Guest:  Todd Vaarwerk

Topic:   2019: The year in review for disability advocacy

Duration:  05:44

Published:  January 7, 2020

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Todd Vaarwerk, Chief Policy Officer of WNYIL, and I'm your host Ernie Churchwell. Welcome back to the program Todd.

Guest:  Well thanks for having me again.

Host:  It's our pleasure. And as we've often said, you are our man in the seat of things having to do with legal and political and similar issues. And so, you are the ideal person to ask, how did 2019 look as a year in advocacy?

Guest:  Well, 2019 kind of continues the year of challenge for people disabilities. Most of the time, when somebody wants to talk to me about politics, they'll say, it's all about what's going on in the federal government right now, based on who may or may not be in the White House. I say, every year I talked to people, I mentioned to them it's about policy and not politics. Surprisingly, some of the biggest challenges that we had last year were about things that we got support on, but we just couldn't get over the finish line. Things like tax credits for people with disabilities getting jobs. The visibility tax credit that is building houses that are not only livable by people with disabilities but visitable, you can go and see people who live in them. Now, it wasn't all bad. But one of the major challenges that we continue to face is that we have to educate our state officials about why transportation and housing and employment and full integration is important to us because I think it might be that they're taking it for granted.

Host:  It sounds as though you have your work cut out for you. I imagine that you probably have some things to say about the struggle concerning consumer directed personal assistance (CDPAS), and I believe…

Guest:  Why did I think you were gonna ask that question?! (laughter) One of the things that's going on at the moment is in the quest to reduce Medicaid costs. They're looking at changing the way CDPAS, that is, people on Medicaid, hiring their own aides for home healthcare. The way the fiscal intermediaries are paid for what they do. I want to be very clear that this is not a conversation about the aides not losing wages, or not being paid for what they do. They're changing the way the fiscal intermediaries get reimbursed. And they're going for what they refer to as a per member per month, or capitated system. The problem is, of course, the more we deal with people that are away from the program, the more complicated the rate setting stuff tends to be. So, we're looking at a rate that really isn't high enough for a lot of fiscal intermediaries to continue to offer the program. And, you know some of the listeners may have heard about that or seen something about that from their fiscal intermediaries. We've been spending a lot of time on that this year.

Host:  Alright, but I believe you had a small victory on that front?

Guest:  Well, there was a lawsuit that we were successful in to delay the implementation of a PMPM. However, those things are can be appealed, regulations can be written. In 2020 we're going to be looking at that very closely and very carefully. I do want to make sure that people know it's not all doom and gloom. The governor did pass source of income legislation and housing protections this year that really are going to change the game in terms of helping us keep the housing we fought so hard for.

Host:  Todd, I believe we're running out of time already, I'm sure people will have questions, how can they reach you?

Guest:  You can always call my office 836-0822 extension 101.

Host:  Thanks so much for being with us, Todd, and you're certainly the go to person with all these aspects of advocacy, thanks for being with us.

Guest:  You're welcome.

Host:  You’ve been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest today was Todd Vaarwerk, Chief Policy Officer with WNYIL, and your host is yours truly, Ernie Churchwell.