Action is needed & time is of the essence!
Please call your local Representative and Senator to ask them to sign onto a letter supporting the extension of retainer payments to Calder Lynch, Deputy Administrator and Director, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by Wednesday, July 22nd.
Why?
- Payments for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities ended Friday, July 17.
- Retainer payments are one of the many flexibilities that Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) authorized in Colorado to provide critical services during the pandemic. Retainer payments are a critical life-line that allow providers to bill for needed services that can be delivered safely as infections surge. With COVID 19 case numbers on the rise we must protect people with disabilities because without the flexibilities we return to services being delivered in group settings which increase the risk of COVID 19 infection.
- CMS’s June 30, 2020 guidance restricted the length of HCPF’s authority to issue retainer payments. We do not believe that a 2-week timeline to strategize solutions was adequate given risk factors in group settings. Today is not any safer than at the start of the pandemic.
- Representatives Perlmutter and Neguse are working together to urge CMS to extend the authority for retainer payments in Colorado. It is important that the network of providers remains intact when the pandemic subsides. Our state Medicaid office, Health Care Policy and Financing, has risen to the challenge of supporting people with disabilities during the pandemic. Our infection numbers are low in the people we advocate for and we want to keep it this way. The flexibilities granted have worked. It is our primary concern that we keep people safe.
Action
Call your Senator or Representative and ask that they contact Patrick Buhr, Legislative Assistant, Patrick.Buhr@mail.house.gov, by noon on Wednesday, July 22nd, to sign on to the letter to Calder Lynch, Deputy Administrator and Director, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Senators
Michael Bennet
202-224-5852
Senator Bennet’s Official Website
Cory Gardner
202-224-5941
Senator Gardner’s Official Website
Representative (District 1)
Diana DeGette
Representative for Colorado’s 1st District
Phone: 303-844-4988
Representative DeGette’s Official Website
Other Colorado Representatives can be found at: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/CO