AUCD’s Community Inclusion Team supports the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) Network in partnership with the Administration for Community Living.
AUCD’s Maternal and Child Health Engagement supports the Autism CARES Programs, including LEND and DBP Programs.
AUCD’s Public Health Team works to create health promotion and public health efforts that include people with disabilities.
AUCD Emerging Leaders are a part of a community that includes trainees, early career professionals, self-advocates, and family members from AUCD member Centers and Programs.
AUCD's Disability Policy News (DPN) is a weekly newsletter highlighting federal policy issues affecting people with disabilities and their families. DPN features updates in plain language and action steps that people can take to educate policymakers. DPN is published every Friday.
In this edition:
On Tuesday, March 17, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing in its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, titled “Protecting Patients and Safeguarding Taxpayer Dollars: The Role of CMS in Combatting Medicare and Medicaid Fraud.” The hearing will focus on what states are doing to protect Medicaid program integrity and prevent fraud.
The Administration and Congressional Republicans have been determined in their efforts to root out what they describe as rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in healthcare, especially Medicaid. On March 5, Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman John Joyce (R-PA), and Health Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) sent letters to ten states requesting information on the states’ efforts around Medicaid program integrity.
The Administration has recently announced new efforts to broadly address healthcare fraud in service of decreasing federal costs related to Medicaid. Advocates are concerned that using the language of “fraud-busting” could be cover for the Administration to cut Medicaid services for people with disabilities and older adults. As evidenced by the Administration’s actions cutting off millions of Medicaid dollars to Minnesota, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may use examples of fraud to cut off broader Medicaid funding to states.
On Tuesday, March 17, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is having a hearing. A hearing is a meeting where Members of Congress talk to experts and people who have lived experience. This is a hearing in a special part of the committee called the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. This hearing is called: “Protecting Patients and Safeguarding Taxpayer Dollars: The Role of CMS in Combatting Medicare and Medicaid Fraud.” Fraud is when someone pretends to be someone or does something so they can get money. The hearing will be about fraud in Medicaid and Medicare, which is when someone pretends to be someone else or pretends to provide some services so that they can get money from Medicaid or Medicare.
The Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) and the Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Committee is John Joyce (R-Pennsylvania). The Chairman of the Health Sucommittee (a different part of the Energy and Commerce Committee) is Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia). These Representatives are very focused on Medicaid fraud. They sent letters to ten states asking them what they are doing to stop fraud. Even though the federal government gives out Medicaid money and is in charge of the program overall, every state has its own Medicaid program.
The President and his Administration have talked a lot about how they think there is a lot of fraud in Medicaid. Many Republican Members of Congress have talked about this too. Advocates are worried that the Administration is using fraud as an excuse to take Medicaid away from people and spend less on it. The Administration cut off millions of Medicaid dollars to Minnesota when they found examples of fraud there, so people are worried that the Administration will do the same thing to other states.
View past issues of Disability Policy News to learn more about AUCD's policy priorities and how you can engage in policy actions.
