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Children's Services

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2020

Harrisburg, PA – Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar announced today that the Department of State will provide accessible write-in ballots to voters with disabilities who request one.

“These ballots will allow blind and low-vision voters to vote privately and independently in Tuesday’s primary,” Secretary Boockvar said. “We are committed to increasing accessibility for voters with disabilities and implementing a long-term solution for accessible ballots for the November election and beyond.”

U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson issued an order on Wednesday mandating that the department offer an accessible write-in primary ballot for voters with disabilities who request one.

To obtain an accessible write-in ballot, an individual must:

  • Be an eligible Pennsylvania voter who applied for an absentee or mail-in ballot by the May 26, 2020, deadline and has not yet submitted their voted ballot.
  • Submit an email request to ra-awib@pa.gov  for the accessible write-in ballot by 8 p.m. on May 29, 2020. Include in the email the voter’s full name, date of birth and address where registered.
  • Complete an accessible declaration electronically sent to them by the department and authenticate the declaration with a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license, a valid Pennsylvania state personal identification number or the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number.

The department will electronically transmit via email to the requesting voter: (1) an accessible write-in ballot; (2) an accessible declaration form; (3) accessible instructions; (4) an accessible candidate list for the voter’s election district; and (5) a write-in envelope.

Using their screen reader software, voters with disabilities can then vote in the privacy of their own homes, print their voted ballot and return it to their county elections office. Their county must receive their voted ballot by 8 p.m. on June 2.  A postmark is not sufficient.

MEDIA CONTACT: Wanda Murren, 717-783-1621

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National Council is gathering the information via a secure portal, which will be sent to HHS. It is hoped that HHS will use this information in the way that they provided funding directly to skilled nursing facilities via their bank accounts (instead of allocating funds to the state Medicaid agency, for example).

National Council believes this information will be very important in the dissemination of HHS funds to Medicaid providers. National Council is hopeful this action will encourage them to make payments directly to providers, again, as they have with the $4.9bn to skilled nursing facilities.

It is, of course, up to provider comfort whether or not they participate. National Council hopes to collect this information via the portal by tomorrow, May 29.

Dear Member,

We realize some of you thought our email yesterday was a scam or a phishing attempt. Rest assured, it was not a scam. But we apologize if we caused confusion in our attempt to convey important information about our time-sensitive effort to unlock money from the Department of Health and Human Services Provider Relief Fund.

As we search for ways to help you withstand the brutal economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are using every tactic we can think of to obtain federal funds for you. Our current effort to tap into the HHS Provider Relief Fund requires a coordinated effort, but this strategy will not put your organization at risk.

HHS has to make payments directly to providers and to facilitate this we are coordinating a broad effort to request money from the Relief Fund, following the approach used by a coalition of nursing homes, which is now receiving $4.9 billion from the Fund.

To clarify, we have established a secure portal to accommodate the effort to gather information. ALL INFORMATION SUBMITTED TO THE SECURE PORTAL will be kept confidential.

Why are we doing this now? Because the federal government is currently determining how to target Medicaid providers to receive a portion of the remaining unallocated COVID-19 Provider Relief Funds. In other words, the money is available. And we want to do everything we can to position you to receive this funding.

There is no obligation to participate, but if you choose to participate, we respectfully request that you upload the following information to this secure data collection portal: https://learningcommunities.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/1140/home

1. TINs

  1. Medicaid enrollment numbers (calendar year 2019)
  2. Medicaid 2018 and 2019 revenue(from all sources of Medicaid revenue in these calendar years)
  3. Total Revenue 2018 and 2019
  4. Bank account/routing number

The National Council will submit the information collected on the secure, external site DIRECTLY TO HHS. THE DATA WILL NOT BE RETAINED.

If you wish to participate, please complete and submit the form no later than Friday, May 29, 2020. Questions? Email policy@thenationalcouncil.org and please note that this request is separate from current HHS efforts to collect additional information from prior CARES funding recipients. Submitting your information is not a guarantee that you will receive HHS funding.

I hope that helps clarify our intent, and please accept my apologies for any confusion we caused. Perhaps in our haste to unlock this vital funding we failed to provide the fullest picture possible or anticipate your concerns.

Please remember we always have your best interests at heart.

Sincerely,

Chuck Ingoglia
President and CEO
National Council for Behavioral Health

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The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) is committed to serving vulnerable populations every day and protecting individuals receiving services in a facility licensed by DHS. On March 30, we issued guidance for entities licensed by the following DHS program offices:

  1. Office of Developmental Programs (ODP)
  2. Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF)
  3. Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL)
  4. Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS)
  5. Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL)/Bureau of Human Services Licensing (BHSL)

In the March 30 guidance, we indicated that DHS will not be conducting any annual renewal inspections until Governor Wolf lifts the current Proclamation of Disaster Emergency for COVID-19 or until such other time set by DHS. However, licensing staff continued to investigate incidents and complaints.

Beginning May 28, DHS will resume annual renewal inspections in alignment with the Governor’s plan to re-open parts of the state. Information about the phases for re-opening can be found at the following link: https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/.

All DHS program offices listed above will resume annual renewal inspections for counties that transition to the “green” phase. OCYF, OCDEL, ODP and OMHSAS will also start some annual renewal inspections for all counties that have transitioned to the “yellow” phase.

Licensing staff from all program offices will continue to investigate incidents and complaints statewide.
DHS is also considering conducting some annual renewal inspections remotely through virtual means.

More information about this will be forthcoming prior to any use of remote inspections. Please contact your Regional Program Office with any questions you may have.

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