DFS Director: DFS Caseworkers to be Silent

[usregimechange]

MEMORANDUM FOR ALL FAMILY SUPPORT DIVISION

FROM: Janel R. Luck, Interim Director

SUBJECT: Legislative Referrals

As we implement Medicaid changes required by Senate Bill 539 and
House Bill 11, we continue to receive concerns from legislators
about clients who call them about the changes. Several legislators
from different areas have reported that clients say their
caseworkers told them to call. Sometimes, we know this is a
misrepresentation of the conversation with the caseworker. However,
the situation is occurring frequently enough that I wanted to take
the opportunity to remind staff about this issue.

While any citizen may feel free to call their legislator, it is
inappropriate for staff to make this type of referral in response to
questions about the client's eligibility. We need to provide clear
information to our clients about the specific impact any program
change may have on the client. Clients may indicate their intent to
call their legislators, but staff should not initiate this type of
discussion. With legislative work complete, a legislator is not
able, at this time, to change the law or the budget that resulted in
the specific change. Thus, referring to a legislator may only
result in frustration for everyone.

Thank you for your attention to this issue.

JRL


I think the referral is quite appropriate. The change was a policy
thing, why not tell them to take it up with the policy makers?


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swmo4progress/

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. KSMU had this on radio this afternoon

and said that Dems were saying this was Blount's way of stifling criticism of his drastic cuts to the poor. Blount countered that it was just "politics as usual". The arrogance and repugnance of Blount and his ilk made me ill.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. The people dare to question their legislators? How shocking...

...and so unrepublican. We're meant to elect Republicans to brutalise the poor, minorities, gays, lesbians, scientists and women and let them rule us like kings.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. So shutting up the poor

is now a DFS policy?

Did you send this to the press?

[xmas74]

4. KC Star had an article about it on Wednesday.

Since it is a registration site I will cut and paste the short article.
Posted on Wed, Jul. 20, 2005
Medicaid memo sets off partisan firestorm

Staffers told not to encourage calls

By TIM HOOVER The Kansas City Star


JEFFERSON CITY — A memo issued Monday by the head of Missouri’s Division of Family Support directs caseworkers not to tell Medicaid clients to contact their lawmakers.

The memo, from interim director Janel Luck, said that as the agency continues to implement changes in Medicaid eligibility under bills lawmakers passed earlier this year, “we continue to receive concerns from legislators about clients who call them about the changes.

“Several legislators from different areas have reported that clients say their caseworkers told them to call,” Luck’s memo said. “Sometimes, we know this is a misrepresentation of the conversation with the caseworker. However, the situation is occurring frequently enough that I wanted to take the opportunity to remind staff about this issue.”

The memo continued: “We need to provide clear information to our clients about the specific impact any program change may have on the client. Clients may indicate their intent to call their legislators, but staff should not initiate this type of discussion.”

Democrats seized on the memo, saying Republican lawmakers were trying to avoid feeling the heat for their decisions.

“There’s absolutely no reason underpaid state employees should be falling on their sword for Governor (Matt) Blunt and the Republican legislature,” said Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the Missouri Democratic Party. “They (Republicans) want to gloss over the fact they took health care away from 100,000 people. When these people have questions, it’s now ‘inappropriate’ to direct them to the governor’s office or legislators.”

Spence Jackson, a spokesman for Blunt, fired back: “That is a wild and ridiculous allegation from the party that believes government can never be big enough and taxes can never be high enough.”

Officials with the Department of Social Services, which oversees the Family Support Division, said Luck was unavailable for comment.

Deborah Scott, a spokeswoman for the department, said Luck’s memo did not mean caseworkers could never tell clients to contact their lawmakers.

“The intent of this memo is to make clear to our employees that we expect them to do their jobs,” Scott said. “It is not appropriate for our employees to divert their responsibilities elsewhere.”

Scott said the policy was in response to instances of caseworkers referring specific questions about eligibility to lawmakers.

Asked which lawmakers had expressed concerns about the policy, Scott said she did not have that information readily available.

Scott, however, said caseworkers would not get in trouble if they told an angry client to call their legislator.

Jackson explained the policy by saying: “It’s about accountability. It’s about not passing the buck.”

Jackson said, however, he could not see why a caseworker would want to refer a client to a lawmaker.

“It’s not an issue for them (the caseworker) to get into speculating about who did or didn’t do what,” Jackson said. “They ought to only be concerned about handling the issues put before them that deal with changes in the policy.”

[usregimechange]

5. Not directly but know they have it now.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. This absolutely infuriates me

This amounts to taking constitutional rights away from citizens. Just sit down, shut up and don't ask questions. How much more horrible can baby blunt and his regime get? (Don't answer that:) )

:mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr:

[janesmith1972]

7. One legislator steps up to the plate: editorial in St.L PD

MEDICAID: Accept responsibility for taking away benefits
By JEANETTE MOTT OXFORD

Thursday, Jul. 28 2005

About 100,000 former Medicaid recipients are expected to lose health care,
adoption subsidies and other needed supports due to the passage of Senate Bill
539 and House Bill 11 earlier this year. These citizens join more than 650,000
Missourians who already were living without health insurance.

As citizens receive notice of the loss of their services, they have been
calling welfare offices and elected officials across the state. These neighbors
of ours are feeling frightened and confused. Some are angry. I have received
several of these calls at my district office and have been carefully
documenting what they say so I will know how the new laws affect the well-being
of the community I represent.

But not every public servant is as anxious to track the effects of families
losing Medicaid, adoption subsidies and so on.

In a July 18 departmental memo, Janel R. Luck, interim director of Missouri's
Family Support Division, asked welfare-office staff not to refer clients who
lose Medicaid to their legislators when they have questions about the changes.
"With legislative work complete, a legislator is not able, at this time, to
change the law or the budget that resulted in the specific change," she wrote.
"Thus, referring to a legislator may only result in frustration for everyone."

It's true that change would be difficult, but change is possible if the
political will exists. For example, if Republican Gov. Matt Blunt took a
passionate interest in the pain that many of Missouri's most vulnerable
families are experiencing, he could call for a legislative special session that
could convene around the veto session already scheduled for September.

Before voting against the Medicaid and adoption-subsidy cuts, I urged my fellow
legislators to remember that we must accept responsibility for what happens to
Missourians who lose health coverage and necessary family supports.

I believe it is crucial that both citizens and elected officials accept
personal responsibility for the consequences of our actions. The fact that I
opposed the changes does not absolve me of responsibility for the actions taken
by the general assembly of which I'm a member. We all are responsible - along
with Gov. Blunt, who signed the legislation - for these changes. As such, we
have a special duty to stay informed and to undo any harm that results.

Likewise, citizens are not mere bystanders when such changes occur. In a
democracy, public policy is carried out in the name of everyone, since elected
officials are empowered to act by virtue of election.

If you are a citizen of Missouri who has been cut off of Medicaid or lost an
adoption subsidy, I hope that you will call your state representative and
senator and tell him or her about what this loss has meant to your family. If
you do not know who your elected officials are, you can learn their names by
using the "Look-up" feature at www.house.mo.gov or by calling the election
board where you live or the League of Women Voters.

If you haven't been directly affected and care about friends and neighbors who
have been, you can help track the impact of these changes by documenting the
stories of hurting families and by volunteering at a local food pantry or
social service agency. Your actions in solidarity with families who have lost
support are a way of saying, "I do not approve of this policy that is being
carried out in my name."

Harry Truman said, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." In
2006, constituents should consider voting out of office any legislator who
voted for massive cuts in social services and health care, but who is unwilling
to take the "heat" for his or her actions.


Jeanette Mott Oxford of St. Louis, a Democrat, represents the 59th
District in the Missouri House of Representatives.