Cortney Baker, SLP, Owner
At KidsCare Therapy, we take our commitment to providing quality home healthcare to children of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex very seriously. It’s important to us that these services are not only excellent, but also that they’re easily accessible. To ensure this, we are constantly seeking out knowledgeable, skilled therapists to join our team, as well as holding our current therapists to the highest of standards. However, unfortunately in today’s ever-changing world there are a number of factors that block access to quality care that are simply out of our hands, proposed legislation being one of them. Currently, the Texas House of Representatives and Senate are considering budget cuts that would have devastating consequences to health care service providers like KidsCare Therapy, our employees, and the children we treat.
Texas legislators are working now to balance our upcoming budget in the midst of a severe economic recession, and while we understand that cuts will need to be made across the board, our state is already drastically behind in efforts to provide health services to the developmentally delayed. Texas currently ranks 49 out of the 50 states in this area of performance! This lack of a priority on developmental services for the youth of our state is simply unacceptable.
While we are not able to directly shape the future of Texas, we do have a voice with our legislators, and our commitment calls us to actively use our voices. I, along with David Reimer, Director of Business Development, Melissa Scott, Administrator, and Debi Lindsey, Clinical Education Manager, have taken multiple trips to Austin, testifying before and meeting one-on-one with legislators, attending conference meetings, and even submitting some suggested amendments to current and proposed legislation. We are asking senators and house members to vote no to Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, respectively, which if passed could result in 28% cuts to funding to services like Medicaid.
High cuts such as this would have devastating effects on small businesses like KidsCare Therapy, which would not only make access to quality health care services even less affordable, but would also have a grave impact on the local economy. Our employees invest their salaries into the Texas economy when they support local restaurants and stores, as well as when they pay their taxes.
In addition to voting no to Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, we are also asking them to put regulations on Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) that would require them to reimburse at rates even to the State Medicaid Fee Schedule (MFS)—not at rates that are substantially below the MFS, which is what many of them are currently offering. We believe that just this small step would allow many small businesses such as ourselves to sustain budget cuts. In addition, many of these MCO companies are based outside of Texas, resulting in millions of Texas dollars leaving the state and not entering back into our economy.
We hope that you’ll join this fight for Texas children. If you’re interested in learning about how you can get involved, please contact David Reimer, Director of Business Development, at dreimer@kidscaretherapy.com or (214) 575-2999.
“We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history.”
—Sonia Johnson, American Activist
