Disability News

Governor Ehrlich Launches $90M in Disability Initiatives

Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., today announced his FY 2007 disability budget initiatives of nearly $90 million across State agencies, designed to lower unemployment levels for people with disabilities and support more people in their communities. Included in the new proposal is $10.6 million to fully fund Maryland's Medicaid Buy-In for more than 1,500 Marylanders and more than $17 million in new funding to increase the availability of services to people with disabilities.
“This budget will fully implement a Medicaid Buy-In for Maryland workers with disabilities,” said Governor Ehrlich. “It enables people to return to work without losing their health coverage under Medicaid. It is estimated that more than 1,500 people with disabilities in Maryland will seek re-employment under the new Buy-In provisions, sending people with disabilities back to work.”

Additional employment-related initiatives include:

· New intensive efforts to retrain people who have head injuries to re-enter the workforce;

· An increase in funding for attendant care to support people going to work or higher education;

· Job training for blind services;

· Job training for youth transitioning from school to employment, and;

· New efforts focused on supporting youth with learning disabilities who enroll in community college.
Read more at gov.state.md.us

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	Did You Know?
	EPSDT stands for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment Program A program mandated by law as part of the Medicaid program. The law requires that all states have in effect a program for eligible children under age 21 to ascretain their physical or mental defects and to provide such health care treatments and other measures to correct or ameliorate defects and chronic conditions discovered. The state programs also have active outreach components to inform eligible persons of the benefits available to them, to provide screening, and if necessary, to assist in obtaining appropriate treatment.