Episode 37: Chanda Center for Health: Reimagining Access to and Delivery of Long-term Disability Care
In this episode, Lauren Carboni, co-chair of Foley’s Health Care Litigation Area of Focus, is joined by Chanda Hinton, Founder and Executive Director of The Chanda Center for Health, a pioneering nonprofit dedicated to empowering individuals with long-term physical disabilities. This episode highlights the significance of The Chander Center for Health for the long-term physically disabled community. They will discuss the Center’s bold advocacy efforts to make integrative and collaborative services accessible to those with long-term disabilities and to make disability competency the new standard in health care.
Para obtener más información sobre la serie de podcasts «Let’s Talk Compliance», haga clicaquí.
Tenga en cuenta que la transcripción de la entrevista que aparece a continuación no es literal. Hacemos todo lo posible por ofrecerle un resumen de lo que se trata durante el programa. ¡Gracias por su consideración y disfrute del programa!
Judy Waltz
Hello and welcome to the Health Care Law Today podcast presented by Foley & Lardner. Each episode we’re joined by a different thought leader to discuss current legal trends in the health care and life sciences industry. I’m your host, Judy Waltz, partner and chair of Foley’s Health Care Practice Group. We’re excited to have you joining us today. Before we begin our show, I want to remind you to subscribe to Health Care Law Today, either on iTunes or your preferred podcast app. Please visit our website at healthcarelawtoday.com. On today’s episode, Lauren Carboni, co-chair of Foley’s Health Care Litigation Area of Focus is joined by Chanda Hinton, founder and executive director of the Chanda Center for Health, a pioneering nonprofit dedicated to empowering individuals with long-term physical disabilities. This episode highlights the significance of the Chanda Center for Health for the long-term physically disabled community. They will discuss the center’s bold advocacy efforts to make integrative and collaborative services accessible to those with long-term disabilities and to make disability competency the new standard in health care. Take it away, Lauren.
Lauren Carboni
Thanks so much, Judy. My name’s Lauren Carboni. I am a senior counsel with Foley & Lardner based in our Denver office. I’m also the co-chair of our Health Care Litigation Area Focus. I sit in our health care group and my practice is pretty diverse. I’m a regulatory and compliance attorney, and I also work with clients to respond to government enforcement actions and internal investigations dealing with a variety of issues, reimbursement, false claims act, you name it. So, on today’s episode, I’m speaking with Chanda Hinton, who is the founder and development director of the Chanda Center for Health. The Chanda Center for Health is a pioneering organization that’s redefining wellness through person-centered collaborative care, and they predominantly serve individuals with long-term physical disabilities. The center’s located in Lakewood, Colorado and offers a holistic approach that adapts to each participant’s evolving health care needs, ensuring that care is not only effective, but deeply meaningful.
The center really provides a sense of community for their participants in addition to all the medical needs and ancillary services that these individuals need. So under one roof, the center provides a wide range of on-site services including acupuncture, massage, chiropractic care, adaptive yoga, behavioral health, physical therapy, and primary care. These services are accessible through a variety of payment options such as Medicaid, worker’s compensation, private pay, and discount programs. Another really neat feature of the center is for individuals who are eligible that live more than 30 miles away from the center and can’t get there. There are remote services available in partnership with Palco, so participants can get acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic treatments away from the center as well, which is really neat.
And additionally, the center collaborates with Craig Hospital to provide free inpatient massage and acupuncture sessions to individuals who are recovering from spinal cord and brain injuries. For those who don’t know Craig Hospital, which Chanda can talk about this too, but Craig Hospital is an incredible resource, an incredible hospital based in Denver that provides care to individuals who have experienced spinal cord and brain injuries. So whether onsite or remote, the Chanda Center for Health is committed to empowering individuals with physical disabilities to live healthier and more independent lives. Now that I’ve teed that up, Chanda, I would love to introduce you. Please tell me a little bit about yourself.
Chanda Hinton
Hi, I’m so happy to be here. I’m Chanda Hinton, founder and senior development director over at the Chanda Center. As you had said, I am just really happy to be here to talk about all the various things within health care that are occurring in so many different directions regarding what we do at the Chanda Center, but some of the system pieces that live beyond us and how it truly just impacts our day-to-day impact on our participants. A little bit about myself is I have been in the position founder of this organization for the last 20 years, and it has stemmed from a personal experience that I went through that I’m sure you and I will touch base on, and just being able to take a personal situation and research and then advocate and deliver services for something that I felt was critical for the long-term physical disability community.
But quite frankly, essential and life-saving and definitely a portion of health care that I believe is often overlooked for all of us, not just those with disabilities, but is definitely a model of care that we shouldn’t embrace altogether just for so many different components of cost savings, of improved quality of life, of wanting to be social and engaging in the world, which that’s what humanity is all about. So I’m just really excited to be here and I’m excited to talk about all the things that this podcast can bring up that are just essential to understanding and discussing when it comes to this topic.
Lauren Carboni
Thanks, Chanda. I’m really excited about our conversation today. I think you and I have known each other now for, I want to say probably 10 years, which is crazy to me. And what you’ve built at the center is absolutely incredible. I had the opportunity to go to the center multiple times, and in my opinion, this is how health care should be delivered. It is accessible to everyone, and it’s just a welcoming, incredible place. I would love to hear the catalyst for why you founded the Chanda Center. I would love to hear your story if you’re comfortable sharing, but I really do think that without you, Chanda, this center would not have happened. And I mean, you were just such a force of nature, and I really want everyone to know why the center is there now and it starts with you.
Chanda Hinton
No, I appreciate that and I’m happy to share the details of that. So when I was nine years old, I accidentally was shot in the back of the neck, and so the bullet 22 rifle severed my spinal cord between C5 and C6. And so I was really just thrown into the medical model, and I do think that as humanity were always going to have some sort of connection with the health care system because we’re human. We’re going to have things that will go bad with our health from various times. And so with that being said, unfortunately mine was a little bit more catastrophic. And so I spent a good amount of time in rehab right after I was injured, and then I was sent home just like, “Chanda, here’s your power wheelchair, and here’s all the medications that you need to take as a result of your spinal cord injury. And these are secondary conditions and these will require this medication.”
And that was in ’91, so being semi, my mom, myself and my family, a bit naive about how do you really handle a spinal cord injury when you’re also in a rural community? What’s right? What’s wrong? You put your trust in your providers and your physicians. And so I just basically sat in my wheelchair from when I was nine until 21. I couldn’t get coverage for ongoing physical therapy for the rest of my life. I couldn’t get other types of services that my body probably at the time I didn’t know needed, but definitely needed. And so what happened is when I turned 21, I started having chronic pain. And so I go to the physician and they’re like, “Oh, yeah, that’s another secondary condition. Chronic pain comes with this particular situation.” And so this was right in 2003 during the peak of the opioid epidemic.
And so it was like, “Oh yeah, here’s some Percocet.” And so I got addicted to Percocet not knowing, so very unknowingly, but I became bed bound. I was 59 pounds. I wasn’t able to eat. So then what was really interesting is that I used the medical model when I was nine to save my life, but then I over utilized the medical model, which then landed me in severe acute care where I was basically failure to thrive. And so they saved my life again. And in that moment is where all of this really shifted and changed. And so when they saved my life, the physician who I had known since I was nine years old looked at myself and my family and was just like, “What’s the next step?” And that’s when my sister who had been studying yoga for a very, very long time, just spoke up and said, “Why aren’t we looking at things that are more proactive and more preventative and less invasive and less side effects like medication, those types of things that Chanda’s body deserves? Because before she was shot…”
I mean, I was very active. I was mobile, I was running around, I was healthy, I was never sick. “And so why aren’t we giving some of the things to her body that deserves such as movement and these various other components?” And we were like, “So what does that look like?” And again, we’re coming from a rural community. She was like, “Well, let’s talk about acupuncture and massage and chiropractic and ongoing physical therapy.” And, of course, we were open to the idea. And then there was also some other system pieces that made it like, “Well, yeah, that’s great. I can pay for all of that out of pocket and I will, especially if it’s going to keep me sustained and wellness, but what does that look like long term and financially, right-
Chanda Hinton
… if it did work?” But I went ahead and I tried it, and I always tell people, so Lauren, I’m talking to you. And as you mentioned, the center that we’ve created, the reason I’m talking to you is because integrative health care, integrative medicine literally saved my life. And from that moment, I was like, “This can’t be this way. This is so bizarre. Why are we keeping people sick, which is costing us more money? It’s causing even more complex issues.” I would call 911 probably every other day because my pain was so severe. I was in the ER all the time. And so it’s like it adds up. Cost is a lot, but yet, ever since I started the acupuncture, massage and chiropractic and actually moving my body, stopped calling 911, stopped going to the ER, stopped all those things. And Lauren, you’ll have to let me know when you kind of want me, because my first thing I knew right away was to research because I was like, “One, I need to research. I want to find out, is this just about me? Two…”
And when I found out it wasn’t about me, I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is not just my story. It’s so many people’s story within this long-term support, long-term disability community.” But I called up my Medicaid at the time and I just said, “Hey, you’ve been spending a lot of money on me, which feels more like reactive care, and I just have been participating in these really great services that are saving a lot of money, and I’m curious what can I swap out to get this versus this?” And the lady on the phone, she just said, “Oh, we don’t fund those things.” And I’m in my 20s, so I’m like, “Well, let me talk to your supervisor.” And that’s when she was like, “Well, it’s a legislative decision.” And so that’s where the light bulb went off.
And so from there, which we can get into in some other conversations, but from there, that was the catalyst. it was one my illness and finding the integrative therapies, but the second piece was actually feeling well enough and on fire to then learn that it wasn’t just me and that there was a way to change it. That’s what really sparked the fire even further to the point where I’m like, “All right, well, let’s go change some legislation and let’s get this covered and let’s really then look about how do we become a health clinic that can really do some deeper work in that area.”
Lauren Carboni
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing your story, Chanda, you’re truly inspiring. And it’s incredible that you took something that happened to you and figured out a way to feel better and wanted to share that with others and did it and are doing it. Let’s talk about the legislative piece first, and correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what started, you went to the state, to Medicaid and advocated to get Medicaid to start covering these integrative services, and then the center came second, right?
Chanda Hinton
Yes. Yes. It wasn’t the kind of order that I anticipated because we were like, “Okay, let’s start a nonprofit.” We needed to start raising money for people to get these services now, because we didn’t know how legislative or systemic change can take a while. It could be plenty of no’s before there’s a yes, right? And so we came forward with approaching it at two angles as a nonprofit. The first was let’s raise money now so we can at least get some people getting the services while we also address the primary issue with Medicaid, covering it for the sake of cost-effectiveness, improved quality of life, all those pieces. So, I’m raising money simultaneously and changing legislation. And so yeah, the biggest components about running that legislation in Colorado was that I had some very specific ways that we approached it.
So I wanted to approach it from a consumer directed. So I didn’t really rally any providers in those spaces. I didn’t go to any of the associations that represent acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic, because I really wanted the legislators to hear that this is really coming from your constituents. This is really coming from Medicaid recipients who live with long-term disabilities and they know their health and they know what they need, and therefore, let’s drive that narrative and that movement through us and not providers. We always thought that it could make our legislators also just assume it’s another population of providers that are just trying to make money or whatever, but…
Lauren Carboni
Right, or another avenue for reimbursement?
Chanda Hinton
Yeah. But again, how many people are knocking on the door to become a Medicaid provider either, right?
Lauren Carboni
True, very true.
Chanda Hinton
So there’s those components to it. And then so we drove it that way, and we just simply just said to them, it’s like, “We are asking for you to do this as a pilot. We want it to be a waiver. We want to prove to you and show to you that it’s cost-effective.” And I know, and we even said, “We know that that’s what you guys care most about is the dollars. And then secondarily, you’re going to see a more vibrant community of those that you serve. Because if you have healthier folks on Medicaid and they become employed and now they get onto a Medicaid program where they’re now paying back Medicaid to be their insurance company, it’s kind of a win-win.” And so there was a lot of those discussions and we even mentioned that let’s do it small and then we can grow it later.
And that we recommended having an independent evaluator. So then that way, it wasn’t just very anecdotical, but that it was very much an independent evaluator could look at the claims cost for those that were doing it in various other things. So in 2009, we got it passed, and it still exists today. We’ve actually expanded it. It’s now the entire state of Colorado, and it represents a very diverse group of folks living with long-term support services, long-term disabilities with various neurological lack of mobility needs, and they can access acupuncture, massage and chiropractic under a pretty significant amount of units per year. And so we were excited to get that done. And then obviously as soon as that was done, there were some other things that came up that made us need to really identify like, “Well, a health center’s probably going to be the next step.”
Lauren Carboni
Yeah. So you’re referring to, it was originally called the Spinal Cord Injury Waiver, correct? That was what was passed in 2009?
Chanda Hinton
Yes. So it was spinal cord injury in 2009. It was around for 10 years in that particular kind of pilot, very restricted. And then when we renewed it in 2021, basically, that’s when we expanded it statewide to say, spinal cord, MS, CP, spina bifida, brain injury. But we also changed the name of it. I convinced our lobbyist who do pro bono work for us and some other folks that, “Could we please name a waiver that’s not named after a disability?” So we changed it to the complementary and integrative health waiver.
Lauren Carboni
Got it. And so it’s now the complementary and an integrative health waiver, CIH waiver., it was renewed and expanded statewide for those, I think it’s adults, who are 18 years old and have certain diagnoses including spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, muscular dystrophy, and cerebral palsy. How long is the CIH waiver in effect for? Is it another 10 years?
Chanda Hinton
Well, it’ll be ongoing. Every other waiver in every state Medicaid programs, you have to renew them every five years. And that’s just an internal thing that the Colorado Health Care and Financing, the health department here in Colorado will just have to submit something to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). But we don’t have to run legislation to do that unless there is any sort of budget issue to where the department might reach out and say, “Hey, you need to get your advocates rounded up just because when we’re in a crunchy time with the budget, they may be looking at things such as your waiver and other things to cut. And you all as advocates need to be aware of that.” But it should be just in
Lauren Carboni
Perpetuity.
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, there we go. So basically it’s like that in the sense of it should just be ongoing and there shouldn’t be any really more effort around the legislative side of it.
Lauren Carboni
Got it. That makes sense. Do you have a sense of how many Coloradans are able to utilize that waiver?
Chanda Hinton
It is extremely significant. It is right now… I mean, for me, I think it’s been a significant number. I think there was around a 30,000 individuals that were eligible for this waiver. That amount is not on the waiver right now because what we have also been struggling with is that the systems with Medicaid, since we passed the bill in 2009, there’s just been redesigning of the systems when it comes to the case management. There’s been internal system changes around how you submit claims and how the process of enrolling. So all of those systems changes every time. And quite frankly, sometimes the turnover in case management within the Medicaid systems oftentimes will allow for education that should be consistent and ongoing rather than one time, which I also believe the department’s trying to get better at. But it feels as though we keep having to really educate, educate, educate, because we will get case managers that have been at places for very long periods of time that still don’t know about the waiver.
And it’s, to some extent, really blows our mind. And so we as an entity in collaboration with the Department of Medicaid are working diligently to make sure that it gets pushed out there, that everybody’s aware of it, even primary care physicians should be aware of it for long-term support service populations. Because oftentimes, physicians don’t even recommend these services because they don’t even know about this waiver that exists that could help their patient with chronic pain. And so it’s like, we’re really trying to dial that in. And again, that can take time, that can take years just to get a message across, especially when it can be a lifesaver for a lot of folks.
Lauren Carboni
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that is definitely something important in trying to figure out how to get the message out. And hopefully, there’s other partners. I imagine Craig Hospital is probably one that is a good partner to try and get that message out.. I want to hear more about the center, now that I have an idea of how the waiver got in place, your role, the center’s role in getting the waiver in place. Let’s talk about the center itself. What year did the Chanda Center for Health open? And what services do you provide? Tell us about your participants. I want to hear it all.
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, absolutely. So we opened in 2017, the building itself, the Chanda Center where we’re at today. We were still doing direct services prior to that, but it was definitely in smaller spaces, not as much space for the ability for what is occurring today, which I’ll share with you, couldn’t really happen. And so we’re really excited about the fact that we were able to go from smaller spaces from when we first started to where we are today. And there’s a few reasons why we decided to become a Medicaid provider of that waiver, because typically at first, it felt very self-serving. Most people don’t create legislation, pass it and then be like, “Oh, yay, now I can benefit from that revenue.” So what happened is that when it occurred, there were not providers signing up. That was our first effort, was to get the word out there to let providers know that, “Hey, now there’s a new waiver. If you’re an acupuncturist, massage therapist, please sign up. Please start serving this population that is in much need of your services.”
And what happened is most individuals did not want to sign up as a Medicaid provider. And I could see that in the massage and chiropractic and acupuncture world, typically, some of these practitioners may only have a very small self-employed little clinic. You know what I mean? Where some of them may have larger ones. And so that became the first hurdle. And so with that being said, we came together as an entity, our board of directors and our staff, and just had the conversation about, “Well, what if we became a provider?” And the other component that we were also hearing is that for some of those that maybe wanted to enroll, they were also saying that, “Well, I don’t know much about folks with long-term disabilities. If they come into my office, how am I supposed to transfer them out of their wheelchair onto a treatment table? I feel like there was a lot of providers having… And for very good reason, maybe being scared of just not wanting to hurt anyone.
And at the same time, just not being exposed enough to realizing that there’s a lot of accommodations that they would have to do because this is a complex population. So not only in addition to becoming a provider of the waiver, we also wanted to take on that challenge of like, “Yeah, this population is who we love the most. we want our participants to come into this building and feel like they belong.” And I will say that right now, I mean, on an average day, I think that, and this could be very… I’m a very optimistic, so this is a very pessimistic view for work, but I feel like on an average day, about 80% of people will often feel like they do not belong in the world with their disability because there are so many barriers that happen day to day just from going to the grocery store to going to running errands and not automatic doors, all these things just within the public.
But for me, I was like, “It should never feel that way when you’re trying to access health care.” And that was what we wanted to do at the Chanda Center. So here at the Chanda Center when we opened, we’re a 6,000 square foot facility and all underneath one roof, we provide acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, physical therapy, care coordination, behavioral health, and primary care services. So that means all of our individuals, and that’s covered by Medicaid and Medicare. So the individuals that come into our building can access all of those services because we cater to that population because that population has had to unfortunately rely on those government programs. With that also said, the reason why we love having all of those services underneath one route is because it helps people with their transportation.
It helps people to not drive around the city to go see different providers, but it also, we’re meeting their needs in terms of accessibility. And so when they show up, there’s lots of wheelchair accessible parking, auto doors. When you come in, there’s a front desk that is not high, you actually get to check in and look at the reception in the eyes and say, “Hey, this is who I am.” And they will transfer you onto treatment tables. If your urine bag is full, everybody in the building knows how to empty a urine bag. There’s no stigma, there’s no weirdness. It’s just we’re so much about embracing health care and disability in this building. It just feels completely natural.
Lauren Carboni
It’s incredible, Chanda. I mean, this is how health care should be delivered. Health care should be accessible to everyone, every provider office should be set up so those in wheelchairs feel welcomed and that the providers are trained, or have disability competency training and know how to treat everybody. It’s just, I can’t echo enough how incredible the center is with what you’re doing, and I really want it to be a model for health care everywhere.
Chanda Hinton
Oh, I do too, Lauren, I appreciate you saying that because I think that our community struggles because we’re really trying to educate the health care community that unfortunately we need all of us to step up. And I always tell people that when you step up and you know how to care for people with disabilities well, it makes it so much easier for you to care for every walk of life, because when you can get complexity, all the rest is easy. And I always tell the folks that maybe are in the health care systems that maybe can’t make those bigger decisions. It’s like when you do advocate internally, or if you’re a private practice and you make the choice to do it, you’re advocating for your own self. Just know that your ability is temporary. We all ageIf you look at the stats, either you get a temporary injury in your life, people get long-term injuries, and then you’re aging.
So we’re all going to land in the need for accessible health care at some point, but for some reason that it remains out of sight, out of mind for people until they get there. But then once they’re there, nothing has been changed because there wasn’t enough people that wanted to change it prior, before you got there. So yeah, for us, it’s very much a heartfelt mission and we love our everyday work because we know that we’re meeting a critical need and we’re impacting people’s lives. And I think that we just hope that the other health care systems and models pick up on it because I think it’s essential to vitality and cost-effectiveness.
Lauren Carboni
Yeah, I agree. I guess, how can providers and medical professionals incorporate disability competency into their practices? Does the Chanda Center, do you provide education to providers who are interested in being able to provide accessible health care to everyone?
Chanda Hinton
Absolutely, Lauren, we have an online curriculum that we built specifically for physicians after we built it. We got, again, very little response because I think that one other component to this is when it comes to regulatory and other components of compliance for being a Medicaid or a Medicare provider, is that there’s really not a body that enforces these requirements. And so providers oftentimes will see that curriculum and some of them will love it, but I would say a majority of them have expressed to us like, “Well, I don’t serve people with disabilities So it’s very interesting But if you’re a Medicaid, Medicare provider, you should be educated on how to, and so the thing is that we keep that curriculum available because we do believe that there are those that want to impact people’s lives. We know that physicians have gone to become of an MD or NP or whatever because they wanted to help people.
Unfortunately, sometimes they get caught up in the systems about what can be covered, not covered. How much time can I spend with a patient? So I think that we do have it, this educational platform that we’ve built for that very purpose, and we want people to take it because it also shows you that you can spend zero money to be disability competent, and you can spend a little money and then you can spend a lot of money. So with that being said, we should all be doing it. But yes, we do educate providers, and it’s just a portal that we do online. We’ve also gone into places and assessed… Let’s say they’re building a new clinic and they want us to assess the accessibility, and we’ll go in and do an assessment for them just to be like, “Well, all of these things are great. Yeah, you’ve covered it by the code, but it’s not really accessible.”
Lauren Carboni
Right. Right. I mean, you made a good point. There are federal and state laws and regulations that do require businesses and providers to have accessibility to health care, but when it comes down to who’s enforcing that, it’s really challenging to figure that out. I mean, the laws are convoluted and it’s kind of a puzzle to figure out what exactly you need to comply with. But then if there’s a provider who’s not complying, or on paper they’re complying, but actually not providing disability competent care, who do you go to?
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, exactly.
Chanda Hinton
Well, and I think too, you can bring it up to your local Medicaid department, which we have. And so we have a great relationship with them and there’s good things that we work on with them. And then there’s things that we have to just make sure that we’re going through conflict resolution with them on in one of these and this piece is one of those, because we made it very clear that we are failing in that area here in the state of Colorado. And they even did a very intense kind of evaluation. The evaluation showed exactly everything that I was communicating to them, and I’m sure that that is just sitting on a shelf because nothing’s been done about it. And so it’s very interesting.
And again, right now, I’ve stepped away from advocating in that area just because there’s so much other things going on. But again, every time something more comes along, the disability competent care always gets pushed to the back. And I’m like, “So how long from the history of time, all the things that we’re all going to continue to come up against in the health care community, in the politics, in the Medicaid, the Medicare world, when is it ever going to happen?” Because something’s always going to come up. So it’s just become a priority at some point, and I’m just not sure when it’s going to, it definitely would need to have a pretty significant advocate kind of movement to occur.
Lauren Carboni
Yeah, I think you’re right. And I agree with you and it should be a priority, and maybe we can brainstorm some ideas to try and keep disability competent care as a priority for legislation. Let’s shift gears slightly. The majority of your participants are Medicaid or Medicare. There’s been a lot recently regarding the Medicaid program at the federal level, H.R. 1, the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Act was passed, that over time we’ll see a significant cut in Medicaid. I think I saw up to a trillion dollars. How are the cuts to the Medicaid program going to impact the center and your participants?
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, , in addition to those pieces that you just shared, here in Colorado, we’ve just gotten a budget that has been dropped by our governor, and it does look like the Medicaid department is going to be facilitating whatever cuts they can to not only meet some of those federal requirements, but some other components here. And some of that will be impacting our participants outside of the center as just an individual who is on Medicaid or Medicare, Medicaid specifically, such as those that would definitely get SNAP or individuals that are on certain programs where they rely on caregivers that get them up every morning and put them to bed every evening. There’s a provider rate that was increased during July of 2025, and that increase now has gone back. So they’re now having to navigate, oh goodness, if I just gave some raises to some of my caregivers, I’m either now taking that raise back or I’m going to have to reduce my caregivers.
And then again, that might result in, well, I’m sorry, I can’t work for you. If you just gave me a raise and now you’re taking, so it puts individuals with disabilities in some really awkward positions. The other component that I know is that with the governor’s budget that was just dropped to help make some of those Medicaid cuts is that there might be… The budget does say that there’s going to be another provider cut, doesn’t… It directly impacts the individual. I think that one thing about provider cuts versus what’s getting cut off to an individual, there’s so much cross reference between those two because one always impacts the other. And so there will be another one. They have not defined in specific details what that cut looks like. So our pro bono lobbyist is combing through the government’s budget, and we’re making sure that, one, the CIH, the complementary and integrative health waiver is not one that’s being considered the program at all, but then…
Lauren Carboni
Got it. Yeah. That’s still going to be maintained and that there’s not budget cuts to the waiver program itself.
Chanda Hinton
Yes, we’re working on just ensuring that that’s not one that would be coming down the radar and that whether when they talk about those additional provider cuts, because they’re giving kind of a formula that says that they have to meet a certain percentage to the cost of Medicare. And so there’s still a lot of unknown right now, but I would say that our participants are starting to see it as it’s related to their SNAP or their home health care services and any other providers that they’re seeing under Medicaid, they may not be giving them as much time for care because if they’re not getting paid as well, they may not be able to take on as many Medicaid patients. And so it’s going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds because it’s trickling and you’ll hear one thing after another kind of happens.
Lauren Carboni
Yeah. Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of unknowns, but I think there will be changes. And you’re right, I think with the cuts both at the state and the federal, I think we’re going to see pressure put on providers to try and navigate how to continue to provide care that’s either uncompensated care or those who are uninsured or that Medicaid no longer covers and those who are going to be directly harmed are the patients. I think we’re going to see an impact on access to care.
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, Lauren, the only other thing I would add to that too is being optimistic too, is that I do believe the population that we serve, those with long-term support services back in the day, that was what Medicaid was founded from. It was founded for the most vulnerable population. And so in some capacity, I will say, it’s such an oxymoron, the long-term support service population does have a level of protection because I do believe when the cuts happen, cuts do happen, they’re a population that might be the last on the line. And so I just wanted to mention that because I do think that there is some safety net there with a little bit of provider cuts that will trickle down to the consumer.
Lauren Carboni
Yeah, no, that’s a good point. We have just a few minutes left. I want to hear what are future plans for the center? More upbeat, right? Let’s switch it up. Setting aside the Medicaid and uncertainty with that aspect, what are future plans for the center?
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, let’s do this. Feels good. So center is growing, which is amazing. It’s very interesting that we’ve chosen the time to do it, but we’re going to get through it, because just with the uncertainty, I think funding sources through foundations and individuals that of wealth and that love to give to organizations, they even have senses of uncertainty. And so we’re in the midst of a capital campaign. We’re building an adaptive gym, an adaptive yoga room with some extra treatment rooms just so that we can really not only expand the services that we do today because we are growing to capacity on what’s the services we’re offering today, but that extra 6,000 square feet that we’re going to… Because we’re currently in a 12,000 square foot facility currently, we only use 6,000 of it. So we’re going to break the wall and go through and really add some more space, adaptive gym and adaptive yoga room, which we believe…
Lauren Carboni
That sounds amazing.
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, which is just another component for our participants. Again, we believe in movement. We always believe that movement is life, and we believe that the services that we offer and how it collaborates with, often people ask me about traditional care and I’m always like, “We’re the blend of the two. We don’t like to separate the traditional. We still want our primary care.” Having conversations with our massage therapists and our adaptive gym folks having access to our behavior, it’s all supposed to be working together. And so it’s exciting to add this component because this extra movement and rehabilitation that we can offer our participants is going to be just another layer of health maintenance that they deserve.
Because right now, they can’t go to just a… If they roll up to any sort of fitness gym, there’s very little… There’s probably not even one, but there are a few that maybe have something that you can try to do, but you can’t. You can’t independently work out or exercise on your own. And it’s so important to get your heart rate up every day. There’s endorphins that are released. Again, our bodies were really meant to have all those things and we’re going to create the opportunity for our participants to have that.
Lauren Carboni
Yeah, that’s incredible. And exercise is such a good preventative measure for whole body health, whole person health from physical and mental standpoint. That’s incredible. I don’t think I knew that you were in the process of doing that. I love that. I guess, so you’re in the middle of the capital raise, so can folks donate? How? If I want to donate, can I just go to the website and donate
Chanda Hinton
Yeah, our website, the chandacenter.org, there’s a donate button, you can donate in any capacity that you feel
Lauren Carboni
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Chanda. I really enjoyed our conversation. Is there anything else that we haven’t covered that you want to talk about?
Chanda Hinton
I’m sure there’s a lot, but I think that what we did was perfect. I think we touched on the pieces that I think were essential to today’s time. So thank you again so much for having me.
Lauren Carboni
No, thank you. And thanks to the Chanda Center for Health team. Keep doing the good work and ensuring that your participants get health care that they need, deserve, and keep putting up the good fight to make sure that those with long-term physical disabilities have a voice and a seat at the table, and hopefully we can push the needle in the direction of disability competent health care being the norm everywhere, not just at incredible centers like yours. But yeah, thank you again. Judy, back to you.
Judy Waltz
Thank you, Lauren, and a special thank you to Chanda Hinton of the Chanda Center for Health for a great discussion. We appreciate you taking the time to join us today. We want to thank everyone for listening to the Health Care Law Today podcast, your connection to timely legal updates in the health care and life sciences industry. We encourage you to subscribe to this podcast or to Foley’s Health Care Law Today blog at healthcarelawtoday.com. If you like this show, don’t forget to subscribe and be sure to rate us five stars. Until next time on the Health Care Law Today podcast, I’m Judy Waltz at Foley & Lardner. We appreciate you joining us.
