End Of Public Health Emergency Brings 'Uncertainty' For Disability Services

Many of the pandemic-era policies that benefited people with disabilities are set to expire and the implications could be significant, advocates say, touching everything from health care to home and community-based services.

After more than three years, the Biden administration let the public health emergency spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic end this week. The change in status will alter the availability of testing, vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus. It will also impact disability services in ways that have little to do with COVID-19 itself.

Under the emergency status, states received extra federal funding for Medicaid if they agreed not to drop most beneficiaries. Now, however, with that ending, states are in the midst of a massive effort to re-evaluate everyone on Medicaid to determine if they remain eligible and some states are starting to terminate people from the program this month.

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