Medicaid managed care still posing barriers for deaf, disabled
Last week, about 30 people from the disabled community gathered at the
Marc Dubin, director of advocacy for the
At the meeting, Dubin spoke on behalf of the disabled community to managed care companies and state
"We cannot just sit around not understanding forms, not understanding our doctors," said
Under the privatized
Justin Senior, deputy secretary for
"Everybody here is committed to making sure our communication is effective," Senior said.
Consumers can file complaints with their managed care company or directly with
"What we are seeing and hearing is that people with disabilities are facing barriers to access that the system is not adequately accommodating, addressing and removing," Heystek said.
Sometimes, language is the barrier. For people who became deaf before they learned a language, American Sign Language, which is based on facial expressions and gestures, is their primary means of communication, Dubin said. English is often a second language.
Still, many in the deaf community said managed care forms are not intuitive.
Fellove agreed that he struggles with the English in his healthcare forms.
"We have a bill and we have no idea what to do with them," Fellove, 40, said, through an interpreter. "It's a huge problem that I have gone through, that others in the deaf of this community have gone through."
Doctors are also supposed to provide interpreter services when needed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under managed care, insurance companies now cover interpreter costs. But many in the deaf community are finding some doctors won't provide the services or don't know they can defer costs to managed care companies.
"They get told to bring their own, bring friends, pass notes or speak slowly and lip read," Dubin said.
The managed care companies say doctors in their networks are aware they must coordinate interpreters for the deaf.
"Some folks are going to have challenges and we understand that," Kearns said. "We will walk them through it or take the complaint through the phone."
But after 10 years of fine tuning managed care in
"Why do they ignore me as a deaf consumer?" Fernandez asked the group assembled last week.
Flicking fists and nodding heads responded.
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