Emmer requests $8.3B in relief funds for direct support professionals

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) last week urged federal public health officials to ensure direct support professionals, who care for those with physical or intellectual disabilities, receive financial relief from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

Specifically, Rep. Emmer and 36 of his colleagues requested that $8.3 billion from the recently passed federal emergency relief funding package be allocated to providers of Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) and Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF-IIDs).

“This COVID-19 outbreak has presented subsequent crises throughout the health care sector,” Rep. Emmer said on June 3. “Direct support professionals are a vital part of healthcare delivery and are serving as the front-line providers allowing individuals with disabilities the opportunity to live full lives. They deserve our support and I am urging my colleagues to fund this effort.”

In a May 28 letter sent to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, Rep. Emmer and his colleagues  

Specifically, the members requested that Congress allocate the emergency supplemental funding for HCBSs and ICF-IIDs through the Public Health and Social Services Fund authorized in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. 

“As we work to further address this issue in supplemental legislation, it is critical that we provide relief to the organizations and workers that serve these individuals and ensure that Medicaid disability supports continue to operate during this pandemic and long after we defeat it,” the lawmakers wrote. 

The letter expands upon passage of the bipartisan Isaiah Baker and Margie Harris-Austin Act, H.R. 5443, as part of the CARES Act. Introduced in December 2019 by Rep. Emmer and U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), language from the bill authorizes states with 1915(c) waivers to reimburse providers for time direct support professionals spend supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities during short-term hospital stays.