Category: Disabilities

Social Security Tackles Overpayment ‘Injustices,’ but Problems Remain

With his term soon to expire, Social Security chief Martin O’Malley’s efforts to address the agency’s overpayments to beneficiaries remain incomplete.

More Restrooms Have Adult-Size Changing Tables To Help People With Disabilities

Adults with disabilities and their caregivers are pressing governments and private businesses across the U.S. to help them avoid undignified public bathroom experiences.

Disability Rights Activist Pushes Government To Let Him Participate in Society

Garret Frey won a U.S. Supreme Court case as a teenager who needed assistance to attend high school. Now, he’s gained concessions under Iowa’s Medicaid program to help him live at home instead of in a care facility.

Her Hearing Implant Was Preapproved. Nonetheless, She Got $139,000 Bills for Months.

Even when patients double-check that their care is covered by insurance, health providers often send them bills as they haggle with insurers over reimbursement, which can last for months. It’s stressful and annoying — but legal.

California Lawmakers Preserve Aid to Older, Disabled Immigrants

Lawmakers passed a budget that rejected Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to save nearly $95 million by eliminating in-home support services for qualifying older, blind, and disabled immigrants lacking legal residency. Advocates say Newsom’s plan would have cost more in the long run. Newsom has not indicated whether he’ll veto.

Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Decried as Biased Against Disabled People

People with disabilities say they are abruptly losing their Medicaid home health benefits and are being advised incorrectly when they call state offices for more information. “Every day the anxiety builds,” one beneficiary told KFF Health News.

‘Breaking a Promise’: California Deficit Could Halt Raises for Disability Workers

Families of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities say Gov. Gavin Newsom is reneging on an expected pay increase for care workers. If the delay goes through, it could impede services and invite legal challenges from advocates.

‘Breaking a Promise’: California Deficit Could Halt Raises for Disability Workers

Families of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities say Gov. Gavin Newsom is reneging on an expected pay increase for care workers. If the delay goes through, it could impede services and invite legal challenges from advocates.

Mandatory Reporting Laws Meant To Protect Children Get Another Look

The state is looking at ways to weed out false reporting of child abuse and neglect as the number of reports reaches a record high.

California Fails to Adequately Help Blind and Deaf Prisoners, US Judge Rules

Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that California prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners — in part because they are not providing readily available technology such as video recordings and laptop computers.