Let's pray that they do.
-----Original Message-----
From: ourplace-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ourplace-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Victor Lawrence
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 5:28 PM
To: ourplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ourplace] Re: National Federation of the Blind and Disability
Advocates Charge Federal Health Agency with Civil Rights Violations
I hope things improve too.
VicOn 2/11/16, Panix <kathyann@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well maybe things will change when the suit is filed. Maybe we won'tYou are subscribed to Ourplace (
hear why don't you have a sighted person they can read your cards
anymore? I sure hope so. Hopefully things will change. I had that
experience once and I don't want to have it again. Anyway Tuesday I'm
going to go up to church and get a whole bunch of stuff read. This
lady that reads for me is going to do it. I just don't know what time
yet but we'll figure that one out. But that's how that goes. And
Sunday I'm definitely not going to church because it'll be too cold.
Like to do. Like only 2°. And there's no way I'm going out because
the windchill factor is going to be below zero. Well I finally found
out some information I didn't know what it was. They said they wanted
to test my blood for the see you CF. I didn't know what CF was. I
asked a friend of mine and I found out it's the clotting factor. And I
keep kept asking this lady is a doctors office what it was. This is
why I wanted to have access to a me dical dictionary. Because the
lady didn't answer the question. Maybe she didn't know. But it would've been
nice if you would've told me but oh well.
Anyway I wasn't really hungry earlier today so I had a canopies for
dinner and I can or fruit cocktail and three cookies. I didn't feel
like going downstairs. Now I'm full and I don't want anymore. But
anyway only the cookies were a bit frightening. But that's all I
wanted. Because my neighbor down the hall for me gave me two salmon
meals and I had them around noon. So I really wasn't hungry for the 3
o'clock meal. But that's OK. But anyway tomorrow morning I have
therapy with me Megan. So we'll get to talk tomorrow. Tuesday as I
said I want to go to church and get my mail right and I will. So
basically that's the way that goes. Monday I won't get it read because it's a
holiday. But that's just how that is.
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 11, 2016, at 6:29 PM, Linda Gehres <ljgehres@xxxxxxx> wrote:You are subscribed to Ourplace (
Subject: National Federation of the Blind and Disability Advocates
Charge Federal Health Agency with Civil Rights Violations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contacts:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
cdanielsen@xxxxxxx<mailto:cdanielsen@xxxxxxx>
Silvia Yee
Senior Staff Attorney
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
(510) 644-2555
syee@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:syee@xxxxxxxxx>
National Federation of the Blind and Disability Advocates Charge
Federal Health Agency with Civil Rights Violations
After forty years of the federal Rehabilitation Act and a new world
of technology, blind people still forced to rely on others to read
inaccessible materials
Springfield, Massachusetts (February 10, 2016): The National
Federation of the Blind (NFB) and individual plaintiffs Juan
Figueroa, Derek Manners, and Martti Mallinen announced the filing of
a major federal lawsuit today in US District Court, District of
Massachusetts, Western Division. The lawsuit charges the US
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its sub-agency,
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and its CMS
sub-contractors, with systemically violating the civil rights of
blind Medicare recipients.
The action seeks to require HHS to provide blind individuals
meaningful and equally effective access to their Medicare
information, as required by Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (Section 504).
CMS, a sub-agency of HHS, is the largest single payer for health care
in the United States, providing health care coverage to nearly ninety
million Americans through Medicare, Medicaid, and the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program.
CMS regularly communicates information to blind persons via
inaccessible print and electronic formats which they cannot read. Mr.
Figueroa, Mr.
Manners, Mr. Mallinen, and many other NFB members have thus faced or
been at risk for loss of benefits and healthcare disruption. For
example, Mr.
Mallinen has received information about denial of benefits and his
right to appeal said denial that he could not read, potentially
adversely affecting his appeal rights.
Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind,
said:
"We are outraged that blind people do not have access to their
personal Medicare and Medicaid information forty years after the
passage of the Rehabilitation act and almost a year after CMS
promised to implement a plan for equal access.
Today
blind people readily access information in more ways than ever before
but even large print access, the simplest possible solution for those
with sufficient residual vision, is not made available. This
continued disregard for the privacy and civil rights of the blind is
inexcusable, and blind Americans will not tolerate it."
At a time when smart technology is presumed to be improving the lives
of people with a variety of disabilities, blind Americans who rely on
healthcare services provided through Medicare and Medicare
contractors are forced to divulge personal and financial data to a
sighted third-party when responding to CMS.
Electronic and online materials may not be any more accessible than
printed ones. As a result, blind Medicare beneficiaries are often
unnecessarily prevented from independently reading, filling out,
signing and submitting online forms.
Appropriate auxiliary aids and services for blind individuals may
include providing documents in alternative formats such as Braille,
large print, audio CD, and digital navigable formats supported by
computers and digital talking-book players, transmitted through data
CD, e-mail, or other requested media.
The filing follows an investigation launched by Disability Rights
Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) to establish that there were
widespread incidences of communication access barriers in CMS
systems. In August 2014, in response to complaints filed with the HHS
Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in 2011 and
2012
under Section 504, CMS entered into an agreement with OCR. The
complaints were filed on behalf of blind Medicare beneficiaries, and
those similarly situated, who were not provided with notice of their
rights or with effective communication under Section 504. The
agreement signed by CMS and OCR, entitled the “Commitment to Action
to Resolve DREDF Section 504 Complaints”
(Commitment
to Action), established a timeframe within which CMS would take
specified actions to ensure the agency’s compliance with Section
504 in the areas raised in OCR’s investigation of the complaints,
found at
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/activities/agreements/cms.html.
DREDF Senior Attorney, Silvia Yee, said, “CMS was required to
complete a ‘Long-Term Action Plan’ by April 2015 that would ensure
effective cross-disability communication access, as well as the
timely provision of auxiliary aids and services to CMS beneficiaries
and consumers. To date, we have not seen a Plan. People with
disabilities have not been notified of any such plan. As a public
entity that deals every day with people with disabilities and older
Americans, CMS should lead the way to ensure compliance with
disability civil rights laws, not lag behind by four decades."
Plaintiffs are represented by DREDF; Brown, Goldstein & Levy; and
Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen (SRBC).
###
The National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise
the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create
obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life
you want; blindness is not what holds you back. https://nfb.org
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund Founded in 1979 by people
with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities, the
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) is a national law
and policy center based in Berkeley, CA and is dedicated to
protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with
disabilities.
www.dredf.org<http://www.dredf.org>.
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