April 13, 2007

Dearest Advocates:

URGENT ALERT! Please Read and write and call TODAY…….

A surprising item showed up in the Fiscal Year 2008 budget when it was passed out of House Appropriations on Thursday, April 12.  It is in the Department of Community Health Budget, and the item reads as follows:  "The Department of Community Health shall implement a managed care program for the Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid population in the Atlanta region, effective January 1, 2008."  ($30,000,000) 

This means that legislators expect that they can save 30 million dollars by putting this population (individuals in waivers, Katie Beckett, Children's Medical Services) into managed care.  They need an 1115 waiver to do this.  Dept. of Community Health and the House and Senate Budget offices have a lot of concerns about the ability to implement this change.  We have been advised to contact the Senate with these concerns.  The budget will go to the Senate floor Tuesday, and then it will go to conference committee to work out the differences. 

What you can do to make a difference by Tuesday -April 17, 2007:

Please Contact the Senate leadership:

1. Jack Hill, Chair of Appropriations jack.hill@senate.ga.gov, 404-656-5038

2. Greg Goggans, Vice Chair, appropriations, Health  drgg@alltel.net  or greg.goggans@senate.ga.gov  404-463-5263

3. Tommy Williams, Appropriations, tommie.williams@senate.ga.gov or tommie@tommiewilliams.com 404-656-0089

4. Casey Cagle, Lt. Governor, go to the following website to contact him:

http://ltgov.georgia.gov/00/article/0,2086,2199618_2208307_11792200,00.html   or 404- 656-5030

5. Eric Johnson, Senate 1, President Pro-Tem, eric.johnson@senate.ga.gov or ejohnson56@comcast.net 404-656-5109

6. Also please contact your individual State Senator for your own district by going to www.vote-smart.org and typing in your zip code.   

Talking Points:

1. Many of our families are already in a healthcare network already! With the Katie Beckett Waiver children alone, 72% of those waivers use Medicaid as SECONDARY INSURANCE and already have Primary Healthcare insurance.  Why would we need to be in ANOTHER managed care situation?
2. Managed care will probably NOT save money for individuals that have primary healthcare insurance and use their own provider networks and may end of COSTING MEDICAID MORE MONEY if coordination is not done properly.
3. For the other Waivers (including MRWP, etc)- We are already in a managed care situation.  Our families need home and community based service which managed care companies do NOT do well.
4. We do not want managed care to interfere with the implementation of the MRWP/NOW waiver.
5. There needs to be a lot more thought and input into this option before putting into the budget at the last minute.  
6. BOTTOMLINE: Managed care is NOT a good service delivery option for individuals with disabilities!

I recommend that you first call them. If you feel uncomfortable with that, send them individual emails on this matter.  Please try to not send in a distribution list (it is not as likely to be read).

Also- make your phone call/message or email personal. Explain how this personally impacts your family.

As many of you are aware, the managed care program (CMO- Care Management Organization) has had a ton of difficulties in the general Medicaid population in the last year since implementation and continues to work thru it’s issues……Why would we want to be a part of this program given the complexity and needs of our children and many of us already have primarily healthcare insurance with Medicaid as secondary?

The State of Georgia needs to fiscally responsible for our tax dollars and this is NOT going to achieve that. WE ALL NEED TO HELP EDUCATE OUR LEGISLATORS ABOUT THE TRUTH AND NOT WHAT IS BEING LOBBIED BY THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY!

I have not been writing as many emails lately due to my health and my son’s but I feel that this was too important for all of you to know what is really going on and be apart of the education and change in Georgia.

This is VERY serious…….Please take a moment and contact the above Senators…..YOUR child’s Medicaid may depend on it!

Sincerely,

Heidi