Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Medical Assistance Services
 
Board
Board of Medical Assistance Services
 
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9/6/24  10:55 am
Commenter: Anonymous

HB909/SB488 (2024)
 

1. Submitting excessive documentation undermines caregiving: The extensive paperwork, such as multiple forms for the same information or redundant updates, required forces parents to choose between managing administrative tasks and providing direct care to their child, ultimately reducing the quality of care.

2. Emotional strain on parents: The constant revisiting of their child’s condition through repeated documentation is not just a bureaucratic burden, but a significant emotional toll on parents. This further burdens families already struggling to meet their child’s needs, eliciting empathy from the audience.

3. Delays in critical services: The overwhelming amount of documentation not only burdens parents but also delays access to essential services. This severe impact on a child’s development and well-being should invoke a sense of urgency in the audience.

4. Failure to address individualized needs: The generic and cumbersome documentation process fails to reflect the unique challenges that each child faces. This injustice makes it harder for parents to obtain appropriate care, making the audience feel the need for change.

5. **Unfair burden on single-parent households**: Single parents, already stretched thin, are disproportionately affected by the overwhelming documentation requirements, leaving them with less time to care for their child.

6. **Questioning parental expertise**: Forcing parents to repeatedly prove their caregiving capabilities disregards their experience and knowledge, creating unnecessary hurdles that undermine their role in their child’s care.

7. **Documentation feels like an obstacle to care**: Many parents think the excessive paperwork is designed to deny or delay services rather than support families in providing the best care for their children.

8. **Takes time away from coordinating care**: The time-consuming documentation process directly detracts from parents' ability to manage critical tasks, like scheduling medical appointments, further harming their child’s well-being.

9. **Physically exhausting for caregivers**: Gathering and submitting extensive paperwork adds physical and emotional exhaustion to overburdened caregivers, further diminishing their capacity to care for their child.

10. **Disadvantages rural families**: Families in rural areas face compounded difficulties due to the logistical challenges of gathering and submitting documentation, resulting in delayed services and more significant healthcare inequities.

These examples demonstrate how the return to burdensome documentation requirements would harm families, reduce the quality of care, and disproportionately affect those struggling to meet their children’s complex needs. 

CommentID: 227695