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- FOURTH ANNUAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCEL: A SUCCESS!
- FAMILIES USA REPORT ON HEALTH INSURANCE IN NY
- MEDICARE PART D UPDATE
FOURTH ANNUAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCEL: A SUCCESS!
On October 20th, 2006 NYSACRA hosted our Fourth Annual Leadership Conference, “Leadership and Innovation for the Future” in Saratoga Springs that brought in over 140 registrants. This year’s leadership conference provided two morning keynotes. Max Chmura challenged the audience to rethink the world of person-centered services, while Chris Lyons wowed the audience and stressed the importance of “dignity of risk”. The afternoon consisted of several breakout sessions addressing the most critical policy issues that we will are facing in this field over the next few years. Melanie Nathanson, Director of the Federal Budget Initiative, Budget and Policy Priorities for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Tresa Undem, Senior Analyst, Lake Research Partners covered the future of Medicaid and how to protect Medicaid by analyzing voter perception of Medicaid. With workforce, recruitment and retention always being a leading issues in our field, Regis Obijiski, Executive Director, New Horizons Resources, Inc., Tony Thomas, Executive Director, Welcome House, Inc., Ohio and Co-Chair of National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals and Peter Smergut, Executive Director, Life’s WORC, instructed the audience on how to build a better workforce.
NYSACRA would like to thank all our keynote speakers and presenters for sharing their time and knowledge on these important issues in our field. We also want to thank everyone that attended. Thanks for your support.
FAMILIES USA REPORT ON HEALTH INSURANCE IN NY
According to a report developed by Families USA, over the past six years, health insurance premiums in New York rose 5.5 times faster than earnings! From 2000 to 2006:
• Health care premiums rose 71.8% and Median earnings rose 13.0%
These findings are from the first state-level analysis of rising health costs and the burden they impose on America’s working families. More details can be found in the new report, Premiums versus Paychecks: A Growing Burden for New York’s Workers, which is available on the Families USA Web site or linked in the email and online versions of this News & Views.
MEDICARE PART D UPDATE
CMS Part D reassignment letters on blue paper will be issued in early November to dually eligible beneficiaries whose plans will not be available in 2007 and to beneficiaries who remained in auto-assigned plans that will no longer be benchmark or fully subsidized in 2007.
In addition to these reassignments, United Healthcare and CMS are working to reassign ALL subsidized beneficiaries in the 2006 United Healthcare/PacifiCare benchmark plans to the new 2007 United Healthcare AARP - Saver benchmark plan, whether those beneficiaries were auto-assigned or chose the plans.
Reassignments will take effect 1/1/07, unless the beneficiary chooses to remain in their current plan or chooses a new plan prior to that date.
Some scenarios for transitioning to 2007 plans as currently known for dually eligible beneficiaries seeking to stay in benchmark or fully subsidized Part D plans are available online at www.nysacra.org. We'll continue to advise you of any additional changes that CMS makes to their transition to 2007 plans.
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