Friday, September 16, 2011

Defense of Marriage

This past week, legislators met for three long days as promised at the end of last mini session in July. This mini session was to address the Defense of Marriage bill. NASW-NC members participated in many activities organized by Equality, NC and was inspired to watch their advocacy efforts and hard fight! Sadly, with just enough votes in both the House and the Senate, the bill was passed and ratified. In May, voters will have the chance to decide on the amendment.

What was the bill about?
The bill would provide an amendment to our state Constitution that would define marriage between one man and one woman and this would be the only recognized legal union in the state of NC (which is already a law here). During the May primary, voters will have the chance to vote on this Constitutional Amendment. If voters decide to vote no, the amendment will not be made. If voters decide yes, this amendment will be made to our Constitution; further discriminating our citizens. From now until then, NASW-NC, with the help of the PACE and Legislative Committees will be working with other organization on a campaign to vote no on this amendment.

Why is NASW-NC getting involved with this issue?
Our Code of Ethics is very clear about discrimination. We wrote a position paper on this very issue. It can be found by clicking here. Social workers are bound to the Code of Ethics in our practice and advocate on issues based on what is stated in our Code.

What can you do to help?

- Join the PACE and/or Legislative Committees if you're a member. These groups will be working on campaign efforts and other documents social workers can use.
- Write an Op-Ed to your local newspaper. Share with them how specific our Code of Ethics are about this issue.
- Continue to communicate with your legislators about how this issue affects you, your family, your practice, etc. They need to know how their constituents feel. Click here to find out who represents you.
- Talk to other social workers at your school, your place of employment or other networks you're a part of to let them know about this issue and what our Code of Ethics states.

From NASW's Code of Ethics (2008):
Social workers should not practice, condone, facilitate, or
collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion or mental or physical disability.

Social workers should act to prevent and eliminate domination of, exploitation of, and discrimination against person, group, or class on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion, or mental or physical disability.”

To view our Code of Ethics, click here.

To view National's information on Diversity and Equity, click here.

Friday, September 9, 2011

AP: NC Did Not Miss Deadline for Adult Care Home Changes

Here’s the alert that went out on the wire after the change was made:

MENTALLY ILL-NURSING HOMES
NC officials now say no deadline for mentally ill

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services says she was mistaken when she said the state had missed a deadline for dealing with thousands of people with mental illness who live in adult care homes.
Renee McCoy had said federal Medicaid regulators had given the state until Sept. 1 to develop a plan. Medicaid notified the state earlier this year it was in violation because of how it pays for the care of people with mental illness.
McCoy said Wednesday that there was no deadline. Agency Secretary Lanier Cansler tells The Associated Press the federal government at one point wanted a plan "by September," but that timeframe has been relaxed.
Meanwhile, state officials say the number of facilities whose patients may have to leave has increased.

Here’s the rewrite of the full story:

http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/09/07/2374675/apnewsbreak-nc-misses-mental-illness.html

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/ncwire/state-ups-count-care-homes-risk-pay-conflict-675945



Michael Biesecker
Staff Writer
Raleigh, N.C.
919.510.8937 office
919.741.9163 cell
919.783.9184 fax
mbiesecker@ap.org
Twitter: mbieseck

The AP, founded in 1846, has a global network of 240 bureaus, providing news in text, audio, video, graphics and photos to more than 15,000 news outlets with a daily reach of 1 billion people worldwide.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A Message on CAP-I/DD Waivers

The Division, in partnership with DMA and with the support of DDTI will be hosting five CAP-I/DD Informational Sessions for the purpose of communicating the changes in the CAP-I/DD Comprehensive and Supports Waivers that will be effective 11/1/11. The sites for the sessions were selected to accommodate as many interested individuals as possible in each region. We would appreciate your assistance in forwarding the session information to the DD Consortium membership, and all you feel would be interested in attending. There will be no charge for these events, and registration is now open. The registration links for the events are listed as follows:

Tuesday, Sept. 20, Greenville http://reg.abcsignup.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0060-0003-a3395d80da8e42658f70c2cf4e87a956

Wednesday, Sept. 21, Wilmington http://reg.abcsignup.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0060-0003-3f3755a5929a44b58aa6810487e1cb71

Monday, Sept. 26, Asheville http://reg.abcsignup.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0060-0003-b6e9889699c04fe1994862930018eb7d

Tuesday, Sept. 27, Newton http://reg.abcsignup.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0060-0003-b156bba189a34764a55d1f65b7a31366

Wednesday, Sept. 28, Sanford http://reg.abcsignup.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0060-0003-0600c8fb057545ffa5938727a522e2c4

We are encouraging all who are interested in attending to register as soon as possible so we can monitor the attendance numbers. Also, we are encouraging people to arrive one hour or so ahead of the event as we expect large numbers.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

ValueOptions Update

On Thursday, September 1st, ValueOptions requested to attend the Professional Association Council (PAC). NASW-NC is apart of this Coalition, meeting monthly to represent licensed professionals across North Carolina. The request for ValueOptions to attend our meeting was to inform us about a spike in denials of authorization and ways they are working to address the issue.

There are several points they wanted our members to be aware of when submitting authorizations:
1) Most of the time, reductions for requests are due simply by not having clinical information provided on the request(this information is missing from the request). Information such as diagnosis and treatment changes need to be noted, clinical support for service definitions need clinical support, no provider number listed, etc.
2) Lack of knowledge about due process rules that changed in May of 2011. For more information on this, click here or here for due process and prior approval information.
3) New process for submitting requests: Electronic submission mentioned in the August 2011 Medicaid Bulletin- this is effective 0ct. 1st, 2011. Providers will need to sign up with the Provider Connect website to submit requests, see authorization letters, etc. Click here and see the Section 1 for more information on Provider Connect.

ValueOptions is committed to help the providers of NC work with Best Practice standards. For more information on Practice Guidelines, click here.

NASW-NC Members: If you have any questions about this information, please contact Kay Paksoy at the chapter office.