Sign Up Advocates Stuff to KNOW Stuff to DO Who's behind Freedom Clearinghouse? What is our mission? What's Happening Now? Home page       Photo Credits

From the September, 1998 issue of Mouth magazine. Advocates can push harder in the Post-Olmstead Era by Lucy Gwin Copyright 1998 Free Hand Press. Representatives of ADAPT, meeting with HHS Secretary Donna Shalala the week before the Olmsteaddecision was announced, had already begun work on next steps. Mike Auberger, an ADAPT national organizer who attended that meeting, says ADAPT asked the Department of Health and Human Services to make a couple of key changes. First is that HHS must define for the states "most integrated setting." According to Auberger, and to others who have pressed states on this point, "States don't have the first idea of what that term means. HHS has to tell them." The second definition ADAPT asked HHS to provide to states is the one for "treating professionals" as in "if the State's treating professionals have determined that community placement is appropriate." ADAPT asked, and Shalala agreed to try, to include advocates under the definition of treating professional. Shalala has promised ADAPT to give states technical assistance on "most integrated setting." The fight is in the states Auberger, when asked what single thing Mouth readers could do in order to get Olmstead implemented, said, "Go to your state Medicaid directors. Spell it out to them real simple: Now that Olmstead is on the books, how is our state going to implement it? What is the plan for most integrated setting? HCFA's already told states that organizations of people with disabilities have to be at the table when they work that out. Now's the time to act on that." Mike Oxford, a Kansas ADAPT organizer and VP of the National Council on Independent Living, says, "Let's get real. No state has an Olmstead plan." He wants to see us review every state's plan for most integrated setting. "The Court said only that waiting lists must 'move at a reasonable pace.' We'll have to be real advocates," Oxford emphasized, "to hammer out with every state how long is too long on a waiting list." "Until we get MiCassa, we've done just about as much as we can with the feds," Oxford believes. "The fight is clearly in the states." Spelling it out   Reprinted from Mouth magazine, September-October 1999. Use our fill-in-the-blanks letter to set up a meeting with your state Medicaid Director.   Freedom Clearinghouse is a project of Free Hand Press, publisher of Mouth magazine. Website developed by Cliffwood Organic Works. Website hosted by DIMENET. | E-mail | Home |