NAELA Urges CMS to Protect Home and Community-Based Services While Combating Fraud
The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the agency’s CRUSH initiative aimed at uncovering suspicious health care activity. While supporting efforts to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse, NAELA emphasized that enforcement actions must not inadvertently harm legitimate providers or vulnerable individuals who rely on care. NAELA urged CMS to maintain transparency and focus on existing accountability systems, while safeguarding access to home and community-based services that allow older adults and individuals with disabilities to remain in their homes. The comments noted a number of legal protections against waste, fraud and abuse that are already in place that directly the support the existence of HCBS programs. These include:
- The Social Security Act that provides the basis for Medicaid, and Section 1915(c)that allows for states to apply for waivers to run HCBS programs;
- The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 that codifies protections for individualswith disabilities;
- The Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in Olmstead that gives individuals the right tolive in the least-restrictive environment;
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that forbids organizations andemployers from excluding or denying individuals with disabilities an equalopportunity to receive program benefits and services, including discrimination ofindividuals with disabilities in medical treatment;
- The Age Discrimination Act of 1975 that precludes discrimination on the basis ofage in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance; and• Section 1557 of the Ahordable Care Act that prohibits, among other things,discrimination on the basis of age and disability in covered health programs oractivities that receive financial assistance from any federal department or agency,including Medicaid.