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The Connecting Point
Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Date: June 23, 2006
In This ISSUE:
1) A New Washington State Website "Able Job Seekers"
2) Police Response to People with Disabilities
3) Medicare Beneficiaries Warned To Be Aware of Telephone Scams
4) 2006 Housing Vouchers Increased to States
5) "Autism: Reaching for a Brighter Future" An online book
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1) A New Washington State Website "Able Job Seekers" -- A partnership between the Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Governor's Committee on Disability Issues and Employment. Funding for this project comes from the Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Ablejobseekers.wa.gov is your single source of contact for employers to get ideas, resources, and assistance on issues related to serving applicants and employees with disabilities.
www.ablejobseekers.wa.gov
2) Police Response to People with Disabilities -- The US Department of Justice has added additional content to their Video Gallery Section of the WWW.ADA.GOV web site. This new piece is an eight part series titled "Police Response to People with Disabilities" and is designed to be used in roll-call training. It addresses law enforcement situations involving people who have mobility disabilities, mental illnesses, mental retardation, epilepsy or seizure disorders, speech disabilities, deafness or hard of hearing , and blindness or low vision. The segments can be viewed at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/videogallery.htm#Anchor-Dial-47492
This information was provided by the Great Lakes ADA and Accessible IT Center (www.adagreatlakes.org)
3) Medicare Beneficiaries Warned To Be Aware of Telephone Scams -- Surrounding New Medicare Drug Benefit. The "$299 Ring" scheme to defraud seniors and people with disabilities has changed into a higher priced scam involving in some cases a new Medicare card, instead of a prescription drug plan.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said today the dollar amount now requested by phone callers is usually $379, but cases have also occurred where the callers asked for $350 or $365. Medicare has already referred nearly 250 cases involving attempts to steal beneficiaries' funds to federal law enforcement officials. These are pending further action.
"By getting the message out to Medicare beneficiaries about how they can avoid scams, we've seen the number of incidents go down," said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. "To protect all people with Medicare from being victimized, we are taking further steps to prevent, identify and help law enforcement officials apprehend these scam artists. And, if you think you may be a victim, call 1-877-7SAFERX."
As part of the new scams, callers are now asking for bank information or telling beneficiaries they can provide a new Medicare card for a fee. Similar to the reported "$299 Ring," callers asked Medicare beneficiaries for bank account numbers that the callers use to electronically withdraw the money. The new Medicare card or prescription drug plan they claim to be selling is not legitimate.
Callers may use the names of fictitious companies, such as Pharma Corp., National Medical Office, Medicare National Office and National Medicare.
It is against Medicare's rules to call a person with Medicare and ask for bank account or other personal information, or cash payment, over the telephone. No beneficiary should ever provide that kind of information to someone who calls them. Such calls must be placed by the beneficiaries themselves or handled by a follow-up letter to which the beneficiary may choose to reply. If someone calls asking for personal information, or the call doesn't seem right for some other reason, a beneficiary should hang up the phone and contact Medicare at 1-877-7SAFERX (1-877-772-3379) or his or her local law enforcement or consumer protection agency.
Tips for People with Medicare to Protect Against Scams
Medicare beneficiaries can take steps to protect themselves by remembering:
No one can come into your house uninvited.
No one can ask you for personal information during their marketing activities.
Always keep all personal information, such as your Medicare number, safe, just as you would a credit card or a bank account number.
Whenever you have a question or concern about any activity regarding Medicare, call 1-877-7SAFERX (1-877-772-3379).
Legitimate Medicare drug plans will not ask for payment over the telephone or the Internet. They must send a bill to the beneficiary for the monthly premium.
Beneficiaries can pay automatically by setting up a monthly withdrawal from their Social Security check. Beneficiaries may also pay by monthly check or set up an automatic withdrawal from a bank account, but beneficiaries must call their plan or respond to a mailed payment request from the plan to do this.
Information Provided by CMHS Consumer Affairs
4) 2006 Housing Vouchers Increased to States -- Nearly $14 billion will be available for funding housing vouchers in 2006, an increase of 3.5% over 2005. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 95% of the housing authorities will receive more voucher funding in 2006 than they received in 2005.
According to CBPP, FY 06 voucher funding significantly restores "more than half of vouchers lost in 2004 - 2005," estimating that 70% of the housing authorities will "increase leasing by 98,000 families compared with
average in 2005."
CBPP warns that housing authorities should use the allocated voucher funds or face loss of future funds, especially because "PHAs that do not use available funds will lose out in 2007."
Advocates should meet with the Executive Directors of your local Housing Authorities to encourage them to use some of these vouchers for persons with disabilities. Remember, many of these Housing Authorities received Mainstream Vouchers and Fair Share Vouchers in the past that were supposed to be used for persons with disabilities, including awarding them to disabled persons when the vouchers turned-over. If your Housing Authority has not properly used them for disabled persons, make them use the FY 2006 vouchers to correct their prior failures. Even if they did properly use them, what does your Housing Authority's Administrative Plan say regarding persons with disabilities? The following chart lists by State the increased number of vouchers in FY 2006.
If you want to know the increased number of vouchers for your specific local housing authority, see www.cbpp.org/5-23-06housingwebchat.htm
# Additional Vouchers in FY 06 By State
Alabama 2,188
Alaska 16
Arizona 759
Arkansas 815
California 6342
Colorado 466
Connecticut 1655
Delaware 145
D. C. -761
Florida 3911
Georgia 5169
Hawaii 391
Idaho -53
Illinois 7698
Indiana 1541
Iowa 975
Kansas 707
Kentucky 728
Louisiana 2230
Maine 182
Maryland 2334
Massachus 886
Michigan 3170
Minnesota 1143
Mississippi 1468
Missouri 2038
Montana 274
Nebraska 531
Nevada 87
New Hampshire 40
New Jersey 865
New Mexico 84
New York 9969
North Carolina 1165
North Dakota 280
Ohio 3337
Oklahoma 821
Oregon 1121
Pennsylvania 3126
Rhode Island 347
South Carolina 1059
South Dakota 105
Tennessee 1873
Texas 5003
Utah 322
Vermont 128
Virginia 3256
Washington 2196
West Virginia 629
Wisconsin 1399
Wyoming 41
Total 84,202
Special thanks to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
5) "Autism: Reaching for a Brighter Future," is an online book on Autism from the Ohio State University. I was developed through the efforts of the Autism Task Force, a group comprised of parents and professionals. The Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council approved funding for a project to market and distribute the guidelines to professionals and families of individuals with ASD/PDD.
The guidelines are intended as a tool that can be used to help families, educators, medical professionals, care providers and other service providers make informed decisions about children and young adults with ASD/PDD. They can be viewed as a map to the development of independence for the individual with ASD/PDD at the highest level possible in all life areas.
Here is the link to the book: http://psychmed.osu.edu/AutismBook_1.pdf
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