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Six Minutes With EPIC CEO
Clarissa Mitchell

By Nadine Bartholomew

We asked EPIC CEO Clarissa Mitchell what was keeping her awake at night and she shared her concerns
about how the anticipated reforms to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would impact Medicaid. The Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack
Obama in 2010 aimed at ensuring better health outcomes, lowering costs, and improving the distribution
and accessibility of health care for all Americans.

Q: Why are you concerned about the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA) and the Better Care Rec-
onciliation Act (BCRA)?
A: Both propose significant cuts to Medicaid and these cuts could put Medicaid’s “optional” and “waiver”
benefits at risk. The work we do is largely funded by waivers. For example, we use the Home and Communi-
ty-Based Services Waiver to provide long term supports and services in home and community settings rather
than institutional settings. These waivers pay for services like providing direct support professionals (DSPs)
to assist with meals, bathing and dressing in group home settings. They fund our supported employment
program, which helps the people who want jobs to get and keep them. Waivers also fund behavioral sup-
ports and help to provide assistive technology and equipment. Without these funds the independence and
quality of life the people we support currently enjoy will be significantly reduced.

Q: What is the likely outcome of the Medicaid caps for people with disabilities?
A: The funding decrease could take us back to a time that we have worked diligently at moving away from. It
was a time when people with disabilities were habitually institutionalized. Reverting to such practices would
minimize, if not eliminate, the personal choices of people with disabilities. Frankly, if the proposed funding
cuts are implemented it will be almost impossible to provide people with a choice of where and how to live
because in order to stay within their budgets, agencies would have to support people based on what is eco-
nomically viable rather than on what is in the best interest of each individual. Access to better health care
and personalized support systems have added years to the lives of people with intellectual and develop-
mental disabilities (I/DD). America’s investment in our most vulnerable citizens sends a message that people
with I/DD are valued like any other citizen. Institutionalization sends another message entirely.

Q: What would you ask our political leaders to do differently?
A: As I understand it both the House AHCA and Senate BCRA bills are being written by a small group of Re-
publican (GOP) senators. And Republican leaders in the Senate have no plans to hold hearings on the bill
before holding a vote, just as GOP leaders in the House held no hearings on their own version of an ACA re-
placement before passing it. I would ask our political leaders to uphold the transparency of a true democra-
cy. I would ask that the GOP hold public hearings about these bills, that they try to represent all of their con-
stituents, listen to experts, and incorporate amendments.

Nadine Bartholomew, MBA, is the Marketing Director for EPIC. Nadine has over 18 years
of experience developing and promoting environmental sustainability and social responsi-
bility programs at both non-profit and for-profit organizations in the Baltimore-Washington
metropolitan area.

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