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;August 29, 2012 

NACHSA e-Alert

 

Greetings NACHSA Members:

The House and Senate are in recess until September 10.

 

Upcoming Congressional Briefing on SSBG

NACHSA is working with NACo and a few other organizations to conduct a September 12 congressional briefing on the Social Services Block Grant.  During debate in the House Ways & Means Committee and on the floor this past spring, congressional supporters used information provided by NACHSA members to fight against the proposed elimination.  NACHSA will compile the information collected previously and make it available at the event.  

 

To prepare for the briefing, NACo has requested information on the use of Social Services Block Grant funds. Click here to complete the short survey. It is intended to capture additional information and supplement the earlier NACHSA materials. 

 

Please return the survey by September 7 to Marilina Sanz at NACo ([email protected])      

 

Scholarship Application Deadline Extended NACHSA has extended the application date to Friday, August 31 for members of dues-paying counties interested in being considered for one of five scholarships to attend this fall's human services conference held by the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA). Slated for October 3-5 in Long Beach, CA, the conference, Strengthening Policy, Improving Practice, Supporting Communities will continue the work done in recent years during CWDA's poverty symposiums, and will explore policies and strategies that best serve families across communities.

The scholarships include registration (which includes two lunches and two breakfasts), up to three nights lodging and roundtrip airfare to Long Beach. To learn more about the conference, click here.

  

If you are interested in being considered for a scholarship, please contact Tom Joseph at [email protected]  

 

Since 2009, NACHSA has sent ten scholars to this conference.

In This Issue
Health Reform Resources
Human Services Resources
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Health Reform Resources

Medicaid Expansion Under the ACA: The National Health Law Program (NHeLP) has issued a brief summarizing the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its implications for Medicaid expansion within states. (4 pp.) NHeLP has also created a Medicaid Expansion Toolbox to serve as a one-stop resource center for health advocates and states trying to make sense of the decision, the implications for Medicaid and the policy considerations moving forward.  It includes a paper outlining 50 reasons why Medicaid expansion is good for states. (9 pp.)   

  

ACA and Child Welfare Populations: From the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, this paper outlines the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on current and former foster youth.  (7 pp.)

Human Services Resources

Child Support Fact Sheets Available: Prepared by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, four new fact sheets share research and innovations to improve services to noncustodial parents and encourage them to make child support payments. Fact sheets include:  

         Establishing Realistic Child Support Orders: Engaging Noncustodial Parents

         Providing Expedited Review and Modification Assistance

         Access to Justice Innovations  

         Realistic Child Support Orders for Incarcerated Parents

Managing Psychotropic Drugs Among Foster Youth:The federal Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) has issued this Informational Bulletin to inform state and local governments about additional opportunities and resources to address the use of psychotropic drugs in vulnerable populations. It offers additional tools and mechanisms to promote the appropriate use, and enhanced oversight of, psychotropic medications for children in foster care and individuals living in nursing facilities.  

  

HHS Receives State IV-E Wavier Requests: HHS has posted the eight state IV-E Child Welfare Waiver applications it received. The states who have applied are:Ark., Colo., Ill., Mich., Pa., Utah, Wash., and Wis. NACHSA is a member of the National Foster Care Coalition which has written a summary of the applications.

Express Lane Eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP: A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report finds that automatic enrollment in health coverage programs yielded significant administrative savings for the state of Louisiana, as well as improved access to care for eligible residents. The state has used Express Lane Eligibility (ELE) to identify and enroll eligible children in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) using pre-existing data from sources including state income tax records and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Click here to read a summary of the findings. (5 pp.)   

 

TANF is 16 years Old: Sixteen years ago this month, President Clinton signed into law the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has posted this Chart Book which reviews its progress and shortcomings over the years.

FY2010 TANF Recipient Data Available: HHS has posted a national snapshot of the characteristics and financial circumstances of TANF recipients. Click here to view state data.  

Child Care Costs Among States: Child Care Aware of America has released Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012 Report, which presents 2011 data about the price parents pay for full-time child care in each state. The report includes average fees for both child care centers and family child care homes for infants, 4-year-olds and school-age children. The information was provided by state and local agencies that maintain data about child care programs in the communities they serve or was drawn from the most recent state market rate surveys. Click here to read an executive summary. (3 pp.)

 

Goldman Sachs Invests in NYC Social Impact Bond: The New York Times reports that NYC will allow Goldman Sachs to invest nearly $10 million in a jail program, with the pledge that the financial services giant would profit if the program succeeded in significantly reducing recidivism rates. The city will be the first in the U.S. to test "social impact bonds," also called pay-for-success bonds, which are an effort to find new ways to finance initiatives that might save governments money over the long term.

 

Participation Rates in Government Programs: According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, nearly 45 million Americans participated in a government assistance program each month in 2009. Assistance programs include TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI and housing assistance. The report found that people were most likely to participate in Medicaid than any other program. The report also explores the characteristics of individuals who received benefits, finding that individuals living in single female-headed families were more likely to participate in these programs (46.3 percent) than were individuals living in married-couple families (12.3 percent) in an average month in 2009. 

Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators