if education and communication efforts by the
State and federal government are appropriate for an elderly population.
* More than 40% of persons with disabilities and seniors, according to the
committee background, are dual eligibles who are ethnic minorities and are more
likely to live in rural areas than other those persons who are only on
Medicare.
* One in four persons with disabilities and seniors who are
dual eligibles lives in a nursing home or other long-term care facility and more
than 60% live below the federal poverty level..
Emergency Drug
Coverage Ends On February 11 Unless Legislature Extends It
* On January 12, 2006, Gov.
Schwarzenegger issued an emergency order implementing a temporary emergency drug
program to pay for prescription drugs for persons with disabilities and seniors
who are eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal but who were unable to obtain
their drugs through their new Medicare drug coverage that took effect on January
1. The Governor also agreed with legislative leaders to pass emergency
legislation immediately to fund the emergency drug program.
* On January 20, the Governor signed
emergency legislation (AB 132) that extended emergency drug coverage to January
27 for tens of thousands of people with disabilities and seniors who are
eligible for both Medi-Cal and Medicare but have been unable to obtain their
medications under the new federal Medicare Part D Prescription Drug plan.
* On January 26, the Governor used the authority granted in AB 132, to
extend the emergency drug coverage until February 11, 11:59 PM. The
emergency drug coverage will end on that date unless the Legislature passes new
legislation to extend it, or the Governor issues another temporary emergency
order.
* The February 1 hearing will likely give the Legislature more
information on what next steps should be taken to address the crisis.
FEB 1 INFORMATIONAL HEARING AGENDA (as updated
1/31/06)
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 1:30 PM, State Capitol,
Room 4202
I. Opening Remarks from Committee
Chairs
II. The State Experience
* Tracy Patterson,
Medicare and Medi-Cal Beneficiary, Citrus Heights
* Marta Erismann, Community
Outreach Coordinator, California Health Advocates
* Michael Negrete, PharmD,
Vice President of Clinical Affairs, California Pharmacists Association
* Stan
Rosenstein, Director of Medical Services, Department of Health
Services
III. Federal Response, Planning, and Mitigation
* Jeff Flick, Region 9 Administrator, Federal Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services
* Calise I. Muñoz,
Esq., Regional Director, Region IX, US Department of Health and Human
Services
IV.
Representatives from Plans Providing Medicare Drug Coverage
* Susan
Rawlings, Senior Vice President and President, Senior Services, The Wellpoint
Companies
* Virginia White, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer,
Health Net Pharmaceutical Services
* Tom Paul, Chief Pharmacy Officer,
United/PacifiCare
V. Response and Recommendations from Advocates
* David Lipschutz, Staff Attorney, California Health Advocates
*
Angela Gilliard, Legislative Advocate, Western Center on Law and Poverty
*
Gary Passmore, Director, Congress of California Seniors
* Marty Omoto,
Director, California Disability Community Action Network (CDCAN)
* Ramón
Castellblanch, PhD, Representative, Senior Action Network & California
Alliance of Retired Americans
VI. Public Comment
How To Receive
CDCAN Capitol News Reports and Alerts
The California
Disability Community Action Network is a non-partisan link to thousands of
Californians with developmental and other disabilities, people with traumatic
brain and other injures, seniors and their families, community organizations and
providers, direct care and other workers, and other advocates. These action
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with that request to: martyomoto@rcip.com OR sign up via the NEW
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our organizing effort. Please feel free to forward or copy this
(attribution is nice but not necessary). We're all in this
together!