Cuts to the Medicaid budget are threatening services to special needs children (likely including those with birth injuries) in various states, according to several reports.
In Anson County, NC, the Community Based Rehabilitative Services (CBRS) Center, which offers early intervention services for special needs children, is in danger of losing its Medicaid reimbursement on June 30, when most states’ budgets end.
That’s when the NC Division of Medical Assistance (DMA) has decided to remove the center as a Medicaid payable service, meaning the government will no longer reimburse the cost for therapists and other staff that work there. But CBRS isn’t the only facility affected—more than 250 similar ones throughout the state could also lose the reimbursement, without which all of the centers could be forced to close their doors. Concerned therapists, caretakers and parents and advocates have begun a petition to the NC Division of Medical Assistance, NC Department of Public Health and NC Children’s Development Services to stop the cuts.
Virginia residents are also voicing concerns over $419 million in Medicaid cuts, in particular the proposal to axe waiver programs that pay for care for the elderly and special needs individuals.
Jim Krauss, president and CEO of Rockingham Memorial Hospital, worries about losing matching government dollars for Medicaid. Brett Wills, the father of a special needs child, says he needs Medicaid to provide for his son.
“This tightrope here represents what us families with special-needs kids and special-needs adults walk pretty much our entire lives and their entire lives…Medicaid waivers are the stabilizing influence that keep them out of that inadequate safety net. We do not need a shorter stick,” he said.
Oklahoma’s Health Care Authority Board approved a $17 million cut in the state’s Medicaid program SoonerCare before the New Year, meaning costs for equipment and doctor’s visits for individuals, including those with special needs, will go unpaid. Residents worry other that other services will soon be removed.
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