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the past, Americans with disabilities were sent off to large, isolating, state-run institutions as a matter of course. In overcrowded, understaffed facilities, residents were too often neglected and stripped of privacy, autonomy, or any meaningful connection to their communities. When these conditions were brought to light, they sparked national outrage. That reckoning helped galvanize the deinstitutionalization movement, a decades-long push to create services that support people with disabilities in their homes and communities. Decades of advocacy to “deinstitutionalize” have fortunately transformed quality of life for people with disabilities, but it wasn’t until just 27 years ago that the Supreme Court's 1999 decision in Olmstead v. Lois Curtis made it so disabled Americans could rest easy knowing forced segregation wasn’t inevitable. For much of our history, few options existed between mass institutionalization in expensive and confining facilities on one end of the spectrum, and fully independent living absent any supports on the other end of the spectrum. The legal precedent rooted in Olmstead, plus the proliferation of once-nonexistent community-based services, changed that. Now, however, the foundation that underpins our nation’s wide spectrum of community-based services . Olmstead affirmed that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) grants people with disabilities the right to live, work, and participate in their communities with the supports they need. That’s why we found it especially egregious that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a legal memo last month coinciding with the decision’s anniversary, calling into question the established right of people with disabilities to receive services in the most integrated setting possible. The memo doesn’t change the law, but it seeks to erode decades of settled civil rights protections.

Vic

1 John 1:7 “…if we say, we are partakers together and enjoy Fellowship with Him when we live and move and are walking about in darkness, we are both speaking falsely and do not live and practice the Truth which the gospel presents”. But…if we’re really living and walking in the Light…we’ll have unbroken Fellowship with each other, and His blood takes away our sin and guilt. Are we walking in the Light…in the Light where there is no darkness? What does that really mean? John draws a distinct line around those who say they enjoy being in Fellowship with God but walk in darkness. He doesn’t mince words, rightly accusing them of lying, not practicing Truth. We can’t say we love God, we can’t say we enjoy His presence, and be out of Fellowship with one another… we can’t be unrepentant, practicing intentional sin and say we love God. Walking in the Light is a choice we make, it’s not just words, surrender and a confession of faith, acknowledging Who Jesus is and what He’s done is needed to receive His Grace. It’s a choice to be a follower of Christ, to love what’s good and right, it’s following the direction of the Holy Spirit and recognizing the power given to us to walk in His plan and purpose. We live, we grow, we prosper in the Light. There is a culture that surfaced in the first century church. Fueled by the darkness, it continues to live and breathe today. In the first century, they were called Antinomians. They believed one could live like ‘hell’ and be saved by Grace. Speaking only a confession of faith, they didn’t walk out their sanctification, they didn’t walk in the Light. While John’s not asking us to choose between Light and darkness, he makes it clear what the difference is. Lord, We’re here, we bow low before You. Search our hearts for anything that doesn’t belong to You, convict us of our offenses that we might repent, be cleansed of sin…. Let our confession of faith not be just words, let our love for each other and being in right standing with You be ou

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6 Things Your Hospital's Billing Department Hopes You Never Ask By Mike Harper, Up to 80% of hospital bills contain at least one error. The hospital’s billing department is not going to tell you that. You leave the hospital thinking the hard part is over. Then the bill arrives — pages of codes, charges, and numbers that seem detached from anything that actually happened to you. Most patients pay it. The ones who don’t are the ones who know what to ask. Here’s what the billing department hopes you never figure out. You can request an itemized bill — and you should. The summary statement most hospitals send is not an itemized bill. It’s a total with broad categories. The itemized version — which hospitals are required to provide within 30 days of your request — lists every individual charge with CPT codes, dates, and provider names. This is the only document that lets you see whether you were charged for services you didn’t receive, billed twice for the same procedure, or upcoded to a more expensive service than what was provided. You can compare every charge to what Medicare pays. Medicare publishes what it pays for every procedure, and the data is free. Charges exceeding 400% of the Medicare rate warrant investigation. The hospital may charge $4,200 for a procedure Medicare reimburses at $800. That doesn’t mean you owe $4,200 — it means the hospital is billing at a rate designed for negotiation, and you’re the only party at the table who doesn’t know it. Duplicate charges are the most common billing error. The same blood test billed twice. The same medication recorded on consecutive days when it was administered once. Studies consistently find that nearly half of all insured adults receive a medical bill for services they believed were covered. A line-by-line review of the itemized bill catches duplicates that the summary statement hides.

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Business Senate passes bill that could change nickels and how you pay with cash By Addy Bink, (NEXSTAR) – The U.S. is inching closer to ditching its penny and potentially replacing its nickel following the Senate’s passing of the “Common Cents Act” this weekend. The Senate passed the bill, a version of which already passed the House, with unanimous consent on Friday. Broadly speaking, it tackles three aspects of our currency. The Common Cents Act formally calls for the end of penny production. If you’ve been following the drawn-out death of the penny, you know the U.S. minted its final one-cent coin for circulation last year (collectible pennies for America’s 250th anniversary were released earlier this year). They remain legal tender, even if retailers have none to give you as change when you pay with cash, and the Federal Reserve would have to limit “disruptions in penny supply.” The bill would also address some of the difficulties of paying with cash that have materialized since the end of penny production. Under the Common Cents Act, businesses would be allowed the option to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel. A $19.82 purchase becomes $19.80 while $19.83 becomes $19.85, for example. As simple as it sounds, some states and localities have laws prohibiting the practice. Advocates believe the Common Cents Act could iron out that confusion. When does daylight saving time end in 2026? As early as possible Pennies would remain legal tender under the bill as well. It’s estimated that more than 300 billion pennies are out in the world – more than 800 pennies, or $8 worth, per U.S. citizen – trapped wherever a little Lincoln can hide. The penny isn’t the only focus of the legislation. The nickel could also change if the Common Cents Act becomes law. The nickel, like the penny, is expensive to produce. It cost 13.31 cents to produce a single nickel

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