Spring has sprung and the 2006 legislative session is over.  We did it AGAIN!! CDRC managed to get our 3^rd bill passed in 3 years.  We will be giving you a wrap-up of the legislation for the 2006 session that CDRC followed, however, we are still waiting for the Governor to sign them.  Plus, CDRC got some exciting news from the Council that we will be sharing with you as well.

Legislation:

]Maryland Medicaid Advisory Committee - Membership, Staffing, and Reimbursement. HB 1330/SB 771.   This was CDRC’s bill for the 2006 legislative session. This piece of legislation calls for at least 5 members of the Maryland Medicaid Advisory Committee to be people who are on Medicaid so that people who have Medicaid get more of a say in what happens with the Medicaid program. It also asks that some money be made available to help with transportation, child care, and other expenses that might keep someone from being able to participate.  CDRC gets another picture with the Governor when he signs this bill into law.  WOO HOO!!      

 COLA Bills for DDA Community Programs - SB 447 passed on the final day of the Session. The bill requires that annual cost of living increases be provided to community programs funded by DDA and the Mental Hygiene Administration up to 5%. The bill was amended to add the language "Subject to the limitations of the budget…" which does weaken the bill by eliminating a mandate for a COLA. However, passage of the bill does send a message to the Governor about the legislature's priorities for this important need.

Passage of the DDA/MHA Privacy Bills – SB 1040/SB 1625. Both bills passed the Senate on the final day. This bill was developed the Arc of Maryland’s Legal Advocacy Committee in response to the DHMH release of thousands of home addresses of persons receiving residential supports funded by DDA and the Mental Hygiene Administration. The bill will prohibit release of such personal information of people with disabilities in the future. An amendment was added at the request of DHMH to exempt nursing and assisted living facilities from the bill.

Mortality and Quality Committee: HB 831/SB734. Both passed. These bills were developed by The Arc of Maryland and expand the role of the Mortality Review Committee to examine trends in serious physical injuries sustained in DDA institution and community programs.

Special Needs Trust Housing Program – HB 717. The bill passed on the final day of the Session. This bill allows special needs trusts to apply for low income housing loans if the individual with disabilities is income-eligible. This bill resulted from a visit by Delegate Costa to Lorraine and John Sheehan’s home and learning about special needs trusts. However, often the special needs trust over time spends down and ongoing maintenance and major repairs of the home are unaffordable, such as a roof. The bill will allow special needs trusts to qualify for low income loans for the individual with disabilities to continue living in his/her home.

 Condo Conversion Bills Pass - SB 10/HB 123 passed to protect people with disabilities in cases of conversion of their rental unit to unaffordable condos. The bill provides up to 3 years additional leases and moving costs.

Medicaid Advisory Committee - Medical Assistance Program - Amendments and Waiver Applications - HB 1574.  This legislation makes it a law that DHMH has to let people know in a public way when they are going to make changes to the Medicaid program        

BIG NEWS!!

The Developmental Disabilities Council (DD Council) has asked CDRC to write a continuation proposal for year 5.  We will be submitting the proposal on April 28^th.  Our friend, Catriona Johnson who we hired as our grant writer has been assisting CDRC in writing the proposal to the council.  Catriona will also be locating grant funding for CDRC to continue working for YOU.

OTHER NEWS:

The Developmental Disabilities Council did a site visit to CDRC April 19^th.  The visit was to discuss CDRC’s accomplishments, challenges, to see if there were any problems that CDRC might be having and to discuss the future.  We got to meet Angela Castillo Epps, CDRC new rep. at the DD Council.  We feel that the visit from the Council went well.

CDRC presented at the Carroll County transitioning youth fair in the middle of April.  John and Kenny presented to a morning class and an afternoon class.   It was the first year for the Carroll County Transition Youth Fair.   We got a lot of good questions after each class.  We thought it was very successful.  We would like to thank Kent for inviting CDRC to present.

CDRC is hosting a movie day at Holly Center on Sunday, May 21^st.  CDRC is excited to be able to have this event at the Holly Center.  It will be the first time that CDRC has been able to get in a State Residential Center (SRC).  We want to host an event at all 4 SRCs. We would like this to be one of many events held by CDRC at a SRC.  Attending will be members from CDRC that were once in an Institution themselves.  We are all very excited! We’ll let you know in the next newsletter how it went. Stay tuned.  

As we stated in last months newsletter we had a meeting with Service Coordination Inc. about finding and helping people in Nursing Facilities who received DDA services and how can we work to get them out with all the services they need.  We are very excited to have this opportunity to work with Service Coordination.  Our next meeting with them will be May 8^th.  There will be more Service Coordinators coming to this meeting.

Just a reminder that the Disability Expo will be held on Friday May 19^th – Sunday May 21^st.  CDRC, ADAPT, & People On the Go will ALL have tables there. There will be lots of great information and useful things there. On Friday the two Democratic Candidates for Governor will be answering pre-submitted questions from the disability community.  Sunday is Autism Day at the Expo. The Expo will take place at the Timonium Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md.

Kenny has posted lots of new valuable information on our website including the newest figures on how many people want out of Nursing Facilities (NFs), Where Maryland ranks in the country on Long Term Care (LTC) spending, and some info. on housing too. Check it out, www.thecdrc.org.

·        Finally, remember, no CDRC meeting in May. We’ll see you again on June 25th.