FW: 81st Session Legislative Updates: Weeks 12-14

[Guest guest]

From: The Arc of Texas

Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 10:40 AM

To: Nagla Moussa

Subject: 81st Session Legislative Updates: Weeks 12-14

The Arc

81st Session Legislative Updates:

Weeks 12-14

Amy's Legislative

Update for Weeks 12-14

Forty-two

days until the sun sets on the last day of the 2009 legislative session!

Between

now and Sine Die, lots will be cramped into the legislative session.

Late night hearings (we were at the Capitol until after 2 a.m. yesterday),

hearings posted with little or no notice, the final stretch of the budget

writing process and lots more is in store for the last 45 days of

session. The next 45 days are of critical importance, so be sure to

stay tuned for important action alerts in the coming weeks. Thank

you, volunteers, for continuing to make the trek to Austin. You are

making an impact and legislative offices do notice our constant presence at

the Capitol.

Transition

Medicine

Did

you know that over 90% of children and youth with serious chronic illness

or disability are now surviving into adulthood? Medical advances are

making a difference in expanding the lives of our loved ones.

Unfortunately, the adult health care world is not prepared to provide care

to this population. Medical schools teach future pediatricians about

childhood illness and disability; medical schools do not teach internal

medicine physicians about these conditions, since this population was never

expected to live past their 20th birthday.

Dr.

Peacock of the Baylor College of Medicine opened the state's only

Transition Medicine Clinic affiliated with an academic setting in

1995. Since then, the clinic which runs 8 hours a week, the clinic

has been overwhelmed with families seeking care for their loved ones after

being denied access to children's hospitals and/or being unable to find an

adult doctor or subspecialist that will accept the " complex

patient " into their practices.

There

are many reasons for the barriers to transition for this population into

adult health care, including student training, practicing physician continuing

education, inadequate reimbursement rates for providing services to adults

with complex medical needs, and the disparity between children and adult

Medicaid service arrays and reimbursement rates.

Dr.

Peacock wrote an article about this problem and was published in the Texas

Medical Association Magazine in March 2009. Take a look at the

article here: http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=7463

We

are working on three initiatives to being addressing this " new "

problem. They are Senate Bill 2241 by Senator Zaffirini to establish

a Hospital Level of Care Waiver Program and two budget initiatives to (1)

expand the Baylor College of Medicine clinic from 8 to 40 hours a week in

order to provide a medical home to an additional 800 individuals AND to

provide a clinic for over 100 health care students (medical, nursing,

social work, mental health, etc.); and, (2) direct the Health and Human

Services Commission to study the issue of Transition Medicine in Texas in

order to establish information about the transition medicine population in

Texas, their needs and programmatic needs over the next 10 years.

If

you would like more information about Transition Medicine, these initiatives

or to be added to a transition medicine e-list, contact Amy Mizcles at amizcles@....

The

State Budget

Over

the past two weeks, the Senate budget process has been on stand-by as the

House Appropriations Committee completed their drafting of the budget,

passed it out of committee and sent it back to the House floor. This

morning, the House version of the budget bill is being laid out for

discussion. The debate is expected to last through the day and

possibly through tomorrow morning. Over 500 amendments for the budget

bill were filed with the clerk on Wednesday. Of those, approximately

100 amendments were filed to impact Article 2 (health and human services

agency budget). We are monitoring the debate and will report back to

you next week.

As

soon as the House version of the budget is finally passed out of the house,

we will develop a document that compares key funding items in both the

Senate and House versions of the budget bill.

For

more information on the state budget process or the state's health and

human services budget, contact Amy Mizcles at amizcles@....

State

Schools and Long-Term Services and Supports

There

have been a large number of bills filed this legislative session relating

to state schools and long term services and supports for people with

disabilities. The Senate Health and Human Services and House Human

Services heard many of the filed bills in the Senate this past week on

Thursday April 16, 2009. Public testimony was heard on the following

bills and each bill was left pending.

SB

35 by Senator Zaffirini would create a mortality review board to examine

the deaths of individuals with developmental disabilities who received

certain services from the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services

(DADS), at the time of their death.

SB

40 by Senator Zaffirini would require the Department of Aging and

Disability Services (DADS) to conduct on-site surveys, at least every 12

months, in each HCS group home and foster care home.

SB

70 by Senator would require the Texas Department of Family and

Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate allegations of abuse, neglect, or

exploitation in community-based intermediate care facilities (ICF/MR).

SB

336 by Senator Deuell, would enable the executive commissioner of the Texas

Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to close a state school if HHSC

determined that closure would result in more efficient use of state money

or resources.

SB

1060 by Senator Ellis would require the Health and Human Services

Commission (HHSC) to develop a plan to reform and rebalance Texas'

long-term services and support system.

SB

1144 by Senator Zaffirini would require HHSC to create a supported

decision-making pilot program for persons with intellectual and

developmental disabilities and persons with cognitive disabilities. This

program would utilize volunteer advocates to train persons with

developmental disabilities on how to advocate for their own rights and

interests and make informed choices.

SB

1407 by Senator Shapleigh would change the name of " state

schools " to " state developmental centers. " SB 1407 would

also create a pilot program to study the feasibility of operating state-run

group homes serving no more than four individuals.

SB

2360 by Senator Ellis would reduce unnecessary institutional placements,

reform case management in certain long term care programs, and identify

residents who can transition to receiving services in the community through

the waiver program.

HB

1589 by Representative Rose would reform long-term services and support for

individuals with developmental disabilities. It would create a system

of services based on need, increase monitoring of community services, and

redirect resources going to state schools to assist with funding the wait

list.

In

the previous weeks, the following two bills which were passed out of the

House and are waiting for action from the Senate.

HB

748 by Representative Darby passed the House floor on 4/02/09 and arrived

in the Senate on 4/06/09. This bill has yet to be referred to

committee. This bill allows State Schools to contract their services

to community providers who provide disability service to provide services

and resources to support individuals with developmental disabilities,

including individuals with dual diagnosis disorders.

1.

Counting down the days.

2.

Transition Medicine

3.

Budget

4.

State Schools and Long Term Services and Supports

5.

Employment

6.

Capitol Days

7.

Action Alert for SB 1395

8.

Media

Forty-two

days until the sun sets on the last day of the 2009 legislative session!

Between

now and Sine Die, lots will be cramped into the legislative session. Late

night hearings (we were at the Capitol until after 2 a.m. Thursday),

hearings posted with little or no notice, the final stretch of the budget

writing process and lots more is in store for the last 42 days of session.

The next 42 days are of critical importance, so be sure to stay tuned for

important action alerts in the coming weeks. Thank you, volunteers, for

continuing to make the trek to Austin. You are making an impact and

legislative offices do notice our constant presence at the Capitol.

Update

on Arc Days at the Capitol...Sharing the Vision for a better world.

First

off, thank you to all advocates who have already come from across the state

to " Tell their Stories " and make an impact in the legislature. We

have had about 45 advocates come so far and have made around 80 legislative

visits!! In addition, we have 5 groups scheduled to come in the next month.

Special

thanks to Representative Moody (El Paso) who recognized advocates from the

Arc of El Paso on the House Floor on April 7th! Send a thank you note to

Representative Moody for the recognition and his support of people with

intellectual and developmental disabilities!

(joseph.moody@...)

Representative

Herrero (Corpus Christi) and Representative Truitt (Tarrant County) will be

filing resolutions for advocates coming from their districts next week!

This is great news because it is one more way to have positive name

recognition for The Arc and people with intellectual and developmental

disabilities.

Again,

thank you to everyone who has helped The Arc have a presence in the Capitol

throughout the 81st session, it is because of you all that we can continue

to be successful! We have a little more than a month of session left-sign

up today!

To

schedule an Arc Day at the Capitol contact, Ginger Mayeaux at

gmayeaux@... or (125).

WE

NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW WITH SB 1395

SB

1395 by Senator Zaffirini is the Person First Respectful Language Bill

It's

getting very late in the legislative session and if this bill doesn't get a

hearing soon it will die in committee. If you live in Senator Jane 's

district of Fort Worth or know of someone who does there is something very

important you can do that will only take a few minutes. Make one short

email and two brief phone calls. We really need people in Senator 's

district to contact her and her committee but everyone is encouraged to

make contact.

Call

and email Senator Jane 's office to ask for her to ask her to place

Senate Bill 1395 on the agenda for a hearing in the Health and Human

Service Committee AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and ask her to support the

bill.

Senator

's email address: jane.nelson@...

Senator

's HHS committee office number: 463-0360

Senator

's office number: 463.0112

Media

Ball, from the Austin American Statesman, wrote a great feature about

respectfule language which made the cover of Saturdays paper. In case

you didn't see it please go to the link below to check it out. This

story features two Texas Advocates, Cardenias and Consuelo

Castillo. This is a must read so please take a few minutes to check

it out.

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/04/18/0418rword.html

To

Unsubscribe:

You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by visiting here.