From dlarocco at hartford.edu Fri Apr 18 06:05:41 2008 From: dlarocco at hartford.edu (Diana J. LaRocco) Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:05:41 -0400 Subject: [Dec-advocacy] ACTION ALERT! President Threatens to Veto Bill to Delay Implementation Controversial Medicaid Regulations In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Diana J. LaRocco DEC Governmental Relations Committee Email: dlarocco at hartford.edu Welcome to the DEC Advocacy List. The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children is a non-profit membership organization advocating for individuals who work with or on behalf of children with special needs, birth through age eight, and their families. For more information about DEC, please contact the DEC Office at: The Division for Early Childhood, 27 Fort Missoula Road, Suite 2, Missoula, MT 59804. Phone: 406-543-0872, Fax: 406-543-0887, e-mail: dec at dec-sped.org. If you would like to either join or be removed from the DEC Advocacy List, email Diana LaRocco at dlarocco at hartford.edu. Additional information about governmental relations activities can be obtained by visiting the DEC website: http://www.dec-sped.org/ Please take a moment to read the important CEC message below and go to the Legislative Action Center to send a letter to help stop these changes to Medicaid regulations! Thanks for all you do! Sharon Walsh, DEC Subject: ACTION ALERT! President Threatens to Veto Bill to Delay Implementation of Controversial Medicaid Regulations Urge Your Members of Congress to Take Action! Despite decisive action taken yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee to delay the implementation of several controversial Medicaid regulations that will negatively impact children with disabilities; and broad support within the health care and education communities, the White House has indicated its intention to veto the Protecting Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008 (HR 5613). If Congress does not pass legislation delaying this implementation, many of the regulations will go into effect on June 30, 2008, though some have already been in effect since March. During yesterday?s review of HR 5613, Democrats and Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee united to vote in favor of this legislation which has bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives and Senate. The Committee voted 46-0 to pass HR 5613, paving the way for consideration by the full House of Representatives. CEC and its members have been strong supporters of HR 5613 and similar initiatives in the House and Senate. In fact, over the last year CEC advocates have continued to voice their opposition to these regulations at strategic times throughout the legislative process which assisted in yielding yesterday?s victory. The Protecting Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008 (HR 5613) seeks to continue an existing, congressionally-imposed moratorium on Medicaid regulations that seek to restrict or eliminate reimbursement for rehabilitation services and transportation and administrative claiming for Medicaid-eligible students with disabilities. While many of the regulations stand to go into effect on June 30 regulations concerning targeted case management already went into effect on March 3. This legislation would prevent the implementation until April 1, 2009. It is critical that CEC members share with their members of Congress the importance of passing this legislation. Visit CEC?s Legislative Action Center to take action now! Jill Berthiaume Policy Coordinator Policy and Advocacy Services Council for Exceptional Children 703-264-9498 (P) 703-243-0410 (F) jillb at cec.sped.org ------ End of Forwarded Message