For Immediate Release;                                                       

March 23, 2004                                                               

For Information contact;
Bob Kafka 512/431-4085
Marsha Katz 406/544-9504

ADAPT Stages “Lie-In” in Freezing Weather to Secure HHS Meetings, Letters

Washington, D.C.---Braving six hours of unseasonable freezing temperatures in
the nation’s capitol, 500 members of ADAPT staged a “lie-in” around the
Health and Human Services (HHS) Building Monday, demanding that HHS leaders
restart the process to reverse the institutional bias in the Medicaid long term care
program.

Arriving from 7 a.m. on, HHS employees and visitors were greeted by a long
string of empty wheelchairs, and the building doors blocked by several hundred
persons with disabilities who were wrapped in sleeping bags and lying on foam
mats. Carrying signs reading “We’re lying, cuz you’re lying,” protestors
chanted “It’s cold, it’s freezing, but ADAPT’s not leaving” until meeting with
top HHS officials.

With HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson out of the country, Dennis Smith, Acting
Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, met outside in the
cold with all 500 ADAPT members. Pressed by ADAPT, Smith issued a letter
committing incoming CMS Administrator, Mark McClellan to a meeting with ADAPT
within 30 days. With phone confirmation from McClellan, Smith also promised that
regular meetings between ADAPT and HHS officials would resume.

As the protesters dissembled the lie-in and received assistance to return to
their wheelchairs, 15 ADAPT members met with Smith inside HHS to negotiate on
the additional ADAPT demands. Smith and HHS agreed to meet one of those
demands by issuing a “Dear State Medicaid Director’s letter.” The letter will
underscore for states that they currently have the ability, with no regulatory or
legislative changes, to move people from nursing homes and institutions by
transferring the funding to the preferred community services. States like Kansas,
Texas and Montana have utilized this approach to move many people out of
nursing homes and can offer information and guidance to other states.

Further, the letter will encourage all states to utilize this strategy to
provide more home and community based services, as per the U. S. Supreme Court “
Olmstead” decision that ruled that forced institutionalization of people who
can be served in the community amounts to illegal segregation.

“We’re here in Washington to meet with everyone who can help us remove the
institutional bias in Medicaid, said Shona Eakin, ADAPT Organizer from Ohio.  “
That means people in the Medicaid system, like today, and people in Congress
who can hold hearings on and pass MiCASSA (S.971 and H.R. 2032) and the Money
Follows the Person Act (S. 1394). And we won’t give up until all disabled and
older Americans have choice in where they live and receive the services and
supports they need.”

MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community-based Attendant Services and Supports Act,
and Money Follows the Person would both provide people the choice to receive
services in their own homes and communities rather than be forced into
institutional settings to receive those services. On the Senate side, both bills are
stuck in the Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) with Sen.
Max Baucus (D-MT) as the ranking minority member.

In another gain Monday, ADAPT received a personal statement of support from
Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, which said in part, “I applaud
the more than 400ADAPT activists uniting in Washington, D.C. to demand their
voices be heard regarding the critically important issue of ending the immoral
institutional bias in the Medicaid program.” “I am firmly opposed to the Bush
administration’s proposals to turn Medicaid into a block grant to the states.”
“…we must strengthen and protect Medicaid…” “We should help states carry
out the Olmstead decision and enact MiCASSA and the Money Follows the Person
Act.” “As with racial segregation, we must put an end to the institutional bias
in Medicaid that prevents millions of Americans of all ages from experiencing
freedom, independence and choice.”