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More Information House Oversight Committee Report in State-by-State Impact of the seven rules (3/3/08) Bazelon Center Summary of the case management rules (HTML or easy-to-print PDF)

Urgent Action Alert

Help Protect a Critical Medicaid Safety Net

Ask Your Representative to Support a Hold on CMS Rules

March 20, 2008--Last week, Representatives John Dingell (D-MI) and Timothy Murphy (R-PA) introduced The Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008 (H.R. 5613) to delay until April 9, 2009 implementation of seven cost-cutting Medicaid regulations issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The bill has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which may consider it as early as April 1st.

The seven rules include those that will reduce Medicaid recipients' access to rehabilitative services, case management, school-based transportation and outreach services, graduate medical education payments and hospital clinic services. See the Bazelon Center's February 2008 Mental Health Policy Reporter.

The regulations have drawn strong criticism from a range of stakeholders, including organizations representing people with disabilities, children and families, hospitals, providers and state Medicaid directors.
Unlike several bills introduced earlier, which target particular regulations for delay (see, for example, our March 6 Alert on the case management rule), H.R. 5613 would impose a moratorium on all seven of the detrimental rules.

Please Act Now!

Implementation of the Administration's damaging rules must be stopped!

• Contact your Representative today to urge him or her to co-sponsor the bipartisan Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008, H.R. 5613, imposing a moratorium on all seven harmful Medicaid regulations.

Timing is critical, to get as many bipartisan sponsors as possible before the committee markup.

Also, now is a good time to reach your Representative while home for the spring congressional recess. To find the home office, go to www.congress.org and search in the Congressional Directory; when your Representative's information comes up, click on the Contact tab and you'll see both the Washington and District offices.

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