New York Physical Therapists Call for Elimination of Specialty Co-Pays

NYPTA to Visit State Legislators in Albany

Who: The New York Physical Therapy Association (NYPTA)

What: NYPTA to focus their annual Lobby Day efforts unfair and costly specialty co-pays

When: Tuesday, May 12th

Where: Activities kick-off from LOB Well at 11:00 AM

The New York Physical Therapy Association (NYPTA) tomorrow will bring hundreds of members, advocates and patients to Albany to meet with state legislators in an effort to end the unfair practice of so-called “specialty” co-pays, which are costing patients in dollars and foregone treatment and physical therapists in lost patients and jobs, leaving New York State with a more costly and less effective health care system.

“NYPTA members and advocates are heading to Albany during difficult economic times but these are especially hard times for the physical therapy profession and our patients as a result of the managed care environment in which we practice,” said Jim Dunleavy, President of NYPTA.  “Managed care companies continue to restrict access to physical therapy services by imposing ‘specialty’ co-payments of $40 or more per visit, when the insurance benefit that the patient pays for is the same or only a few dollars above that amount.”

Managed care health insurers have designated physical therapists as specialists for co-payment purposes, allowing health plans to charge patients more per visit while maintaining reimbursement levels to physical therapists, thus shifting more of the cost burden onto the backs of consumers.

“These specialty co-payments add up for New Yorkers, since physical therapy frequently requires multiple visits over an extended period of time as the practice of physical therapy works in conjunction with the healing process,” said Dunleavy. “Health Plans call these specialty co-pays, we call them unfair.”

Dunleavy continued: “We know from firsthand experience that these co-payments prevent New Yorkers from receiving medically necessary care as many working families cannot afford to pay these high co-payments, leaving them no choice but to forego treatment altogether. Furthermore, New York physical therapists receive one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation despite the high costs of doing business in New York.”

As a result, NYPTA is asking members of the State Legislature to support S.4321 sponsored by Senator Breslin and A.8171 sponsored by Assemblyman Cahill to end the imposition of additional co-pays on New Yorkers for physical therapy services on the basis of provider or setting.

“Our message to the Legislature is simple,” said Dunleavy, “We hope each Senator and Assembly Member will support the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers — their constituents — who need or are in physical therapy, who work in physical therapy, or have family members in physical therapy and please co-sponsor and vote for S.4321/A.8171 because fair co-pays do equal better results.”

About NYPTA: The New York Physical Therapy Association is a professional, non-profit association of approximately 12,000 Physical Therapists (PTs), Physical Therapist Assistants (PTAs) and PT/PTA students. The NYPTA is dedicated to serving the public’s health interests, improving the standard of health for people of all ages and advancing the benefits of physical therapy and the interests of physical therapy professionals in state of New York. To learn more about the New York Physical Therapy Association please visit www.nypta.org.

JOIN EARTH HOUR

TODAY

EMPIRE PUBLIC AFFAIRS IS A PROUD PARTICIPANT IN EARTH HOUR 2009

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is World Wildlife Fund’s global initiative where individuals, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for action on climate change.

Earth Hour is a symbolic event designed to engage people from all walks of life in the climate change discussion to send a strong message to our political leaders that we want them to take meaningful action on climate change.

The largest climate event in history where millions of people around the world will unite by turning off their lights for one hour, Earth Hour, to demand action on the climate crisis.

When is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour 2009 takes place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm–local time.

Just like New Years Eve, Earth Hour will travel from time zone to time zone starting at 8:30pm in New Zealand.

FOR MORE INFO ON EARTH HOUR: http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php

New York State Needs Civil Legal Services

Please check out the video news release below, a direct appeal for support of CLS from Anne Erickson, President and CEO of the Empire Justice Center, on behalf of the Legal Services Funding Alliance (LSFA): http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/stcasx/ca25win25210/02-11-09C.wmv/play.asx

For more on LSFA, a list of members, and the issue, please visit: http://empirejustice.org/New/LSFundingAlliance/LSFA.htm

A few points on CLS:

• Across New York State, the need for civil legal services is exploding as low income New Yorkers search for legal assistance on evictions and foreclosures, unemployment benefits, domestic violence, food stamps, disability payments, and countless other issues.

• Even before the current economic crisis, our service delivery system met less than 20% of the civil legal needs of our low income residents. In fact, New York’s support for CLS is among the lowest in the nation.

• In 2007, funding was set at $16 million, yet in 2008 it was cut in half to $8 million. Now, current proposed funding is reduced even further to $1 million.  This funding amount is simply too small to meet even a fraction of the civil legal needs of citizens across the state.

• Meanwhile, the Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) Fund, the second largest source of funding for civil legal services, is expected to drop by 70%-90%, as the need for assistance is on the rise. In fact, the IOLA Fund will go from $25 million in grants this year to $3 million next year.

• Due to funding reductions in 2008, at least 3 neighborhood offices outside NYC have been closed and 17 good paying jobs in upstate New York have already been lost.

• Our programs are already collectively turning away at least 55 people in need every hour our doors are open. That number will increase exponentially and at least two more offices and 140 additional jobs will be lost if state funding is not restored and the Governor and Legislature do not take action to address the IOLA losses using stimulus or state funds.

• Meanwhile, new Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has put civil legal services funding at the top of his priority list. Judge Lippman wants to “reconfigure the indigent defense system and raise money for civil legal services.”

• With our legal services providers across the state looking at losing anywhere from 6% to 58% of their total budgets, clearly access to civil legal assistance will be decimated – putting access to justice for low income New Yorkers at serious risk just when they need it most.
  
  

• For more information on Empire Justice Center: http://empirejustice.org/.

Senate and Assembly Support Library Budget Restorations

Library Advocates Told Senate and Assembly Support Budget Restorations at Capitol Rally

(ALBANY, N.Y.) The New York Library Association (NYLA) today held their annual Library Lobby Day, which brought over 1,000 librarians, trustees and library patrons to Albany to ask the Legislature to restore the Governor’s proposed $18 million or 18% cut in Library Aid.

The event started with a Legislative Breakfast Reception for legislators and library leaders. At the Breakfast Reception, 87 legislators had their photos taken for the very popular READ posters, which legislators can send to the libraries in their districts to promote the Statewide Summer Reading program.

Library advocates then met with legislators and their staffs in their offices, where they delivered the message that library funding should be a priority for restoration.

“During tough economic times, you should not cut funding for public services that are in the greatest demand or can do the most good, and libraries helping people find jobs, start new careers or access public assistance programs fit into that category,” said Michael J. Borges, NYLA Executive Director.

The day culminated with a Library Rally at which State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, Chair of the Senate Education Committee; Assemblymember Amy Paulin, Chair of the Assembly Libraries and Education Technology Committee; and Senator Hugh T. Farley, former Chair of Senate Subcommittee on Libraries; all spoke in favor of restoring Library Aid. Other special guests addressing the attendees were children’s author Charles R. Smith, Jr., State Librarian Bernie Margolis, and Queens Public Library Director Tom Galante.

Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, commented that she has rarely seen a group at the Capitol like the nearly one-thousand library supporters in the room. Sen. Oppenheimer shared some much-needed positive news, announcing that the Senate Majority supports library funding restoration.

“I can tell you that the Senate Democratic Conference met last night and we are going to restore the $18 million cuts back into the budget,” Sen. Oppenheimer told an enthusiastic crowd. “There is probably not a single line item in the budget more important to me than libraries.”

Sen. Oppenheimer also announced a Senate Library Subcommittee whose members represent different parts of the state: Sen. Darrel Aubertine from the North Country, Sen. Neil Breslin from the Capital Region, Sen. Brian Foley from Long Island, Sen. Daniel Squadron from New York City and Sen. Oppenheimer from the Westchester-Hudson Valley region.

“I am so proud of all of you for keeping up the fight. Libraries have been shortchanged for so many years already and now would be a terrible time to reduce library funding with the economy turning people back to their libraries,” said Oppenheimer.

Assemblymember Amy Paulin, Chair of the Assembly Libraries and Education Technology Committee said, “We have been talking for years about the need for increased advocacy, your advocacy today surpasses our highest expectations. Your loud voices mean so much in helping us restore the funding for our libraries around the state. The last few years have represented dramatic change for libraries, creating more access to more people, while still maintaining that hometown feeling. This is why we need to keep library doors opened, not closed.”

Paulin also expressed support from the Assembly Majority. “There has been great support in the Assembly for full restoration for your services,” said Paulin. “Together we will work to ensure libraries get what you need to ensure the important services you provide.”

The proposed 2009-10 Executive Budget reduces library aid by $18 million or 18% to $80.5 million, a level not seen since 1993. These cuts are on top of the two cuts already imposed on libraries in 2008, reducing Library Aid from $102 million in 2007 to $98.5 million at the end of 2008. The proposed cuts will also result in a corresponding loss of $2 million in federal funds for library services in New York, reducing federal aid from $9 million to $7 million by 2011.

Senator Hugh Farley, a Senate Republican, said, “There are thirty votes in my conference to restore the $18 million. Libraries are non-partisan, it doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican but you have to support libraries.”

Borges stressed that “libraries are willing to do their fair share to address the state’s fiscal deficit and have already twice contributed to state budget reductions but we believe these proposed cuts are both draconian and disproportionate.”

“To an unemployed person without internet access at home, the library has become an essential public service, a critical resource on the road to economic recovery, and that’s why the Legislature needs to find a way to restore the proposed cuts,” concluded Mr. Borges.

About NYLA: The New York Library Association — America’s first state library association — was founded in 1890 to lead in the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship to enhance learning, quality of life, and equal opportunity for all New Yorkers.

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CIVIL LEGAL SERVICES IN CRISIS

Legal services programs across New York State are in crisis mode. State funding stood at $15.85 million in 2007.  This year there is just $1 million in the proposed Executive Budget. Interest based revenue from the Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) Fund, a core funder of civil legal services, is in free fall.  The Fund awarded $25 million on an annualized basis in its 2009 grant cycle, but revenues this year could drop as low as $5 million or less.

Legal services for the poor are critical – even more so during an economic downturn. From helping connect newly unemployed families with unemployment benefits to helping the increasing numbers of domestic violence victims seek the safety they deserve to helping struggling New Yorkers avert eviction and foreclosure, providing legal assistance to those in need helps stabilize families in times of crisis.

Legal services are also cost effective – saving the state tens of thousands of dollars for every child that is kept out of foster care, every family kept out of a homeless shelter and bringing federal dollars into the state through increased disability payments and food stamp utilization.  Research tells us that these dollars are spent almost immediately in local communities and businesses to buy necessities and pay bills – bringing much needed economic stimulus to the villages, towns and cities served by our members.

Without restoration of state funding and a rescue plan for IOLA funding, the legal services community faces severe job losses and a significantly reduced capacity to provide services, even as demand is on the rise and our member programs are turning away an estimated 55 people every hour our doors are open.

To ensure that low income New Yorkers who were already struggling BEFORE the economic downturn have access to the legal assistance they need, the Governor and the Legislature should:

1. Restore state funding in the 2009-10 state budget to at least $11.4 million which is only 70% of the 2007 funding level. This includes $4.2 million in the Department of State from the Assembly and at least $1 million from the Governor; a total of $5 million from the Legal Services Assistance Fund from the Legislature; and $1.2 million in DCJS from the legislature.

2. Use the new stimulus as an opportunity to help offset the anticipated dramatic loss of IOLA funding to avoid significant layoffs, to help respond to the increased need for assistance and to invest in the civil legal services infrastructure by creating new jobs. This can be done by investing up to $50 million in these essential services, a goal set by Chief Judge Judith Kaye over ten years ago and renewed by the Equal Justice Commission in 2006.

NEW YORK PHYSICAL THERAPY ASSOCIATION

NYPTA Lobby Day Information

May 12, 2009
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY

For more information on New York Physical Therapy Association:

http://www.nypta.org

Civil Legal Services Advocates Attend Gov’s Town Hall Meeting in Niagara Falls

Civil Legal Services Advocates Attend Gov. Paterson’s

Town Hall Meeting in Niagara Falls

Call on Gov. Paterson to Restore Critical Civil Legal Services Funding

(Niagara Falls, N.Y.) — Advocates for Civil Legal Services (CLS) attended Gov. Paterson’s Town Hall meeting tonight at the Niagara Falls Housing Authority to ask the Governor to restore critical CLS funding which provides legal assistance to poor, disabled and disenfranchised New Yorkers in times of need.

CLS advocates also asked the state to use new federal stimulus dollars to help offset the anticipated dramatic loss of Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) funding in an effort to avoid significant layoffs, respond to the increased need for assistance and to invest in the civil legal services infrastructure.

“We wanted Gov. Paterson to know that civil legal services programs face a crisis in their ability to provide legal assistance to the growing number of individuals that come to our doors,” said Joe Kelemen of Western New York Law Center.  “Two of three core funding sources have been decimated, with state funding down to $1 million from $16 million in 2007 and IOLA looking at as much as an 80% reduction from 2008.  We are asking the Governor if he can provide us with some assurances that funding will be available to help our clients with their critical legal needs.”

“We know the Governor has been a strong supporter of CLS and we understand we’re facing a budget deficit and a struggling economy, and we sincerely appreciate his amendment to restore $1 million in CLS funding but legal services programs across New York State are in a crisis mode,” said Anne Erickson, president and CEO of the Empire Justice Center, on behalf of the Legal Services Funding Alliance, a coalition of 20 upstate and Long Island legal services programs.

“However, the remaining proposed 88% budget cut to civil legal services for the poor will only make a difficult situation worse for thousands of low-income and disabled New Yorkers, including many families right here in western New York, who rely on these services for the legal protection of their rights. It is of the utmost importance that CLS funding be restored to its 2008-2009 levels,” continued Ms. Erickson.

“Without restoration of state funding and a rescue plan for IOLA funding, the CLS community faces severe job losses and a significantly reduced capacity to provide services,” said Robert Elardo from the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Inc. “It doesn’t make sense to severely reduce our ability to help people. As demand for civil legal services is on the rise, many CLS programs are forced to turn away an estimated 55 people every hour their doors are open.”

New York’s low income families and individuals turn to civil legal services programs in times of crisis to help stabilize their lives. Civil legal services attorneys work with their clients to help access special education services for special needs children; to obtain disability benefits for veterans returning from the war; to avert homelessness by staving off eviction or foreclosure when a high cost loan becomes impossible to maintain.

“Maintaining adequate funding for civil legal services is an absolute necessity to keep our promise of providing equal justice for all,” said David Schopp of the Legal Assistance Bureau of Buffalo. “We are pleased that Gov. Paterson added back into his budget $1 million for Civil Legal Services through his 30 day amendments, one of only two changes that he made, but we need the state legislature to follow his lead.”

Ken Perri of Legal Assistance of Western New York said that “the need for legal assistance is skyrocketing as people face complicated legal issues around securing unemployment benefits, guarding against increased evictions or mortgage foreclosures and dealing with the loss of health benefits and more.”

In the 2008-09 budget, state funding for civil legal services was reduced to just under $8 million, a 55% cut to the just under $16 million in funding for 2007-08. Adding to the pain is the continuing attempt to cut current year funding through the deficit budget which calls for a 44% cut to any unspent funding in the 2008-09 budget.

“For many people in western New York, these cuts to civil legal services further weaken the safety net that may be the only thing between surviving this crisis and launching families with special needs into an uncontrollable downward spiral,” said William Hawkes of Neighborhood Legal Services. “Supporting CLS funding is critical to helping us meet the ever-increasing needs of families, communities, and neighborhoods.”

“Legal services are also cost effective – saving the state tens of thousands of dollars for every child that is kept out of foster care, every family kept out of a homeless shelter and bringing federal dollars into the state through increased disability payments and food stamp utilization,” said Karen Nicolson, Legal Services for the Elderly, Disadvantaged or Disabled of Western NY, Inc. “Research tells us that these dollars are spent almost immediately in local economies in local business to buy necessities and pay bills – bringing much needed economic stimulus particularly to the villages, towns and cities served by our members.”

In terms of civil legal services funding, New York State was ranked in the middle of the pack compared to other states as measured by 2007 state funding. In 2008, New York dropped to the last quarter of states and the current elimination of state funding would put New York tied for dead last in the nation.

“Civil legal services have been vastly under-funded for decades in New York,” said Kristin Brown Lilley Director of Legislative Advocacy for the Empire Justice Center. “New York should maintain its own general fund commitment to the delivery of civil legal services and seek to be a national leader in defending the poor, not a national embarrassment.”

Libraries Protest the Ultimate Unfunded Mandate: Tax Collection Services

Libraries Protest the Ultimate Unfunded Mandate:
Tax Collection Services

(ALBANY, N.Y.) The New York State Library Association (NYLA) called on Governor David Paterson and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance today to immediately end pushing tax form distribution and customer service duties onto local public libraries.

“Not only are you asking us to do more with less, but you are asking libraries to help collect the very tax dollars you are taking away from us,” said Michael Borges, NYLA’s executive director. “Our members are local community libraries, not state tax collection agencies.”

The NYS Department of Taxation and Finance has discontinued mailing out forms to NYS taxpayers, and a press release and postcard sent to New Yorkers informed citizens to either visit their public libraries to pick up tax forms or download them from the internet.  The move was labeled a cost cutting move, saving the Department of Taxation and Finance roughly $1 million annually. However, the cost of handling tax form distribution has been largely dumped on New York’s libraries, which are now expected to print out tax forms and provide tax-related customer service.

“Libraries are responsible for not only providing the forms, but also for helping taxpayers fill out the forms and answering other tax related questions,” said Borges.  “Library traffic is up, circulation is up, and the types of library services in high-demand continue to climb while our state funding is getting cut. Adding tax form services simply shifts the costs and administrative burdens from state agencies to local libraries, and we are in no position to accept these unfunded mandates.”

“In recent years we have had hundreds of state and Federal forms given to us by the state and picked up by local residents. There is absolutely no way that we could afford to absorb the printing costs if we are forced to provide these forms entirely on our own” said Kevin Gallagher of the Middletown Thrall Library.  “Imagine the cost of hundreds of tax forms, considering our budget is already being cut. It’s just not feasible.”

“”I don’t mind providing this service, as I consider anything which brings more people into the library, and which increases our value to the community, to be an asset. But, certainly, it is incongruous for the state to cut library funding while it is savings millions itself by shifting its responsibilities to the very libraries it is cutting”, said Ed Dunscombe, Director, George Johnson Memorial Library in Endicott.

“This year we have spent more staff time and effort on tax-related services than ever before, “said Barbara Nichols Randall, Director of the Guilderland Public Library, “We have a long standing partnership with AARP to help people in our community prepare their taxes  but the mandate that local libraries replace the state in providing tax forms to the public is an added cost for the library itself. In January alone, our estimated staff cost for this service is almost $2,500, not to mention the overhead expense incurred by using our copiers and paper supplies to print the forms.”

“It’s a service we provide happily, but it takes staff away from serving patrons’ other reference needs and is having an impact on our supply budget,” added Mrs. Randall.  “This year we estimated that we will save the community $42,000 with this service.”

The proposed 2009-10 Executive Budget reduces library aid by $18 million or 18% to $80.5 million, a level not seen since 1993. These cuts are on top of the two cuts already imposed on libraries in 2008, reducing Library Aid from $102 million in 2007 to $98.5 million at the end of 2008. The proposed cuts will also result in a corresponding loss of $2 million in federal funds for library services in New York, reducing federal aid from $9 million to $7 million by 2011.

About NYLA: The New York Library Association — America’s first state library association — was founded in 1890 to lead in the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship to enhance learning, quality of life, and equal opportunity for all New Yorkers. Today, NYLA is working stronger than ever to promote its mission of supporting libraries and information services.

To learn more about the New York Library Association, please visit www.nyla.org.

SAVE CIVIL LEGAL SERVICES

For more information on the Legal Services Funding Alliance:

http://www.empirejusticecenter.com/New/LSFundingAlliance/LSFA.htm

For more information on the Empire Justice Center:

http://www.empirejusticecenter.com/

Legislative Leaders Voice Support for Home Care

www.hca-nys.org

For Immediate Release: February 26, 2009

Contact:

Roger L. Noyes (518) 810-0665 (518) 275-6961 cell

Legislative Leaders Voice Support for Home Care

During home care Advocacy Day, legislative leaders echo HCA’s call to apply FMAP funding to offset Medicaid health care cuts, as home care services face a $475 million hit under proposed 2009-10 State Budget

Recognizing the impact of nearly a half-billion dollars in proposed State Budget cuts on patient services, state legislators addressed New York’s home care community during HCA’s 2009 Advocacy Day on February 25, stressing the importance of New York’s home care safety net for the frail elderly, persons with disabilities, the chronically ill, and patients in need of post-acute care.

Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari (D-Cohoes), Senate Health Committee Chairman Tom Duane (D-Manhattan), Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), and Senator Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) all echoed HCA’s contention that the $11 billion in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) money coming to New York under the economic stimulus package recently passed by Congress should be used squarely for the Medicaid program and to offset the home care and other health care cuts contained in Governor Paterson’s 2009-10 Executive State Budget proposal.

“We must keep Medicaid dollars for Medicaid programs,” Assemblyman Canestrari told home care advocates during HCA’s Advocacy Day program.

Assemblyman Canestrari also questioned a budget proposal that would prohibit certain home care agencies from subcontracting with licensed home care services agencies (LHCSAs) for home health aide services — a proposal that offers no substantiated cost-savings to Medicaid and has been advanced without data or analysis justifying its intent. In fact, HCA has argued, the proposed subcontracting prohibition will only increase Medicaid costs and lead to service and staff cutbacks since very few non-LHCSA agencies have the infrastructure or operating margins to absorb all of their home health aide services directly.

“The prohibition on subcontracting makes no sense to me whatsoever,” said Assemblyman Canestrari. “Why restructure something when it works?”

Senator Duane also voiced support for applying FMAP dollars towards home health services, saying, “We are in tough times, but sledgehammer cuts are a terrible idea. When it comes to FMAP dollars, my job will be to make sure that we get to keep those dollars where they need to be.”

Senator Duane added: “Your profession is an economic engine for New York State at the same time that you are helping the most vulnerable and ensuring that patients in many cases do not have to enter institutions.”

Assemblyman Gottfried noted that New York State must use the additional FMAP funding to eliminate indiscriminate funding cuts that have no basis in health policy.

“I believe that the federal money ought to enable us to avoid doing the Medicaid cuts that are clearly cutting for the sake of cutting and which are clearly not anyone’s idea of a programmatic change in the health care system,” Assemblyman Gottfried said.

“I am confident that during the rest of today and in days to come, you will continue to be very effective in getting your message out and I look forward to working with you,” Assemblyman Gottfried told home care advocates.

Senator Johnson shared a personal example of how home care benefited his family in a time of need, noting that his mother had received home care services at the end of her life.

“When my mother was given a terminal diagnosis, we made the conscious decision to bring her home and we brought in a home health care agency to help us through this process,” Senator Johnson said. “I can’t tell you what a godsend those individuals were who not only provided loving care but who became a part of our family for a period of time.”

Regarding FMAP funding, Senator Johnson added: “Washington is offering us a lifeline for the time being when it comes to Medicaid and we need to take it for Medicaid. We need to make sure that the dollars from Medicaid go to groups such as yourselves to help the people that you help.”

As part of its Advocacy Day program, HCA has delivered to all state lawmakers a magazine-style publication entitled On the Edge: Unprecedented Home Care Cuts Threaten NY’s Home Care System which details the proposed funding cuts, offers alternative solutions for making Medicaid more cost-efficient through the affirmative use of home care services, and conveys the human side of home care. On the Edge can be found online at http://www.hca-nys.org/Edge.pdf.

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