Join Our List
|
Dual Demonstration "One Care" Health Plan Moves Ahead With Three Plans In
| |
|
BOSTON - Tuesday, July 16, 2013 - The Patrick Administration today announced three health plans have signed contracts to participate in One Care, a new, integrated health care pilot that will better serve adults with disabilities, ages 21-64 who receive both MassHealth and Medicare benefits. The program builds on the Patrick Administration's health care cost containment efforts, by providing better coordination of care for this population through global payments and personalized services.
Participating health plans in One Care include Commonwealth Care Alliance, Fallon Total Care, and Network Health. Massachusetts Health and Human Services (HHS) and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will jointly administer the program. HHS estimates that approximately 90,000 individuals will be eligible to enroll in One Care beginning in October 2013.
Under three-way contracts with HHS and CMS, One Care plans will receive a combined global payment from the federal and state governments to provide all the services of Medicare Parts A, B and D, and MassHealth. Until now, these services have only been available to individuals on a non-coordinated, fee-for-service basis. The plans will begin accepting enrollments effective October 1, 2013, pending successful completion of a joint state-federal readiness review. MassHealth is launching a public awareness campaign to help inform the public about One Care and members who can enroll in One Care will start to receive mailings in September informing them of the opportunity.
|
|
|
 |
Children, Families & Disabilities Committee Hears Rep. Tom Stanley Bill & Cornucopia of Other Topics
|  The Arc's Real Lives Bill Also Heard
You have to really admire the members of the Massachusetts Legislature as they sit through hours and hours of hearings giving each conferee respect and their ear even when the topics and testimony may wander a bit off topic.
Such was the case yesterday, as Rep. Kay Khan, the Co-Chair of the Legislature's Families, Children and Persons with Disabilities Committee.
The Committee heard a variety of bills ranging from child care, disabilities, LGBT concerns, worker safety bills and others including the ADDP Reinvestment Act, House Bill 156.
 The bill's sponsors led by Rep. Tom Stanley of Waltham, introduced the bill earlier this year to address reinvesting the savings from closing state institutions into community disability programs, specifically using the money as a partial source of funding Chapter 257, the state's rate reform law aimed at strengthening the financial health of the Human Service System.
In his testimony before the Committee, Rep. Stanley noted that as the Commonwealth has begun to close state institutions by moving people with developmental disabilities to community settings; funds saved from closures have yet to be re-invested into community programs, To help facilitate such reinvestment, Stanley's bill directs that at least 50% of the savings derived from closures and the subsequent sale of related excess state property, be directly reinvested into community programs, partly to assist in the funding of Chapter 257. Testifying on behalf of providers, ADDP's Director of Governmental Affairs, Tara Hopper Zeltner, and ADDP Board Member & LifeLinks, Inc. CEO, Jean Phelps testified about the need to support House Bill 156, to fully fund Chapter 257 and of the need to improve direct support worker's salaries and help stabilize community programs.
Also discussed yesterday before the Committee was The Arc of  Massachusetts' Real Live Bill. Rep. Tom Sannicandro, the bill's chief sponsor, along with over 100 other co-sponsors, testified to the need of people with disabilities and their families to have more control over how programs, services and supports are determined and decided. Sannicandro expressed concerns about the Commonwealth's EOHHS and DDS Regional and Area structures which assign people to geographic regions, often tying funding to a specific region, thereby limiting the ability of individuals to receive services and supports in the community of their choosing. Additionally Sannicandro discussed the need for families to custom design services and supports as they see fit, while also giving individuals and families more choice over where they decide to live then the present system provides. ADDP supports the Real Lives Bill in its current form.
|
|
|
|
|
