I am appalled to learn that, despite the ongoing public health emergency, the Department of Medical Assistance Services has decided to uncouple service facilitator visits from other PHE flexibilities. Requiring in-home visits to resume in January, at the height of respiratory virus season, puts vulnerable children like mine at increased risk. I understand the desire to ensure the wellbeing of Medicaid recipients, but this decision does exactly the opposite. Service facilitators will be going from home to home, visiting medically fragile children and adults, potentially becoming super-spreaders of influenza, RSV, and COVID.

Our medical system is already at the breaking point after years of being overtaxed during the pandemic - pediatric ICUs are filling up across the country and it’s still early in winter illness season. Medically fragile kids are precisely the ones who will need intensive intervention and hospitalization if they become ill, and there’s no telling what the strain on the system will look like by January. Home has been one of the only guaranteed safe places for the past few years, and I truly fear for the lives of vulnerable disabled Virginians if they are forced into unnecessarily exposing themselves to potentially infectious visitors.

The fact that this decision was made without consulting adults who receive Medicaid attendant care services, or the parents and caregivers of disabled children, is especially galling. We have done everything in our power for the last two and a half years to keep our families safe, and this sudden decision feels like a kick in the gut. If you truly want to keep medically vulnerable children and adults safe, you simply must instruct DMAS to reverse course and wait until the public health emergency has ended, or winter illness season has subsided, whichever comes later. Our kids lives are quite literally in your hands - please help us help to keep them safe.