[NFBWV-Talk] Fwd: [NFB-Legislative-Directors] Medicaid Pre-Vocational Funding

[Sheri Koch]

Sheri Koch, President
National Federation of the Blind of West Virginia
304-993-5103



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dana Ard via NFB-Legislative-Directors <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>
> Date: August 16, 2019 at 5:54:09 PM EDT
> To: "'NFB Legislative Directors List'" <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: president at nfbidaho.org
> Subject: Re: [NFB-Legislative-Directors] Medicaid Pre-Vocational Funding
> Reply-To: NFB Legislative Directors List <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>
> 
> I am not aware of Medicaid paying for “prevocational services.” They pay for developmental therapy and other therapies which could be considered prevocational, because these therapies work on issues that need to be addressed if the person is going to be able to work. These are often psychological or behavioral issues and usually are directed at individuals with a developmental disability. The problem with Medicaid is that someone with a medical title such as in our state a “Targeted Services Coordinator” must approve the service. It would be great if we could use the funds for training center services, but I’m concerned that services will be controlled by case workers or others with medical backgrounds, and not by those who believe that blindness is a characteristic and believe that with proper training and opportunity, we can live the lives we want.
>  
> From: NFB-Legislative-Directors [mailto:nfb-legislative-directors-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury via NFB-Legislative-Directors
> Sent: Friday, August 16, 2019 12:19 PM
> To: NFB Legislative Directors List
> Cc: Justin Salisbury
> Subject: [NFB-Legislative-Directors] Medicaid Pre-Vocational Funding
>  
> Aloha Colleagues,
>  
> As we have been continuing to fight to end the payment of subminimum wages and transition away from sheltered workshops, we sometimes talk about how Medicaid pays them for providing pre-vocational services, which basically means that they’re giving the workers somewhere to go for many hours per day.
>  
> Additionally, a lot of state VR agencies have gone into Order of Selection processes, which, in some cases, have completely put a tourniquet on the entry process for adjustment to blindness training.
>  
> If there were a way that we could get adjustment to blindness training funded as a pre-vocational service, perhaps we could protect it from Order of Selection processes. As our training centers will quickly tell you, it is a pre-vocational training program because it prepares people to eventually go onto vocational training wherever sighted people get vocational training for that profession.
>  
> Have we ever looked at trying to use those Medicaid dollars for pre-vocational services to fund adjustment to blindness training?
>  
> I am aware that we would have to be careful of getting pulled into a medical model of dealing with rehabilitation. Perhaps there could be some other way that we could insulate our adjustment to blindness training programs from VR Order of Selection processes, such as setting up a separate stream of funding just for that.
>  
> Mahalo,
>  
> Justin
>  
>  
> Justin M. Hideaki Salisbury
> he/him/his
>  
> Board Member | National Association of Blind Students
>    A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind
> (808) 797-8606
> president at alumni.ecu.edu | www.nabslink.org
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