Disability Rights

By Sam Gold
National Organization of Injured Workers

Governor Brown has spoken and has vetoed some important bills that relate to Workers Compensation. Let’s see what he simply wouldn’t sign into law.

AB584 would force doctors who make Utilization review determinations to be licensed in California. Proponents of the bill believe that out-of-state utilization review physicians are making inappropriate decisions at least in part because there is no regulatory structure to hold them accountable to anyone.  The bill is intended to ensure that there is a regulatory oversight body – the California Medical Board – that can discipline a utilization review physician in the event the physician violates practice standards which in many cases deals with making false and misleading statements to deny an injured worker the benefits due him under state law.

By Dick Meister

Dina Bakst of the Work and Family Legal Center reminds us of an important fact that few people seem to realize – that getting pregnant can cause a woman to lose her job, despite the laws banning employment discrimination against women and the disabled.

Bakst asked, in a recent New York Times column, that we imagine a woman who, seven months pregnant, was fired from her job as a cashier because she needed a few extra bathroom breaks.

That actually happened.  So did the firing of a pregnant worker from her retail job after she gave her supervisors a doctor's note asking that she not be required to do any heavy lifting or climbing of ladders during the month and a half before she went on maternity leave.

By Marty Omoto
California Disability Community Action Network

The Brown Administration announced yesterday that it will implement short-term payment delays of about 2 weeks to Medi-Cal institutional providers including long term care facilities, adult day health centers, and home health agencies, for reimbursements paid during the month of March, due to a temporary severe cash flow shortage that California is facing in the coming weeks. Some institutional providers are exempt from this delay and payments to Medi-Cal non-institutional providers, such as doctors, will not be held.

By Marty Omoto
California Disability Community Action Network
 
Governor Brown released his proposed 2012-2013 State Budget that calls for, as he previously announced in November, $157 million in new state general fund spending reductions to developmental services in the current budget year to be achieved in large part due to higher than expected savings from previously approved cuts and other changes, and another $200 million in new cuts in state general fund spending during the 2012-2013 State  budget year that begins July 1, 2012.

The cuts in the 2012-2013 State Budget year could - depending on where the reductions are made - swell to $400 million if federal matching funds are included.  
 

By Marty Omoto
California Disability Action Network
 
The Department of Health Care Services under the Brown Administration announced Friday that it is moving forward in implementing reductions in Medi-Cal provider payments of up to 10% that could total over $623 million in State general funds, that was authorized in the 2011-2012 State Budget.  The implementation of the reduction comes as the State faces still another huge budget deficit, projected at nearly $13 billion by the end of the 2012-2013 State Budget year unless the Governor and Legislature takes action to address it either through additional massive spending cuts or imposing new revenues - or a combination of both and other solutions.   
 

By Marty Omoto
California Disability Community Action Network

US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken issued a temporary restraining order yesterday that requires the Brown Administration to halt all actions to implement the 20% across-the-board cut in service hours for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities, mental health needs, and seniors in the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. The judge's order also requires the State to rescind any information, instructions and notices of action  to the counties and any IHSS recipients that it has sent out.
 

By Sam Gold
Injured Worker's Television Network
 
You recently vetoed some very important bills, specifically AB584 (Fong). This is a simple bill about law & order.  It requires that Utilization Review (UR) doctors be accountable. Currently, doctors who are hired by insurance carriers to perform UR can pretty much say anything that they want whether true or false and are accountable to no one for their acts and deeds.  Why do we need these doctors to review what our primary treating physicians prescribe for us? Is this the start of “Mother May I” medical care?

Yet their reviews are the basis for long delays and denials of medical care for our occupationally injured that supposedly are guaranteed immediate and responsible medical treatment under the laws of our state. It shouldn’t take a year to approve an MRI.  The fact is insurance companies are not in business to be compassionate care givers and pay claims, they exist for one purpose only, to close all open claims whenever, wherever and however possible!

By Patricia Ryan
California Mental Health Directors Association

The nation’s recession and resulting state budget crisis have strained every part of our safety net, and California’s community mental health system is no exception.  But as communities across the state acknowledged Mental Illness Awareness Week this October, they also recognized that the investments made through Proposition 63 (the Mental Health Services Act) have positioned California to better meet the mental health needs of people in our communities now and in the future, and to do it more cost-effectively.

By Marty Omoto

State Controller John Chiang today released his monthly report covering California's revenues, including cash balance, receipts and disbursements for August, showing revenues came in $134.9 million above (2.1 %) projections from the recently passed 2011-2012 State Budget - though fears that State budget "trigger cuts" that impact a wide range of programs including developmental services and In-Home Supportive Servicecs, remain because the revenue numbers are soft.

Income taxes were above projections by $127.4 million (4.1%)  in August. Sales taxes were up $8.6 million (0.3%), and corporate taxes were up $46.7 million (51.4%) in the same month.

By Katie Laackmann
River City High School

For me and other youth with disabilities, the “back to school” season has special significance this year.  Over the summer, our state legislature passed a bill that will finally require California public schools to include the history of the disability rights movement in social studies and history lessons and on July 14, Governor Brown signed it into law.  

In 2010, youth with disabilities led the effort to establish the second week in October as Disability History Week and on the heels of that victory, SB 48 (Leno), the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act will now ensure that our peers in K-12 schools learn about the contributions people with disabilities have made in our country.