ADA

The American with Disabilities Act is a wide-ranging statute that passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed into law by the first Bush as President in 1991. In case you weren't paying attention then, even Senator Jesse Helms supported this legislation.

Persons with disabilities just celebrated the law's anniversary in July, but much remains to be done to bring about compliance. I am writing this as a reminder to those of you responsible for organizing and planning political events, especially for candidates for office and their event planners.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC)
E-mail: vicki.smith@disabilityrightsnc.org

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Raleigh, NC – U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle today stopped the State of North Carolina from implementing policy on Medicaid personal care services that he said

treats people with similar needs differently and puts North Carolinians “who have been successfully living in their own homes…at risk of segregation, in the form of institutionalization.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) prohibits the unnecessary segregation and unjustified institutional isolation of persons with disabilities. The State is required to provide federally-funded services in “the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of the individual,” and the Medicaid Act requires that recipients not be treated differently when they have similar levels of need.

In his order granting a preliminary injunction and class certification, Judge Boyle found that plaintiffs offered sufficient evidence that the State’s policy on personal care services violates the Medicaid Act’s requirement to provide comparable services and the ADA’s integration mandate.

The policy under review allowed individuals in facilities such as Adult Care Homes to be eligible for personal care services by meeting one set of eligibility requirements and required individuals in the community to meet a far higher standard of need.

Under the policy, individuals who would not be eligible for personal care services while living in the community would get the care they needed by entering an Adult Care Home.