Unheard Voices

The activities that make your life your own became dependent on someone else's help

. Visualize what it would be like if you had to have assistance to go shopping, or to get groceries, to buy clothes, go to the library, a movie, or a concert. How would it feel if you were dependent on someone else to drive you to those places, help you on and off a bus or drive you in a car?

Got the picture? Now imagine what it would be like if you didn't have a family or friends to help you out, and that the injury or illness became a permanent part of your life. You could hire help, right? Visualize that you live below poverty level on a fixed income, and the government has decided that the only activities that you need to engage in are those that are a medical necessity. No more concerts, movies, or recreation of any kind.

That is exactly what is happening right now in Colorado to people with developmental disabilities. With the economic downturn and the continuing vicious cuts to Colorado's state budget, assistance to people with developmental disabilities has been reduced to a bare-bones, medical necessity paradigm.

The Health Care Policy and Finance Department (HCPF), which oversees Medicaid coverage, put a financial cap on funding for services and standardized reimbursement rates for services provided for people in the Supported Living Services Waiver (SLS) and the Children's Extensive Support Services Waiver (CES) programs, on July 1, 2009. These actions are, in themselves, not a bad thing. Standardization of service definitions, requirements for service provision, and accountability for quality provision of services have helped all service providers for people with Developmental Disabilities to "get on the same page" and to put some order into previous chaos in certain areas of service provision. However, since July 1, 2009, in addition to the imposed caps, reimbursement rates for services provided by these programs have been sliced two more times by two percent each time.

The predominant agencies in Colorado which are responsible for providing services for the people with Developmental Disabilities (DD) are called Community Centered Boards (CCBs). They either employ people to provide services or contract with other individuals, companies or agencies to provide services for people with DD. The last dicing of funding resources occurred July 1, 2010, and took the rate reimbursement amounts low enough that many service providers will be unable to continue to stay afloat as they will not be able to compensate employees or contractors and pay for administrative and business costs as well. Employees of many CCB's have not received raises, have taken furlough days and given up benefits in order to keep their companies viable. Contractors have agreed to take reductions in pay, or have decided to move onto more lucrative and supportive fields of work.

Unheard Voices

By: Jesicar Geodoi

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