mike

It got started at Adapt's first action at HCFA in 1991.
This was in the early stages of Adapt's campaign for attendant services. What we wanted was a meeting with Louis Sullivan, who was head of Health and Human Services.
We surrounded the big HCFA building in Baltimore and closed down the entrances and exits. Then we closed off their parking lot. Then we shut down the four-lane highway in front of the building. Eventually we got our meetings.
After the 1995 action in Washington, D.C., Adapt got a meeting with Donna Shalala. At that meeting, Stephanie Thomas from Adapt Texas cut right to the chase, which she is good at doing.
As a result, Shalala directed HCFA to work with local Adapt chapters to start working things out. We got a policy letter from Shalala, and her direction to HCFA to meet with Adapt contacts to identify roadblocks. We have had a number of meetings with them over time.
One of the things that came from the HCFA regional meetings is that now HCFA is in a mode...