August 19, 2008
ACTION ALERT: TELL ALBANY TO HALT DESTRUCTIVE HIV/AIDS CUTS!
 |
Paterson should hear from you! |
Today in Albany, the legislature will be voting on a budget modification package that includes destructive cuts to HIV/AIDS programs and services and a slew of additional cuts to other vital health and human services programs here in New York State. For a full breakdown, click here.
Governor David Paterson has proposed these cuts, and the leadership—Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos—will be working with their membership to decide which cuts to approve and which to take off the table.
The Governor's $600 million dollar budget reduction proposal includes several options:
Reducing local assistance general fund spending by six percent This is on top of the recent two percent cuts to New York State and New York City AIDS programs. This is out-and out destruction to the AIDS Institute's programs...
Read the rest: "ACTION ALERT: TELL ALBANY TO HALT DESTRUCTIVE HIV/AIDS CUTS!"
August 15, 2008
PROTEST AGAINST AIDS BUDGET CUTS TODAY AT 2PM!
as Paterson threatens Medicaid
|
We'll see you here at 2pm! |
It's been one piece of bad news after another lately. In late June (on LGBT Pride Day no less), New York City announced a budget deal that decimated HIV/AIDS services by $6 million. Last week, State Medicaid Director Deborah Bachrach made it clear that she wants to force poor New Yorkers with HIV on Medicaid into managed care. This week, Gov. David Paterson announced he wanted to cut another $1 billion from an already trimmed State budget and that $506 million of those cuts would come from Medicaid spending.
Galvanized and angered by the CDC's recent report that 40 percent more Americans get HIV year every year than previously estimated, New York City and State AIDS groups are ready to push back.
The AIDS Budget Action Coalition is organizing hundreds of people living with HIV/AIDS, their supporters, and representatives of dozens of New York City AIDS service organizations for a rally outside of Paterson's New York City office today. Housing Works, GMHC, Positive Health Project, Bronx Pride, Bronx AIDS Services, Harlem United, New York AIDS Coalition, Harm Reduction Center, Hispanic AIDS Forum and dozens of other groups will be in attendance.
“Many legislators may not be afraid to make these cuts because of who they affect: poor people, people of color, drug users and other at-risk groups. This rally and other actions will show them that we hold them accountable,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King.
Protest location: Gov. Paterson's New York City office at 633 Third Avenue between 40th and 41st St.
Protest time: Today, August 15, 2008 from 2pm to 3:30pm...
Read the rest: "PROTEST AGAINST AIDS BUDGET CUTS TODAY AT 2PM!"
RETALIATION
 |
New York State tried an end run around Melendez v Wing. Housing Works read the play. |
Last Thursday, Housing Works filed a lawsuit on behalf of Zoraida Melendez, charging that the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), the Human Resources Administration (HRA) and the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTD) retaliated against her when it reduced her monthly rental assistance last May from $1,350 to $810. The reduction in Melendez's housing benefits would have resulted in her family's eviction from their home.
When Housing Works filed the lawsuit on Thursday, it also obtained a temporary restraining order on the city's marshal, staving off the eviction of the Melendez family.
Melendez's lawyer, Housing Works staff attorney Matthew Carmody, believes that the city and state government agencies are retaliating against Melendez because of her role as lead plaintiff in Melendez v. Wing. Melendez's victory in that case, which went all the way to the State's highest court, established the right of all HASA clients to exclude family members with SSI income from their household budget calculation. SSI invisibility, as the exclusion is known, saves families over $500 each month, money that can go to the care and support of their disabled family members. Melendez v. Wing was relied on heavily by the Appellate Division in Doe v. Doar, a sister case that restored SSI invisibility budgeting to all eligible public assistance recipients in New York State. Doe v. Doar cost New York State tens of millions of dollars in retroactive benefits...
HOLES
 |
Holes: Great for cheese, bad for studies that affect Medicaid policy |
Editorial by Ginny Shubert
Earlier this month, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) issued a press release innocently titled "Comparison of Fee-for-Service, Mainstream Managed Care and HIV Special Needs Plans (SNPs) Shows Better Quality in Managed Care." The comparison study is, in fact, the State's key piece of evidence in justifying a cost-saving move to force tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients living with HIV/AIDS into HMO plans.
The Department of Health should be applauded for attempting an evidence-based approach to health policy decisions. There is nothing more important to the lives of New Yorkers living with HIV than the delivery of health care. Any change to HIV health care delivery systems can only be justified by clear, strong evidence that the change will result in improved access, continuity, and quality of care.
The DOH's study comparing three health care systems for people with HIV/AIDS on Medicaid—Special Needs Plans (SNPs), fee-for-service care and mainstream managed care (HMOs)—may be a beginning in our understanding of how existing health care systems are working, but the reported results simply do not support policy change. As the DOH acknowledges, in order to save money and get quick results, the study was limited to billing and encounter data, which tell us nothing about clinical outcomes, the true test of health care. Since only one year of administrative claims data were examined, the study period is too short to tell us anything meaningful about continuity of care. These major weakness aside, the preliminary results included in the press release raise more questions than they answer...
OLYMPIAN ACTIVIST
 |
Li at Cylar House |
With the world focused on China and the Olympics, the popular narrative in the Chinese media is that the government has made huge strides in addressing the AIDS epidemic. But Li Dan, a Chinese AIDS activist doing a summer fellowship at Housing Works, said the reality is more complex.
"The Chinese government wants to cover up the AIDS problem because they want to focus on economic development," Li said. "The AIDS situation may stay the same for a long time, because the Chinese government has very little influence to control the sex industry and combat the blood-selling problem."
The soft spoken Li, 30, who has often been at odds with the his government, is staying at Housing Works' Keith D. Cylar House as part of the Advocate Summer Haven Program run by Asia Catalyst. Asia Catalyst has placed six Chinese advocates in fellowships at AIDS groups in the U.S., Hong Kong and Malaysia. The timing isn't a coincidence. Chinese activists are wary of being in China during the Olympics, especially given the recent three and half year prison sentence handed out to prominent AIDS activist Hu Jia. Hu was detained last year for "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system".
"There are a lot of international reporters in Beijing now and if we reported that the government is addressing AIDS, that would be fine. But if we reported how the AIDS situation actually was, of course the Chinese government wouldn't be happy," Li said...
Read the rest: "OLYMPIAN ACTIVIST"
August 8, 2008
HOUSING ADVOCATES ROCK THE IAC
 |
IAC delegates hear about AIDS housing |
This week at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, housing activists took a major step forward in ensuring that world leaders, governments and other AIDS advocates understand that without universal housing we'll never end the global AIDS pandemic.
On Sunday, the first-ever IAC satellite session addressing homelessness and AIDS attracted an audience of more than 150 people, which led to a pledge from the International AIDS Society to confront the lack of adequate housing as a barrier to HIV prevention, treatment and care. Throughout the week, activists staged protests that turned up the heat on IAC dignitaries Bill Clinton and UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot and showed conference attendees the growing international muscle behind the housing movement.
The week started off with a bang. Housing Works activists Julia Pena and Shasta Harrison smuggled two halves of a banner reading "Housing for People with AIDS Now!" into the IAC's opening ceremony under long skirts. When Piot approached the podium to speak, they and other activists hung the reconstructed banner from a balcony and shouted, "What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!" The action provoked rousing applause from the crowd and held up Piot's speech. Check out Notibote.tv...
Read the rest: "HOUSING ADVOCATES ROCK THE IAC"
BACHRACH SPEAKS
 |
This Bacharach would never force poor people into HMOs |
After weeks of angry speculation about New York State's plan to force HIV-positive Medicaid recipients into managed care, State Medicaid Director Deborah Bachrach publicly confirmed that mandatory HMO enrollment was in the works. In an interview with the Update this week she said, "We have recommended mandatory enrollment, but the Department of Health has not made a decision. We expect it in the next few weeks."
For the first time, Bachrach also publicly laid out some of the plan's specifics:
- HIV-positive Medicaid recipients will receive a letter explaining that they will lose their exemption to mandatory HMO enrollment, followed by a letter instructing them how to pick a managed care plan. Recipients will be able to enroll in either a standard HMO or one of the state's Special Needs Plans (SNPs), HMOs that specialize in HIV care
- Healthcare providers will receive a letter informing them that their HIV-positive patients are required to select a managed care plan. The letter will ask providers to talk to patients about what plans providers participate in, in order preserve treatment relationships
- Community-based organizations will receive information asking them to help HIV-positive Medicaid recipients transition to an HMO
- HIV-positive recipients of safety net benefits will have 60 days to enroll in an HMO once they receive their instruction letter; HIV-positive of recipients of SSI benefits will have 90 days.
- If recipients don't enroll in an HMO, they will be auto-assigned to one. After auto-assignment, they will have another 90 days to select an HMO plan.
Read the rest: "BACHRACH SPEAKS"
BOTTOM OF THE CLASS
 |
Walt Senterfitt at the CDC demo |
"Condoms, needles, housing, AIDS treatment now! The U.S. fails on AIDS!"
Hundreds of U.S. activists at the International AIDS Conference on Thursday held up "F"s as they called for a national AIDS strategy and a plan to end AIDS in the U.S. The activists marched their failing grades up to the front of the conference stage where the CDC's director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Kevin Fenton was speaking. Fenton was attempting to explain away the CDC's report released this week that showed a 40 percent increase in the annual incidence of HIV in the U.S.
Because of improved data, the annual U.S. infection rate is believed to be 56,300 a year, as opposed to the previously reported 40,000 number. Forty-five percent of new infections are among blacks, and 53 percent of new infections are among men who have sex with men, with numbers in this population increasing since 2000. Fenton said the CDC has "already begun" to work with these populations and that infections have "stabilized."
"The CDC is a failed institution at this point," said New York City AIDS Housing Network's Charles Long at a press conference about Fenton's speech. "As a black HIV-positive gay man I find it deplorable to say I'm 'stabilized.'"...
Read the rest: "BOTTOM OF THE CLASS"
PROTEST PILE-ON
 |
Abbott playing tug of war |
On Wednesday and Thursday, the final two days of this year’s International AIDS Conference, activists from around the globe took advantage of the fact that the world’s eyes were focused on the Mexico City confab. With conference liaisons looking on to make sure nobody got hurt, demonstrators staged myriad protests, some more genuine than others. (The Update was excited about a female condom protest, until, what do you know? It was sponsored by the makers of female condoms). Here’s a look at some of the IAC’s more notable demonstrations.
Sex work is work! Sex workers and their advocates were out in full force. A group of Mexican sex workers threw up balloons at the opening ceremony and protested when the Mexican health authorities denied them IAC scholarships. Another international coalition of sex workers protested UNAIDS guidelines on Wednesday, and criticized the lack of prevention programs by sex workers, for sex workers. "They're always coming up with programs to save us. They assume if you give sex workers sewing machines, they'll quit sex work. But women are not going to make as much money sewing as they will engaging in sex work," said Susan Lopez, a stripper in the U.S. who is a member of the Desiree Alliance.
1%. That's the percentage of people with HIV being screened for tuberculosis, even though TB is the number one killer of people with AIDS in Africa. On Thursday morning, the Treatment Action Campaign held a silent die-in and march to the booths of the biggest donors and highest burden countries. TB is unrepresented at the IAC, with only seven sessions devoted to the disease (out of hundreds of possible sessions throughout the week)...
Read the rest: "PROTEST PILE-ON"
August 1, 2008
READY OR NOT...
even if DOH won't confirm
 |
…here Medicaid managed care comes flickr.com/photos/athena1970/1641655879/ |
During a New York State AIDS Advisory Council call last Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) discussed logistics of the switch for people with AIDS on Medicaid to mandatory managed care. DOH hasn't made an official announcement, but sources who were on the call say that despite lip service to community input, Medicaid managed care is going to happen, possibly as early as January 2009. The DOH had long said that any such shift would happen one borough a year for five years.
"It was all kind of a surprise that they are moving so quickly," said Dr. Lambert King, Director of the Department of Medicine at the Queens Hospital Center, who is on the AIDS Advisory Council and was one of the few members able to make the hastily arranged call. King said that the DOH indicated on the call that it would come up with a plan this week or next week and would solicit community input...
Read the rest: "READY OR NOT..."
LAST CALL IAC SUMMIT REMINDER!
 |
Housing is a right! |
You're invited to make history—and waves—at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City this weekend. The National AIDS Housing Coalition, Housing Works, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network will host the first-ever International Summit on Poverty, Homelessness and HIV/AIDS satellite session at the 2008 International AIDS Conference on Sunday, August 3, 2008 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm in Session Room 7. The session will be conducted in English, Spanish and French.
After the session, participants will march to the IAC offices and present IAC organizers with a declaration demanding that "policy makers address the lack of adequate housing as a barrier to effective HIV prevention, treatment and care; and that all governments fund and develop housing as a response to the AIDS pandemic."...
Read the rest: "LAST CALL IAC SUMMIT REMINDER!"
THREADING THE NEEDLE
 |
The NEX ban belongs here flickr.com/photos/fallax/411738529/ |
The Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention Act (H.R. 6680) would eliminate the HHS rider that prohibits federal funding for syringe exchange, allowing states and local jurisdictions to spend federal prevention dollars on syringe exchange, and also update other Congressional directives that prohibit funding for syringe exchange...
Read the rest: "THREADING THE NEEDLE"
STANDING AGAINST AIDS IN THE SOUTH
 |
Last month, I attended the Southern Access Summit, and it was a disturbing reminder of how the South has been ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Even though the South is only 36 percent of the U.S. population, 52 percent of people with HIV live in the South. Of the 20 states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses, nine are in the South. Southern states comprise 65 percent of AIDS cases among rural populations.
Now is the time to take action. Until every level of the U.S. government systematically addresses HIV and AIDS in the South, the disease will continue to ravage not just the South, but poor and rural areas throughout the country. The lack of basic services and prevention in rural areas is too important to be addressed in a piecemeal funding process or by simply throwing a few more federal dollars our way. What we need is a long-term plan to provide evidence-based prevention and access to quality care while diffusing the stigma that undermines these efforts...
Read the rest: "STANDING AGAINST AIDS IN THE SOUTH"
July 25, 2008
DISINVITED
Published in Gay City News and El Diario
 |
No need to RSVP, Mike |
For the past 13 years, on World AIDS Day, city officials have joined Housing Works to commemorate the lives of those who have died of AIDS. The best way to honor the dead is to support those currently living with HIV/AIDS. Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council did not fulfill this duty with their nearly $6 million hit to HIV and AIDS services, prevention and care in this year's budget, which will slash services to those hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic.
In an effort to call attention to the city's neglect of its residents living with HIV/AIDS, and to hold accountable those persons that are in many ways responsible for this failure to protect our city's poor and ill, Housing Works is publicly disinviting Mayor Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and anyone from the mayor's office or members of City Council who voted in favor of this year's budget to participate in our annual World AIDS Day "Reading of the Names" vigil in December. The vigil, where names of people who have died of AIDS are read aloud, has become a cornerstone of New York City's World AIDS Day commemorations...
GUV'S OFFICE LIKELY TO APPROVE MANDATORY MEDICAID MANAGED CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH HIV/AIDS
 |
Bachrach pushing for mandatory managed care for PWAs on Medicaid |
Despite the fact that state Medicaid Director Deborah Bachrach told the Update in May that mandatory managed care for people with HIV/AIDS on Medicaid was not a done deal, talk within the Department of Health, the AIDS Institute and the Governor’s office suggests that we could see mandatory enrollment begin as soon as this coming January. On Wednesday, state officials presented the proposal to members of the New York State AIDS Advisory Council.
If the State's plan goes through, current regulations will be changed and New Yorkers on Medicaid who are living with HIV/AIDS will be forced to enroll in a managed care plan. Mandatory HMO enrollment will undoubtedly save the state money, but it's unclear if health outcomes will improve. Key pieces of government information have yet to be made public, including a "three system analysis" that looked at outcome indicators for people living with HIV/AIDS enrolled in the current mainstream plan, those enrolled in HIV Special Needs Plans, and those remaining in the fee-for-service system. Bachrach and AIDS Institute Director Humberto Cruz claim that the data from this and other departmental reviews indicate that mandatory enrollment would improve quality of care.