Medicare Wheelchairs
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in December that it will open a National Coverage Determination (NCD) to review its criteria for wheelchair coverage under Medicare. At a CMS forum in June, 2004, the agency was urged to adopt a function-based interpretation of "bed or chair confined". Under the NCD process, CMS has six months to post a draft decision, followed by 30 days for public comment. Following the public comment period, CMS must post a final decision. To submit comments, go to: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/mcd/viewnca.asp.

Mental Health Parity
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration announced that it is extending its interim final rules under the Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) through December 31, 2005. The MHPA requires group health plans that offer mental health benefits to set the same annual and lifetime caps on mental health coverage as for other medical and surgical services. The law, which does not require plans to provide mental health benefits, was supposed to end or “sunset” in 2001, but Congress has extended it three times.

Talking ATMs
Settlement negotiations have resulted in Sovereign Bank, including Pennsylvania branches, providing for ‘Talking ATMs’ for customers with blindness or visual impairments.  The agreement also includes website accessibility and alternative formats (i.e., Braille, Large Print). To read the agreement with Sovereign, go to: http://www.dlc-ma.org/news/atm/Sovereign/sovereign_agreement.htm.   In addition, other banks with Talking ATMs in Pennsylvania include Citizens Bank, National City Bank, and Bank of America.  A list of Bank of America’s Talking ATMs in Pennsylvania is available by contacting Dee at the PIE office.

Job Changes
In December, President Bush nominated Michael Leavitt to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services replacing Tommy Thompson. Mr. Leavitt is currently the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. He is the former Governor of Utah.

Education Secretary Rod Paige resigned and the White House nominated Margaret Spellings to assume that Cabinet post. Ms. Spellings served as the Bush Administration's chief education advisor during the past four years. She was a principal architect of the No Child Left Behind law.

John H. Hager, a former lieutenant governor of Virginia, has been sworn in as assistant secretary for the U.S. Education Department's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS).