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Physical Disabilities & Aging

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Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

RCPA regional meetings are back! We invite you to attend a regional meeting in your area on any of the following dates in August or September 2022. The meetings will focus on RCPA issues, including:

  • Legislative information;
  • Division and conference updates;
  • DHS updates; and
  • Status of the CCBHC/ICWC program in PA.

We will also provide an update to the addiction treatment community on our advocacy efforts to ensure the Opioid Use Disorder Centers of Excellence transition from a DHS-directed payment model to a state plan service is fair and manageable for providers. In addition, ProVantaCare (our sister managed care entity) will review its efforts, goals, and upcoming opportunities.

The meeting will include lunch. Immediately following lunch, we invite RCPA members and advocates to invite their consumers, children, and families to the Delta Center Convening on Telehealth, which will feature discussions and subsequent recommendations to guide the PA Delta Center team in its advocacy in developing regulations, bulletins, and practices that ensure equity and access to services for all communities. Our previous telehealth forums have been incredibly informative and enlightening as participants share their life experience and perspectives that can shape policy development. Your participation will be key to our ongoing work in ensuring a healthy and sustainable telehealth footprint in Pennsylvania. For additional information, please contact Jim Sharp, Director, Children’s Division.

Please see the full agenda here. Registration is required.

We hope you will join us for this regional event! Please register below:

Monday, August 1 – RCPA Central Regional Meeting and Delta Center Telehealth Convening
Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel, 4650 Lindle Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111
Register Here

Tuesday, August 2 – RCPA NE Regional Meeting and Delta Center Telehealth Convening
Holiday Inn Wilkes Barre, 600 Wildflower Drive, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702
Register Here

Friday, August 19 – RCPA Western Regional Meeting and Delta Center Telehealth Convening
RLA Learning and Conference Center, 850 Cranberry Woods Drive, Cranberry Township, PA 16066
Register Here

Friday, September 16 – RCPA SE Regional Meeting and Delta Center Telehealth Convening
The Alloy King of Prussia, a DoubleTree by Hilton, 301 W. Dekalb Pike, King of Prussia, PA 19406
Register Here

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Capitolwire: New Year Dawns Without Budget in Place

By: John Finnerty, Capitolwire.com Bureau Chief

HARRISBURG (July 1) – The new fiscal year started this morning without a state budget in place to pay for it and no obvious signal that the Legislature will quickly get a budget to the governor.

Late Thursday, Senate officials announced that the chamber won’t even be in session on Friday, though the Senate has plans to be in session on Saturday and Sunday. The House is scheduled to be in session Friday and Saturday, though at the close of Thursday’s session, Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, reminded members to monitor their emails for updates on session days.

Despite the annoying aggravation of having to work through the holiday weekend, the broader immediate sting of failing to meet the state budget deadline doesn’t exist anymore due to a 2009 Supreme Court decision requiring that state employees must continue to receive their paychecks even if the budget hasn’t been passed.

Rep. Stan Saylor, R-York, the Majority chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that not having a budget in place has little, if any, immediate impact on state agencies.

Gov. Tom Wolf has been pushing for a dramatic increase in spending while Republicans have been trying to get the governor to agree to rollback controversial proposals including the bridge tolling plan (though a Commonwealth Court ruling Thursday ordered that the tolling plan be halted) and charter school regulations.

Alexis Campbell, a PennDOT spokeswoman, said that while the tolling plan has been met with objections, the administration is still waiting for lawmakers to explain how to pay for the needed bridge repairs and in the long-term replace the gas tax.

“To date, the legislature has failed to offer any solutions beyond their approval of this P3 initiative, that will assist the administration’s desire to phase out the gas tax. The Wolf Administration continues to welcome discussions with the General Assembly on alternative funding sources that can replace the gas tax, which is no longer a dependable source of funding to meet all bridge and highway needs in this commonwealth,” she said.

Republicans say they are interested in restraining Wolf’s spending proposals in order to position the state to better weather an economic slowdown.

“Senate Republicans continue to work towards a budget that invests in the people of Pennsylvania and ensures the financial stability of the Commonwealth as we face economic headwinds due to the Biden Administration’s inflationary policies,” Erica Clayton Wright, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, said in a statement released late Thursday night.

Amidst all of this, former President Donald Trump weighed in earlier this week, issuing a statement in support of a poll watcher bill sponsored by Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, and calling for Republicans to refuse to pass a budget unless it includes other election integrity changes.

Groups lobbying for election access have called for Wolf to veto Mastriano’s Senate Bill 573, and a Wolf spokeswoman strongly hinted that Wolf would veto the legislation, saying the administration “strongly opposes” the bill.

(Source: Capitolwire, July 1, 2022).

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RCPA has signed onto a letter to Congressional leaders of the Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance, along with 244 other signatories, outlining the need for parity in addiction and mental health care under Medicare.

As the President’s 2023 Budget and Senate Finance Committee’s bipartisan report has highlighted, Medicare is not subject to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Parity Act). As a result, Medicare beneficiaries do not have coverage of or access to the full range of mental health and substance use disorder benefits they need, and often lose access to treatment they were receiving prior to becoming eligible for Medicare. Although Congress has eliminated disparate financial requirements for Medicare beneficiaries, Medicare still imposes both quantitative (e.g. 190-day lifetime limitation on psychiatric hospital care) and non-quantitative treatment limitations that would violate the Parity Act. Applying the Parity Act to Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D is the critical next step to make mental health and substance use disorder services available and accessible to the millions of Medicare beneficiaries in need of treatment.

Read the full letter here.

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The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) will be presenting a live, interactive webinar series on housing issues. This five-session series will be offered twice (see schedule below). The webinars will include targeted content, including question and answer (Q&A) sessions with housing experts and OLTL staff. Each session is scheduled for 90 minutes to allow for interaction and Q&A segments.

The webinar series targets Service Coordinators, Managed Care Organizations, and Service Coordination Entity support staff who assist program participants in securing and maintaining affordable, accessible housing. This series builds on information already provided in the Online Housing Training Modules and the Self-Determination Housing of Pennsylvania (SDHP)/Inglis’s Prepared Renter Program (PREP) curriculum.

This series of webinars is designed to be taken in order. The content in each session builds on prior content. Participants will get the most out of the program by taking all the sessions in order. Although individuals are not required to complete the sessions in order, to keep the sessions focused, the webinar leader may opt to table questions that were covered in prior sessions.

The series will be presented twice:

  • August 16 – September 13 (every Tuesday) from 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
  • September 21 – October 19 (every Wednesday) from 9:00 am – 10:30 am

2022 OLTL Housing Series Curriculum

Webinar 1: Understanding and Navigating Housing Nuances

  • 10 Housing-Sector Nuances
  • 3 Main Pathways to Housing Resources

Webinar 2: Recommended Relationships and Resources in the Housing Sector

  • 5 Key Partnerships to Cultivate
  • Top 6 Housing Resources

Webinar 3: Funding Sources and Clarifying Affordability Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • 6 Kinds of Funding Sources
  • 3 Concepts to Understand About Affordability and Income-based Eligibility

Webinar 4: Legal Issues Related to Housing

  • Criminal Justice System Involvement
  • Fair Housing and Reasonable Accommodation

Webinar 5: Keeping Participants Housed and Landlord Engagement Techniques

  • 6 Key Concepts in Keeping Participants Housed
  • Landlord Engagement Techniques and Resources

To register for the Housing Webinar Series, please go to the OLTL Housing Webinars registration page.

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The Council on Brain Injury (CoBI) released the following information regarding a free webinar they will be offering through their clinical forum series on brain injury and substance misuse that will feature opioid misuse. The webinar is scheduled for July 12, 2022, from 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm. Details are below.

CoBI Clinical Forum Series presents: Brain Injury and Substance Misuse, Featuring Opioid Misuse: Practical Implications for Brain Injury Providers (A Webinar)
A Presentation and Discussion With Monica Vaccaro
Tuesday, July 12, 2022   |   3:30 pm – 5:00 pm   |   Webinar

Monica Vaccaro is the Director of Programs for the Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania (BIAPA), providing oversight and direction to multiple programs, including the Brain Injury Resource Line, NeuroResource Facilitation, Brain Injury and Opioids Training, and the BrainSTEPS School Re-Entry Program. In addition to her role with BIAPA, she is a Research Associate at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, with a particular interest in interventions for common effects of brain injury, including anger management, depression, and goal setting.

This session is intended for a professional audience. There is no cost to attend. 

Register Here

Questions? Please contact MJ Schmidt.

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