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Policy Areas

As the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11, 2023 nears, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a number of resources to help with this transition. Included in these resources are FAQs for all CMS programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and private insurance. Some additional information includes:

Additionally, CMS released the  Quality, Safety, & Oversight Memorandum to provide information about:

  • Expiration of emergency waivers related to minimum health and safety requirements for long-term care and acute and continuing care providers
  • Timelines for certain regulatory requirements issued during the PHE

The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a full committee hearing ‎on May 4, 2023 at 1:00 pm. This hearing, “Preparing for the Next Public Health Emergency: Reauthorizing the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA),” will address the PAHPA set ‎to expire on September 30, 2023. This would be PAHPA’s first reauthorization since the ‎COVID-19 pandemic, and there are significant lessons learned and issues to address from this ‎experience. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf, and Assistant ‎Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dawn O’Connell are a few individuals expected to testify at the ‎hearing.

The transition from student to adult services is often referred to as a “cliff” where many needed services and service providers “drop off.” For individuals with complex communication needs, this often results in regression or stalled progress in communication, right when it is arguably more important to quality of life than ever. Penn State Health has focused their efforts on addressing this gap, teaching adults with limited functional communication to be able to communicate more with high tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). While providing outpatient speech and language therapy and applied behavior analysis services in their clinic, they then noticed another gap in services. The direct support professionals, parents, and other caretakers supporting the patients on a daily basis often had limited experience, knowledge, and confidence using the AAC themselves with the person they were supporting. In response to this concern, Penn State Health has been building resources to help caregivers become confident, competent communication partners using the AAC. They have been developing models of education and training that meet caretakers where they are, acknowledging their time and capacity limits. With these efforts, they hope to hear the voices of many more adults in this population – not just in the clinic, but also in the community.

Tuesday, June 30, 2023
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Register Here

System For Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities, Autism Will Collapse Without Increased State Aid, Advocates Say
Health, human services organizations ask General Assembly for $430 million increase to stop further termination of programs, closure of facilities

HARRISBURG, Pa. (May 3, 2023) – Advocates for and providers of services for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/A) today urged the Pennsylvania General Assembly to increase state aid by $430 million to prevent a full collapse of the system. Prominent health and human services organizations gathered in the Capitol rotunda and said chronic underfunding and staffing shortages are forcing them to end programs and turn away individuals.

The $430 million funding request would generate a federal match that would allow providers to resume service to the 4,029 individuals who lost care in recent years. Without the 15-percent increase, providers say that 60,000 Pennsylvanians with ID/A would be at risk of losing or experiencing a reduction of essential services [read full press release].

 

 

The Managed Long-Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) Subcommittee will convene for their next meeting on May 12, 2023, from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. The meeting will be held at the Pennsylvania Department of Education in the Honors Suite, 1st Floor, at 333 Market Street in Harrisburg. The meeting will be held in person and will also offer the ability to participate via webinar and remote streaming. The links to participate are provided below. Comments and questions prior to the meeting should be sent via email.

The agenda has been released for the meeting. Please note: this will be the first MLTSS meeting that the Office of Long-Term Living’s (OLTL) new Deputy Secretary, Julie Marsala, will be attending.

Conference Line and Bridge Number:
1-415-655-0052
PIN: 377387993#

Webinar Link

Remote streaming Link