Poverty Law News

Food Programs

Food Insecurity Remains High
The Food Research and Action Center reports that, although food insecurity rates in the United States have dropped somewhat, in 2005 more than 35 million people were still living in households considered food insecure. Moreover, the food insecurity rate still remains higher than in 1999-2001.

Health

Medicare Part D Myths and Misinformation
The annual coordinated election period for Medicare Part D prescription drug plans began November 15, and the program remains as confusing and complicated as ever. The Center for Medicare Advocacy has published a list of common myths and misinformation that heard from beneficiaries, CMS, and Part D plans.

Covering Kids and Families
Mathematica Policy Research and its partners, Health Management Associates and the Urban Institute, are conducting a large-scale evaluation for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of its Covering Kids & Families (CKF) initiative. CKF supports state and local coalitions from both the public and private sectors in expanding Medicaid and SCHIP programs to all eligible children and adults. The five-year evaluation focuses on documenting and assessing the strategies and actions of CKF coalitions; assessing the effectiveness of coalitions in conducting outreach, simplifying the application process, and coordinating efforts by state, federal, and private insurers to expand coverage; measuring progress on CKF's central goal—expanding enrollment and retention of all eligible individuals into Medicaid and SCHIP; and assessing whether CKF strategies are sustained after Foundation funding ends.

Abstinence Education
The Government Accountability Office has published "Abstinence Education: Efforts to Assess the Accuracy and Effectiveness of Federally Funded Programs." The report finds that efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services and states to assess the scientific accuracy of materials used in abstinence-until-marriage education programs have been limited, in part because HHS does not review its grantees' education materials for scientific accuracy.

Medicaid Expenditures
The Government Accountability Office has published "Medicaid: Strategies to Help States Address Increased Expenditures During Economic Downturns."

Immigration

Undocument Immigrant Youth: Guide for Advocates and Service Providers
This new policy brief from the National Collaboration for Youth and National Juvenile Network aims to provide advocates and youth service agencies the background necessary to enhance collaboration to serve foreign-born children living in the U.S. without authorization. The brief also recommends policies and actions that immigration advocates, youth advocates, and service providers could adopt to improve the safety and well-being of immigrant youth.

Social Security/SSI

Exemption of Work Activity as a Basis for Continuing Disability Review
The Social Security Administration has published final rules amending section 221(m) of the Social Security Act to clarify when SSA will conduct a continuing disability review if a Title II or Title XVI disability benefits recipient works. These rules also affect certain other standards used by SSA to determine whether a recipient's disability continues or has ended. An accompanying notice revises the rules for the issuance of work report receipts, payment of benefits for trial work period service months after a fraud conviction, changes to the student earned income exclusion, and expansion of the reentitlement period for childhood disability benefits.

Women's Law and Policy

Prevalence of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, and Stalking
The Government Accountability Office has published analysis of the extent to which national data collection efforts report prevalence of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. The report found that, because current efforts use different definitions and vary in scope, they cannot be combined and leveraged to determine the nationwide prevalence of these categories of crime. GAO recommends that the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services collaboratively take specific actions to address existing information gaps.

Poverty Law News
November 17, 2006