Policy Corner: January 18, 2019

Congress Passes Medicaid Extenders Act of 2019

Both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have passed the Medicaid Extenders Act of 2019, H.R. 259, sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.). The legislation provides three months of funding for the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program. States will have until Sept. 31, 2019, to spend the funds. The legislation also extends the Medicaid’s home and community-based spousal impoverishment protections until March 31, 2019.

The MFP program helps with transitioning people with brain injury from nursing or institutional facilities to community-based services and supports, and helps states to re-balance their long-term services and supports systems to offer more community options. Medicaid’s spousal impoverishment protections make it possible for an individual who needs nursing home-level of care to qualify for Medicaid while allowing their married spouse to retain a modest amount of income and resources to pay for rent, food, and medication as the spouse with a brain injury receives community-based long-term services and supports.

Lawmaker Introduces Legislation to Expand Day Programs for Young People with TBI

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) has once again introduced legislation to expand and to enhance existing adult day programs for young people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other similar diseases or conditions to support and improve access to respite services for family caregivers. Text for H.R. 320 is not yet available.

Government Shutdown Affects Older Americans and People with Disabilities

The partial government shutdown is impacting individuals with disabilities and their families. Both Medicare and Medicaid are fully funded for the year, but other programs providing housing and food assistance and transportation services have yet to be funded. The Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Agriculture, and Transportation are impacted by a lack of funding, so people who rely on programs offered by these agencies, such as HUD’s rental assistance program, are subsequently affected. The agriculture department has recently announced plans to work with states to keep the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), referred to as food stamps, operating through February. Congress and the Administration have yet to come up with a compromise for funding these programs.

BIAA gratefully acknowledges the Centre for Neuro Skills and Avanir Pharmaceuticals for their support for legislative action.