Largely due to the advocacy of the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that they will form the first Disability and Health Work Group to advance the health of people with disabilities. With cross-agency representation, the work group will focus on incorporating disability status into [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
With House Appropriations Committee consideration of the FY2011 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies around the corner, BIAA is working diligently to secure funding for programs authorized through the TBI Act, as well as for NIDRR’s TBI Model Systems of Care. Specifically, BIAA and other TBI stakeholders recommend: $10 million (+ $4 million) for [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
Dear Advocates, As many of you know, the House of Representatives passed a historic health care overhaul package late Sunday that marks one of the biggest victories in the history of the Brain Injury Association and for people affected by brain injury across the country. BIAA advocated tirelessly for more than a year to ensure [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
This year’s House version of the FY2011 Defense Authorization Act (HR 5136) will go to conference with two amendments addressing the problem of faulty brain injury screening in which the military has been under fire because of in recent reports. Congresswoman Mary Fallin of Oklahoma offered an amendment to the bill that was adopted stating that [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
It is important that all grassroots advocates unite to support the extension of the current elevated Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) that is currently being debated in the Senate and will be very important to states come the end of this year! Originally, both the House and the Senate acted to extend the extra match through [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
Last week, the Health and Human Services (HHS) department asked for public comments regarding their draft strategic framework on multiple chronic conditions (MCC). The framework addresses approaches to improving the health of individuals with concurrent MCC by providing options for HHS to strengthen coordination of its efforts internally and collaboration with stakeholders externally. BIAA submitted a [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
Last week, Senate Democrats came four votes short of invoking cloture on the tax extenders bill that includes the extension of increased federal Medicaid monies through June, 2011. After passing a Medicare physicians’ payment bill on its own instead of as a part of the larger extender package, Senator Max Baucus is encouraged that the [...]
Continue reading...29. June 2010
On June 15, 2010, BIAA and other TBI stakeholders met with Mary Wakefield, the Administrator of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to discuss the future of the federal TBI program, one of the programs funded through the TBI Act. The federal TBI program provides grants to states to improve [...]
Continue reading...24. June 2010
On Thursday, June 24, 2010, Senate Democrats’ long effort to pass a package of tax cut extensions collapsed stopping the proposed extension of enhanced federal Medicaid funding to states in its tracks amid worries of the increased federal deficit. Without the extension, the elevated federal Medicaid funding will expire on December 31, 2010, halfway [...]
Continue reading...21. June 2010
Health care reform at the federal level is officially on hold. Republican Scott Brown gained the Massachusetts seat vacated by the death of Edward Kennedy, thereby breaking the 60-vote majority in the Senate. Democrats met privately in the days following the Massachusetts special election but were unable to cultivate a strategy for moving forward [...]
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29. June 2010
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