Please Prioritize Your Constituents with Disabilities: No Rate cuts in HCS and TxHmL
I am not able to testify at the Article 2 subcommittee hearing, however, I wanted to write you to let you know that Texans with disabilities need your leadership this session. Please do not allow HHSC to cut personal attendant wages in the Home and Community-based Services (HCS) and Texas Home Living (TxHmL) waiver programs and include funding to reduce Texas’ large waitlist for community-based waivers. Thank you for taking a conservative and thoughtful approach to the 2018/2019 budget. I can see that the House prioritized many important programs that keep Texans healthy while ensuring tax payer dollars are used responsibly. I know you have many important issues that affect thousands of Texans. Thank you for your consideration of these important issues and for keeping Texans with disabilities a priority. Don’t Allow HHSC to Cut Personal Attendant Wages HHSC has a proposed 21% rate cut to personal attendant wages in the HCS and TxHmL waiver programs. Personal attendants are essential for some individuals with disabilities to live independently and maintain competitive employment. They assist with essential daily activities, like getting in and out of bed, showering, using the restroom and transportation to work. The HCS and TxHmL personal attendant rates were cut in 2011 and have not seen a restoration. Lower rates have proven to increase turnover, make it hard to find a trustworthy attendant and put individuals at risk of using costly, facility-based alternatives. HHSC has stated that they will host a rate hearing in March for members of the public to provide testimony on this rate cut. Tell HHSC that this rate cut will hurt people with disabilities and to maintain the HCS and TxHmL personal attendant rates. Help us Reduce the Waitlist for Community-based Waivers There are more than 113,000 Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities waiting up to 12 years for a Medicaid community-based waiver like HCS or TxHmL. Each House member has between 360 and 1,266 constituents waiting. Community-based services are the most cost-effective way we can support Texans with disabilities and they provide critical services such as, personal attendants, supported employment, transportation, and more. The cost to provide services for one person in a State-Operated ICF (SSLC) is six times higher than the cost to provide parallel services in the community. The waitlist has grown by more than 20% since the last legislative session. Without any funding to relieve the waitlist in 2018 and 2019, even more Texans with disabilities will be left behind. Please prioritize funding in this budget to reduce the Medicaid community-based waiver waitlist.
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