podesta_email_01723.txt

podesta-emails 4,450 words email

D6 P17 V16 P20 V11

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John, In Medicaid funded in-home supportive services there will be a very miserable day in California soon if something is not done to stop the elimination of the companionship exemption in California's IHSS program. Many families will see their incomes cut in half, long time close relationships between consumers and providers will be torn apart if what is about to happen in California, which we predicted would be the outcome of federal DOL changes in this. You can read the results from our legislative analyst below of what the Brown administration is doing in anticipation of the Dol rules Please I know you're a proud member of a union family. Don't permit them to inflict misery an enormous numbers of Medicaid funded IHSS rank-and-file workers if there is any way in which you can intercede. -- nancy PS at the end of this you will see a petition written by a rank-and-file worker in Medicaid funded in-home supportive services. ____________________________________ From: [email protected] To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Sent: 5/17/2013 1:14:46 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time Subj: Brown Administration Will Propose...Avoid Triggering Overtime Provisions If Pro ____________________________________ From: [email protected] Reply-to: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: 5/17/2013 12:58:02 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time Subj: Re: CDCAN REPORT #033-2013 (MAY 17 2013): Brown Administration Will Propose Budget Legislative Language Impacting IHSS & Other Homecare Workers To Avoid Triggering Overtime Provisions If Proposed US Dept of Labor Regs Are Approved CDCAN DISABILITY RIGHTS REPORT CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK #033-2013 – May 17, 2013 – Friday Advocacy Without Borders: One Community – Accountability With Action CDCAN Reports go out to over 65,000 people with disabilities, mental health needs, seniors, people with traumatic brain and other injuries, people with MS, Alzheimer's and other disorders, veterans with disabilities and mental health needs, families, workers, community organizations, facilities and advocacy groups including those in the Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, American Indian, Indian, African-American communities; policymakers, and others across the State. Sign up for these free reports by going to the CDCAN website. Website: _www.cdcan.us_ (http://www.cdcan.us/) To reply to THIS Report write: Marty Omoto at [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) Twitter: martyomoto New Phone: 916-757-5949 SPECIAL NOTE ON CHANGES FOR CDCAN REPORTS – HELP NEEDED: · NEW EMAIL LIST SERVICE PROVIDER - CDCAN is in process of transitioning to a different email list service to send out future CDCAN reports very soon that should provide a lot of ways to improve and expand reporting. The reports will look basically the same, though there will be differences in format and we won’t be able to send out attachments. Please let me know if you are receiving the reports using the new service, and if the format and reporting looks okay or have other comments. · HELP NEEDED: It will cost more every month, so any support would be greatly (and urgently) needed and appreciated. Please help! (see below) · I want to pay special tribute to River City Internet Providers (RCIP) and the staff there for their tremendous support they have given over the past 15 years to CDCAN and the work of advocacy for people with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind and seniors. Without them I could not have been able to provide the reports I was able to do over the years. – Marty Omoto [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) California State Budget: BROWN ADMINISTRATION WILL PROPOSE BUDGET LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE FOR IHSS WORKERS IN RESPONSE TO PENDING US DEPT OF LABOR HOMECARE REGULATIONS · Budget Legislative Language Reportedly Would Put In Place Provisions That Would Prevent IHSS Workers From Working Overtime Hours As Defined By Proposed Federal Regulations That Would Require Overtime Pay · Proposal Wouldn’t Cut IHSS Recipient Hours – But Could Place Limits On Number of Hours A IHSS Worker Could Provide To That Recipient And Not Trigger Overtime Requirement of Proposed Federal Regulations · Proposal Likely To Come Before Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees on Monday · Issue Impacts IHSS Budget Under Department of Social Services – and Likely Impact to Supported Living and Independent Living Services Funding Under Department of Developmental Services Budget That Funds Regional Centers SACRAMENTO, CA (CDCAN) [Last updated 05/17/2013 10:50 AM] – The Brown Administration will propose budget related legislation – known as budget trailer bill language – that reportedly will include provisions that would li mit the number of hours an In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) worker could provide to a IHSS recipient so that the overtime pay requirement in a pending controversial federal Department of Labor regulation would not be triggered. As of May 17th, there has been no announcement yet from the federal government on whether or not the proposed final regulations have been approved – though most observers believe approval is likely at some point. It is not clear if the proposed trailer bill language would make changes in State to impose the change – and how those changes would specifically impact individual IHSS and other workers - or if the language would simply state intent that would require change in State law later. The issue has major impact of potentially hundreds of millions of State general fund dollars to the IHSS budget under the Department of Social Services – the state agency that oversees the program statewide that serves over 440,000 children and adults with disabilities (including developmental) the blind and seniors, and likely impact to Supported Living Services and Independent Living Services funding under the Department of Developmental Services budget that funds regional center community-based services for over 260,000 children and adults with developmental disabilities. The issue would have major impact to home health agencies. Other program and services in other budget areas could be impacted depending on the wording of the proposed federal regulations – and the wording of the proposed budget trailer bill language. While the proposed legislative trailer bill language would not change the maximum number of hours under State law that an IHSS recipient can receive, it could have impact on their workers if those workers provide services to the recipient that would trigger overtime rules as proposed in the federal regulations The budget legislative language has not yet been released but could be available sometime later today or Monday (May 20th), when the issue will likely be heard and acted on by the Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees on Health and Human Services. CDCAN will send out a report with the proposed language as soon as it is available. The Brown Administration previously sent a letter urging the Obama Administration to modify the proposed regulations on IHSS and other homecare workers, citing limited state resources to cover overtime costs that the regulation would impose, and the impact on IHSS recipients that could mean less availability of their experienced worker and the need to hire additional people, in order to avoid exceeding the overtime rules. IHSS COURT SETTLEMENT BILL UP FOR FINAL ASSEMBLY VOTE MONDAY Meanwhile, in related news, SB 67, the budget related bill that makes the necessary changes in State law to implement the IHSS court settlement agreement, including a temporary 8% across-the-board cut in hours to all IHSS recipients beginning July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014, followed by a 7% across-the-board cut that begins July 1, 2014 and ends June 30, 2015, will be taken up for final vote on the Assembly floor on Monday afternoon, May 20th. The bill passed the State Senate, as expected, on May 13th by a vote of 24 to 9. WHAT THE PROPOSED FEDERAL REGULATIONS WOULD DO · The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938 to provide minimum wage and overtime protections for workers, to prevent unfair competition among businesses based on subminimum wages, and to require employers whose employees work excessive hours to compensate employees at one-and-one-half times the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours. · The Fair Labor Standards Act did not initially protect workers employed directly by households in domestic service, such as cooks, housekeepers, maids, and gardeners. However domestic workers that were employed by businesses covered under the federal labor law, such as gardeners employed by landscaping companies or a cook employed by a caterer, did received minimum wage and overtime protections even if their work was in or about a private household. · Congress in 1974, amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, to extend coverage to “domestic service” workers amending the federal law to apply to employees performing services of a household nature in or about a private home. While amending the federal law, Congress also provided for a limited exemption from both the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for “ casual babysitters” and companions for the aged and infirm, and created an exemption from the overtime pay requirement only for live-in domestic workers. Federal law on this issue has largely remained unchanged since then. · The proposed US Department of Labor regulations would change and in some cases repeal those existing overtime exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act so that many of the nearly 1.9 million domestic workers across the US (including hundreds of thousands of IHSS and other homecare workers in California) would no longer be considered exempt from federal minimum wage and overtime rules. · The proposed federal regulations would add home health aides and personal care aides as subject to federal minimum wage and overtime rules and more narrowly defines the current wage and hour exemption for "companionship services" to "the provision of fellowship and protection." · The proposed federal regulations would place limits on the amount of other work done by a person under the "companionship services" exemption to "20% incidental and occasional services such as dressing, grooming, toileting, driving to appointments, feeding , laundry, bathing." · The proposed regulations would clarify that “companionship services ” do not include the performance of medically related tasks for which training is typically required. ISSUE HAS DIVIDED ADVOCATES FOR WORKERS & RECIPIENTS OF SERVICES · Across the nation and in California, the issue has sharply divided worker unions and workers, with many of the IHSS and other recipients of domestic and homecare services and advocates. · Advocates for people with disabilities and seniors while agreeing that domestic and IHSS workers should be treated fairly and paid overtime – fear that the federal and states will not fund overtime. That in turn will mean – they believe – potential loss of in-home supports or instability because new additional workers would need to be hired to avoid triggering the proposed overtime provisions. · Advocates for the proposed rule say that state and federal governments should fund the overtime provisions – as they do for other state, federal and county workers. They assert that domestic workers – including homecare workers – have a right to be treated as a worker on the same level as any other worker protected by federal law. Advocates for workers and unions have previously made attempts in recent legislation to make changes in State law regarding overtime for domestic and certain homecare workers, though exempting IHSS workers. Those bills however either failed to win final approval in the Legislature or were vetoed by the Governor. ISSUE HAS MAJOR IMPACT IN CALIFORNIA · The issue would impact some number of the over 360,000 IHSS workers who work more 40 hours per week for a IHSS recipient, and some number of the over 440,000 children and adults with disabilities (including developmental), the blind and seniors who are IHSS recipients. · The pending regulations – and proposed Brown Administration trailer bill language in response to those proposed federal regulation – would also impact other similar support workers including Supported Living Services workers funded under the 21 non-profit regional centers under contract with the Department of Developmental Services for thousands of people with developmental disabilities. PROPOSED FEDERAL REGULATIONS ISSUED DECEMBER 2011 BY PRESIDENT OBAMA · The proposed regulations that would extend federal minimum wage and overtime protections to domestic worker, including in-home health care workers was announced by President Obama in December 2011, with the proposed regulation appearing in the December 27, 2011 Federal Register for public comment. · That public comment period was extended twice, with the final comment deadline March 21, 2012. · A copy of the most recent version of the proposed regulation – as released December 27, 2011 can be downloaded from this link from the federal register: http://webapps.dol.gov/FederalRegister/PdfDisplay.aspx?DocId=25639 PROPOSED FEDERAL REGULATIONS STILL PENDING FINAL APPROVAL – BUT DECISION COULD COME ANY DAY FROM WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET · DEC 27, 2011: the US Department of Labor submitted the proposed regulation, published in the Federal Register, for public comment. · FEB 24, 2012: the US Department of Labor published a notice to extend the comment period to March 12, 2012, because of requests received to extend the period for filing public comments. · MAR 13, 2012: the US Department of Labor published a notice to extend the comment period a second time - until March 21, 2012. Over 9,000 public comments were received between December 27, 2011 and March 21, 2012 will be included in the rulemaking record according to the US Department of Labor · JAN 15, 2013: the US Department of Labor submitted for final review the proposed federal regulations to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a division within the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as part of the long federal regulatory process. Certain federal regulations that have significant impact are referred to the Office of Management and Budget for further review and approval. That White House agency, under federal law, normally has 90 days to review the proposed final regulations, which mean a deadline of April 15th in the case of the domestic worker proposed US Department of Labor regulations. However that deadline can be extended by the OMB director for an additional 30 days – or extended indefinitely by the agency proposing the regulations – in this case the US Department of Labor. · APR 15, 2013: 90 day deadline for the Office of Management and Budget’s review of the US Department of Labor domestic worker proposed final regulations. · MAY 15, 2013: It is clear the deadline has been extended, but it is not clear if the extension is 30 days – meaning May 15th, or if it was extended indefinitely. · MAY 17, 2013: No word yet from the Office of Management and Budget on the proposed US Department of Labor regulations. The Office of Management and Budget could give final approval, could deny the proposed regulation or send it back to the Department of Labor for needed changes. The decision by the Brown Administration could mean that a decision from the US Office of Management and Budget to give final approval of the proposed regulation is imminent. http://www.change.org/petitions/united-states-department-of-labor-don-t-remo ve-the-companion-exemption-to-the-flsa-until-money-is-there Dear Editor; In your editorial, "Homecare Rules in the Homestretch," you fail to understand the reality of living on government funded Medicaid and the Russian Roulette pistol aimed at the heads of the Seniors, People with Disabilities and our Home Care Workers who depend on it, every year when budgets are cut. Although overtime pay would be great for IHSS providers, in publicly funded Medicaid programs, states that are cutting IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) are not likely to provide overtime pay and will instead most likely cut hours worked above 159 hours a month for any one provider. There is a big move to push through these Department of Labor rules as written right now with no consideration of how they'll really play out in the homes of Seniors and People with Disabilities and their Caregivers in New York and California where people have over 159 hours of IHSS a month. I know of a proud union member, a mother over 60, who has multiple disabilities of her own and takes care of her adult son with athetoid cerebral palsy who will see her household income of about $2520 a month in California drop to $1431, as her hours are cut from 280 hours a month to 159 hours. She doesn't have the stamina to supplement her income with more jobs and she has trouble finding other caregivers because her son cannot be understood very well by others. The union has taken over $40 a month from her for check each month to lobby for what will cut her income by a pretty big fraction. 70% of the caregivers in California are family members whose households stay intact with IHSS. A cut in hours can threaten their ability to stay in their homes. Seniors and People with Disabilities with Live in Caregivers will be uprooted as well. Jerry Brown just got done settling a lawsuit trying to cut the IHSS program in California by 20% and settled for cutting it by about 8 percent. Do you really think he's going to take time and a half for over 50,000 providers? His representative on an Olmsted conference said they wouldn't. When I was in the Young Socialist Alliance in college, before I had my accident, I believed in theories in a vacuum. Then I became disabled and saw how these things work out on a real-life level. In California, we have the most highly advanced In-Home Supportive Services program, and the reason it was so good is that the disabled person received money to find somebody and all of that money went directly to the caregiver. The attendant got all the bang for the buck. And while ADAPT American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today was fighting to get In Home Care, this wonderful program to all the states, they came up with things like "Money Follows the Person" and "Community First Choice Option" where that money continued to go to the disabled person to pay directly to their caregiver with no middleman. But suddenly all kinds of profiteering is going on as big bad corporations and yes even sometimes big bad unions behaviors are immerging as monied interests smell a beautiful dollar to be made in the graying of the baby boomers. On a good day the union is our greatest blessing on a bad day they are our greatest curse. The only way to come up with a reasonable solution that takes everyone's welfare into account is to sit down and work it out. I think what's been most frightening to me in all of this is the ease with which able-bodied regard People with Disabilities as invisible. The SEIU would not even sit down at the table with People with Disabilities to work out a compromise. Would this happen to a person of color? Are we the last population to be seen as a fraction of a person -- or a person who is really there at all? People have been making industries of people with disabilities for decades, in the nursing home industry, the charity industry, and now the medical industrial complex and the unions too on a bad day. People from ADAPT clawed our ways out of nursing homes that were profiteering off of us and now we have to fight against the nursing agency industry, managed care corporations, and even at times a union that is so out of touch with its rank and file providers needs that it would create three crappy jobs from one not so good one in order to collect two or three union dues on a one house. It is the people disabilities and rank-and-file providers, who are in a symbiotic relationship, huddled together to keep industries and unions from objectifying us and moving us around like "furniture" in their business plans. You can choose to be naïve and come up with lovely little fairy lands in your own mind, but make no mistake, your naïveté will be paid for by the rank-and-file workers whose pay will be cut badly and people with disabilities who will go back to nursing homes. The ADAPT-NCIL compromise would simply eliminate the exemption for third party employers, treating Medicaid consumers in consumer directed programs (including public authorities, fiscal intermediaries and agencies with choice) the same as private employers so they can still use the existing exemption. According to the DOL analysis, this change - alone - would eliminate the companionship exemption for 70% of home care workers. It covers all of the "bad players" and concerns raised in the DOL analysis that exist in traditional home care while minimizing the negative impact on people with disabilities and preventing the unexpected consequences such changes would have on real live people in Medicaid funded programs. Where were our points of view in this newspaper? In the DOL discussions? Why include us? It’s only our bodies, our civil rights, our freedom to live lives akin to political prisoners in iinstitutions! If anyone had any respect for people with disabilities we would have included us in the discussion. Nancy Becker Kennedy Appointed Member Since Its Inception Los Angeles County Public Authority Board PASC that oversees the In Home Care of over 200,000 Seniors and People with Disabilities Join the IHSS Consumers Union on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/IHSS.ConsumersUnion/ "Nothing About Us Without Us!" (Latin: "Nihil de nobis, sine nobis") is a slogan used to communicate the idea that no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members the group(s) affected by that policy. This involves national, ethnic, disability based or other groups that are often thought to be marginalized from political, social, and economic opportunities. From: "Donna Calame" <[email protected]> Date: March 3, 2013, 10:33:48 AM PST To: <[email protected]> Subject: Home Care Rules in the Home Stretch What this NY Times editorial fails to acknowle -----Original Message----- From: Nobbie, Pat (Rockefeller) (Rockefeller) <[email protected]> To: '[email protected]' <[email protected]>; 'Elena Ackel' <[email protected]>; 'Bruce Darling' <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, May 17, 2013 8:47 am Subject: Companionship exemption Good Morning all, Can you tell me the latest update on the DOL rules for this issue? We have received requests for signing on a letter, but want your take. Thanks, pat Patricia D. Nobbie, Ph.D. Joseph P. Kennedy Public Policy Fellow Office of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV West Virginia 531 Hart Senate Office Building Ph. 202-224-0822 Fax: 202-224-7665 _Click here: The Center for Disability Rights - Free Our People_ (http://capwiz.com/rochestercdr/issues/alert/?alertid=62529031) From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: 3/23/2013 5:58:27 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time Subj: Disability Community vs DOL From California: Although overtime pay would be great for IHSS providers, in publicly funded Medicaid programs, states that are cutting IHSS are not likely to provide overtime pay and will instead most likely cut hours worked above 159 hours a month for any one provider. There is a big move to push through these Department of Labor rules as written right now with no consideration of how they'll really play out in the homes of Seniors and People with Disabilities and their Caregivers in New York and California where people have over 160 hours of IHSS a month. In California where 70% of caregivers are family providers, IHSS makes it possible for families to stay intact when they have a senior family member or a family members with a disability, who needs in-home care. These families could see their household income drop dramatically. Significantly disabled people with over 160 hours could lose loyal live-in and live out caregivers they've had for decades, because their work hours will be cut below the money they need to live. Or people with severe disabilities may not be able to get providers to help them when one of the providers needs to leave, because the remaining providers will be in danger working overtime. The unintended consequences of this unbalanced approach to the way private and public in-home supportive services are paid could lead to widespread misery in publicly funded In-Home Supportive Services. Senior and Disability Rights Advocates were not included in discussions where these Department of Labor rules were developed. Now, the National Council on Disability is trying to explain this to those who can make a difference. Their letter is printed below. The NCIL/ADAPT compromise could be a win-win solution for everyone, where privately funded agencies would have different rules than in publicly funded Medicaid In-Home Supportive Services in states where finite revenues determine what can be paid. "Our compromise creates a win-win solution, covers 70% of attendants and allows us all to be at the table for further discussion," says Bruce Darling of CDR ADAPT. Below see the Letter from the National Council on Disability about these possible negative unintended consequences. http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/03192013/ The Disability and Senior communities and the rank-and-file IHSS providers in New York and California do not seem to of been fully informed or permitted to give input about the impact of this law as written. If after reading this letter, you feel the Office of Management and Budget should delay changing these rules until they consult with Disability And Senior Communities and make sure it won't cut the number of hours providers are permitted to work in publicly funded programs, then sign the petition at the link above or make your comments here at Capitol Hill's Congress blog http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/286539-act-now-on-fai r-wages-for-home-care-aides and DIRECT letters to [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) As more sign-on letters are developed for the Office of Management and Budget OMB, we will give you other opportunities to voice your opinions, but time is running short before these proposed laws will become what we try to live with. United in win-win solutions for Home Care Workers and Seniors and Persons with Disabilities! http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/03192013/ Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T "The disability community is deeply concerned that the proposed changes will have a negative impact on people with disabilities, consumer direction and our attendants. Medicaid rates are not going to increase so attendant hours will be capped. DOL - in its own analysis - identified that instutionalization was an outcome of these rules. Are you aware of our concerns? Do you really think Medicaid rates are going to increase to coveer the cost of time-and-a-half? Appreciate your insights as to how this would - practically - move forward. -- Bruce Darling ADAPT" Check outwww.DOLoffMYbody.org to get a feel for how these proposed rules impact people with disabilities.