An immigration reform plan has not been approved yet and it could take many months. If Congress approves an immigration reform, start collecting the documents listed below now because you may need to provide proof of:

 Identity

• Birth certificate and a photo identification (ID). Passport, school or military ID, identification document from your country of origin like a Matricula Consular, or any U.S. document with your name and photo, like a Driver’s License or ID.

 Entry to the United States Before a Particular Date

• Immigration record or documents with your date of entry, passport with admission stamp (Form I-94/I-95/I-94W), or travel records.

• You can also use medical records (including immunization record) or school records.

 Presence and Residence in the United States From a Particular Date

• Proof of presence with dates and addresses using immigration documents, government records, medical records, military records, employment records, religious or community organizations records, insurance policies, tax records, etc.

• Bank receipts, financial records, credit card receipts, money order receipts, rental agreements, deeds, mortgages, utility bills, club memberships, etc.

 Tax Filings

• If you do not have copies of your past filings, call the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at 1-800-908-9946 to order a transcript for free.

• If you have not filed your taxes, ask for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) by calling 1-800-829-1040 and file them.

 Employment History

• Record dates, names, and addresses of the places where you have worked.

 Possible English Knowledge Requirement

• You may have to take a basic English course or exam.

 Application Fee and Fines

• Start saving money for the application fee and for any fines.

• Also save money in case you need it for an attorney.

 Record Keeping

• Record all of this information in a notebook, keep the original documents, and store them in a safe place.

Spanish translation: Prepárate Para Una Posible Reforma Migratoria 

LIHEAP, is a cash program offering a minimum of $100 to help pay a heating bill. In addition, the LIHEAP crisis program is available to people without heat and, from January 3-April 26, for people who are about to lose heat. The crisis program provides grants of up to $400 to restore heat or prevent heat loss. LIHEAP crisis weatherization is open until April 26 and provides free heater/home repair for people who need the repairs to have heat in their home. Income eligibility is 150% of the federal poverty level. See the chart below:

For more information or for help in applying, call us between 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at (215) 587-9377.

• Click here for LIHEAP information featured on the PA Department of Public Welfare’s website and to print LIHEAP Applications in English and Spanish

• MAIL, FAX OR WALK IN the application to the LIHEAP office (formerly Tioga District) at:

• If the LIHEAP office already approved your Cash application, call the Crisis Hotline Number, 215-560-1583 to activate Crisis Exception, Crisis or Crisis Weatherization.

Checking off #10 for weatherization on the LIHEAP application will not get you on the list for Crisis Weatherization, which is for emergencies.  Call 215-560-1583 or walk in for Crisis Weatherization. 

• Medical Certification Reminder:  Don’t use medical certifications during low-income moratorium (Dec 1-March 31), but make sure PGW and PECO knows customer is low-income (CRP, CAP and/or LIHEAP enrollment is enough). 

For PGW or PECO, a medical certification will put a 30-day hold on the shut-off. A customer can only renew for two more 30-day periods, if s/he does not pay at least the current monthly charges since the first medical certification. Additional renewals are available if current monthly charges were paid while the medical certifications were pending, even if the balance from before the medical hold is still unpaid. If PECO or PGW refuses additional renewals when current charges have been paid, call the PUC at 1-800-692-7380 to request further renewals.

PECO’s low income customers (up to 150% FPL) can call PECO for the two renewals;                                        PGW customers must have doctors submit written renewals.

For Water Revenue, the rules remain the same: The medical certification will put a hold on shut off for up to 30 days and can be renewed one time, in a 12 month period.

• PGW CRP bills and LIHEAP Cash.  LIHEAP Cash grants will reduce the CRP bill again this year.  A few years ago, Cash grants did not pay down the CRP bill and were pooled to pay for the overall CRP program.  Please let customers know that Cash grants will reduce CRP bills.  (This policy may change soon, stay tuned.)

•  PECO and Crisis.  PECO will restore service to a shut off account, with just a Crisis grant (up to $400) even if the PECO balance is higher, as long as the balance is not more than $4,000.  PECO will cancel a shut off notice with just a Crisis grant, if the balance is less than $4000.  The rest of the balance will be put on a payment plan. 

NOTE: PECO will restore service to residential customers (with their permission) whose total balance is less than $250 or who can bring their balance down to $250.

• UESF:  Maximum UESF assistance amounts are for PECO – either $500 or $1500, for PGW -  $1500, and for Water Revenue – $500.  Income eligibility is at or below 175% of poverty.  Grants must bring balance to zero.  See uesfacts.org for more information on this and other programs. 

Source: Community Legal Services Energy Unit

Special Pharmaceutical Benefits Program

Have you been calling the UC Service Center for hours or days about your unemployment claim without getting past a busy signal?  It’s not that your phone (or their phone) is broken.  It is that the State does not have enough staff to answer the phone.

Here are some tips for how to get around the busy signals.  Not all of them get you immediate access, but they probably will be more reliable than just hitting redial and hoping.

1. Filing a new claim?  Try the online application.  It is available on the website of the PA Department of Labor and Industry.  Here’s the exact link: https://www.paclaims.state.pa.us/UCEN/Welcome.asp

2. Try faxing the office, and they will call you back.  Use the form provided by clicking here.

3 Ask your state legislator’s office to help you.  His or her “constituent service” staff can often cut through red tape for you.  If you don’t know who your representative or senator is, check at this link: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address

4. Go to a PA Career Link office.  The Career Link offices, which provide services to job seekers, have telephones that cut through the busy signals and go straight to a UC case worker.  Beware, though, that you may need to wait in a lengthy line.  Don’t know where to find the nearest Career Link?  Use this website to find it:  www.cwds.state.pa.us

5. Have a sticky issue with your UC claim and are low income?  Contact your legal services office.  They may be able to help you solve it.  Don’t know how to reach your local legal services program?  Use this website to find it: http://palawhelp.org/PA

When all else fails:  call the statewide toll-free number for the UC Service Centers (888-313-7284), and get that redialing finger ready!

But Medical Assistance is still available and you can still get medical care.

Even if you cannot afford co-pays, your doctor or pharmacist cannot refuse to treat you or give you medications. Tell your provider you cannot afford the co-pay. Your provider must treat you (though you will still owe the co-pay).

If the pharmacist or doctor insists on payment first, call your MA managed care plan (for example, Keystone Mercy) and complain. If you use ACCESS, call (800) 537-8862, option 2, to complain. You may also call us for assistance between 9:30 a.m and 1 p.m. at (215) 587-9377.

Background

The Department of Public Welfare, in an operations memorandum on June 21, 2012, explains that this discontinuance is needed because Pennsylvania is “facing a budget shortfall for FY 2011-2012” and believes that “eliminating the GA cash program will reduce state spending and help balance the budget.”

The following categories of individuals, who had been receiving cash assistance of $205 per month, have no income effective as of Aug. 1, 2012:

• Anyone 18-20 years old in secondary school and expected to graduate by age 21

• Children under the age of 21, not eligible for TANF

• All one or two-parent households with children, who are residing in the same household with their child under age 13, or age 13 or older and disabled

• Anyone temporarily or permanently disabled

• People caring for unrelated children or a sick or disabled family member

• Individuals undergoing drug and alcohol treatment that precludes employment

• Pregnant women not eligible for TANF

• Victims of domestic violence

SNAP benefits (formerly known as food stamps) will be adjusted according to the recipients’ new income levels. We believe that most recipients who were receiving cash assistance will now be eligible for the full SNAP benefit grant ($200 for a one-person household).

We now know that the Medical Assistance (MA) that was linked to the cash assistance grant will not be automatically discontinued. The DPW will assess the clients’ eligibility and place them in the appropriate MA categories. However, former cash assistance recipients and advocates should be on the lookout for improper MA coverage terminations. New applicants who apply for TANF and state-funded MA must apply for at least three jobs per week, until the application is authorized, unless good cause can be established such as physical or mental disability. It is unclear if the current cash assistance recipients will be subject to the new work requirements.

Please contact the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania at (215) 587-9377 if you have questions.

To read the operations memorandum mentioned above, go here: http://pacaresforall.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ops-memo-eliminating-GA.pdf

They will be directed to a local counseling agency for help completing a HEMAP application. They should take all paperwork regarding their mortgage delinquency with them to that meeting, including an Act 6 notice, if they have received one. Homeowners interested in more information about HEMAP may contact toll-free during weekday business hours at 1-800-342-2397.

More information also is available online at www.phfa.org/counseling/hemap.aspx. Or call us for assistance Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at (215) 587-9377.

MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL TO PAY $700,000 TO END COMPLAINT OVER HIV-DISCRIMINATION 

Honors student, deemed a threat, was denied admission. AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, U.S. Department of Justice, school enter settlement agreement.

PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 12, 2012) – A 14-year-old ninth grader and his mother will receive $700,000 from the Milton Hershey School in a federal AIDS-discrimination lawsuit settlement announced today by the nonprofit AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.

The school also will pay $15,000 in civil penalties assessed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which thoroughly investigated the complaint and concluded that the school violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The settlement requires the school to provide HIV training for its staff and students and to pay an undisclosed amount of attorney’s fees to the AIDS Law Project.

The Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa., founded in 1909 by the chocolate magnate and his wife, had refused to enroll the honor-roll student because he has HIV, saying his presence would be a “direct threat” to the health and safety of other students. The school held to its position for more than a year, even after the Philadelphia-based public-interest law firm filed the suit on Nov. 30, 2011, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging violations of anti-discrimination laws.

On June 1, in denying the school’s request to move the case from Philadelphia to central Pennsylvania, U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II wrote that “the issue involved in this case is … relevant to the lives of over one million HIV-infected people nationwide, many of whom are currently in congregate-living settings and are not creating a direct threat to others.”

Finally, on Aug. 6, the school’s president, Anthony J. Colistra, publicly apologized to the student and to his mother, offered to reconsider the boy’s application, and announced “a new Equal Opportunity Policy clearly stating that the School treats applicants with HIV no differently than any other applicants.” Colistra said the school also was “developing and providing mandatory training for staff and students on HIV issues and expanding our current training on Universal Precautions.”

The student and his mother have decided it is not in his best interest to attend the school, and they will use the money to provide other educational opportunities for him.

In announcing the settlement today, Ronda B. Goldfein Esq., executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, said it removes any lingering doubt about whether someone with HIV poses a threat in everyday life.

“This case renewed a nationwide discussion about whether people with HIV represent a risk to others in casual settings,” Goldfein said. “The question has once again been definitively answered: They do not.”

Goldfein said a settlement of this size acknowledges that the pain of stigma is just as real as any other type of injury or harm inflicted upon a person. “In this case, our client suffered from learning that simply because he has a virus, he was considered a threat,” Goldfein said.

Sarah R. Schalman-Bergen Esq., who worked with Goldfein on the lawsuit, said the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and state laws clearly “prohibit discrimination on the basis of a real or even a perceived disability, including having HIV.” She added that the National Association of State Boards of Education has decreed that “the presence of a person living with HIV infection or diagnosed with AIDS poses no significant risk to others in school, day care, or school athletic settings.”

Identified in court filings by a pseudonym to protect his privacy, “Abraham Smith” is a public school scholar-athlete who lives in Delaware County, Pa, near Philadelphia.

“I am very glad this is over,” Abraham said today. “It should have never been an issue in the first place. I will never recoup my eighth-grade year in school. Though I had a good one academically, I was too engulfed with this … to enjoy the fun of going to high school. Now it’s time for me to start healing internally and my mother said that will come in time also.”

From the day it was filed, the case generated massive media coverage and sparked a firestorm of outrage. An online petition [http://chn.ge/P5Qjs6] at the website Change.org gathered nearly 30,000 signatures demanding that the school issue a public apology. In an emotional plea [http://huff.to/RL9BY1] headlined Shame on the Milton Hershey School!, the actress and social activist Mia Farrow wrote in the Huffington Post: “Abraham’s plight reminds me of the 1980s when Ryan White, a child with AIDS, was not allowed to attend school. It is remarkable that 30 years later, we are still dealing with the same ignorance and discriminatory practices.” Protesters demonstrated outside the Hershey Co.’s flagship store in New York’s Times Square in March and outside a Hershey Co. stockholder meeting in May. The school is funded by the Hershey Trust Co., the chocolate company’s largest shareholder.

The landmark settlement is the latest victory in the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania’s 24-year history of activism on behalf of people with HIV and AIDS. In 1994, after a Philadelphia ambulance crew refused to touch a patient with HIV, the firm won the nation’s first settlement of an AIDS-discrimination case under the Americans with Disabilities Act, forcing the city to begin training more than 2,000 firefighters and emergency medical workers to prevent discrimination against people with AIDS or HIV in medical emergencies.

Click here for a copy of the settlement agreement.

BACKGROUND ON THE HERSHEY CASE

AUG. 6 STATEMENT from AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania:

HERSHEY SCHOOL TO ADMIT STUDENTS WITH HIV

PHILADELPHIA (Aug. 6, 2012) – The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania applauds the Milton Hershey School’s decision to no longer refuse admission to students with HIV.

“This is a great victory for people with HIV,” says Executive Director Ronda B. Goldfein, Esq. “The fact that the School now is willing to comply with the law is an important step in this lawsuit.”

Last year, on the eve of World AIDS Day, the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania filed suit against the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa., for refusing to enroll ‘Abraham Smith’ (not his real name), a then 13-year-old pupil, only because he has HIV. The complaint alleged violations of multiple anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The Milton Hershey School, a cost-free, private, coeducational home and school for pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade, requires students to “come from a family of low income, limited resources, and social need; be from the ages of 4-15 years old; have the ability to learn; be free of serious emotional and behavioral problems … ; be able to take part in the School’s program; and be born in the United States,” the lawsuit says.

Abraham – an honor-roll student – was qualified in every way, but the School had said that his presence would constitute a “direct threat” to the health and safety of other students.

The case is pending. Earlier this week, Judge C. Darnell Jones, II of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania set a September date for a status conference on the matter.

#   #   #

The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania last year filed a complaint on behalf of Abraham Smith and his mother, alleging that the Milton Hershey School denied Abraham admission because he has HIV, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The school has not denied the allegation and instead asserts that Abraham’s HIV-positive status presents a direct threat to the school’s 1,800 students. We have begun discovery in the case, in preparation for trial.

On June 1, a federal judge in Philadelphia denied the Milton Hershey School’s request to move this case from Philadelphia to central Pennsylvania, where the school is located.

In denying the school’s motion, Judge C. Darnell Jones, II of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found “the issue involved in this case is not uniquely or necessarily tied solely to MHS or the Middle District of Pennsylvania but instead is relevant to the lives of over one million HIV-infected people nationwide, many of whom are currently in congregate-living settings and are not creating a direct threat to others.”

The documents which have been filed in this case are at the bottom of this page.

This case has resonated with many people including actress/activist Mia Farrow. Click here for her blog on the Huffington Post in support of Abraham.

These documents below are publicly available through PACER http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/us01001.asp services -of U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pa. http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/.

Abraham Smith and Mother Smith’s Complaint (filed 11/30/ 2011)

Abraham Smith and Mother Smith’s
First Amended Complaint (filed 1/20/12)

Milton Hershey School’s Motion to Transfer (filed 1/28/2012)

Milton Hershey School’s Answer with Affirmative
Defenses to Amended Complaint and Counter-claim
for Declaratory Judgement (filed 2/3/2012)

Abraham Smith and Mother Smith’s Memorandum of Law
in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Transfer Venue to the
Middle District of Pennsylvania (filed 2/13/2012)

Abraham Smith and Mother Smith’s Answer with Affirmative Defenses to Defendant’s Counterclaim for Declaratory Judgement (filed 2/27/2012)

Memorandum Denying Defendant’s Motion to Transfer Venue (filed 6/1/2012)

 Contact: Ronda B. Goldfein, Esq. ▪ Executive Director
Phone: (215) 587-9377 ▪ Fax: (215) 587-9902
goldfein@aidslawpa.org ▪ www.aidslawpa.org

HIV-positive nursing assistant settles
employment-discrimination claim

PHILADELPHIA (March 23, 2012) — A national healthcare-staffing firm must change its ways and must pay $22,000 to an HIV-positive nursing assistant, under the terms of an employment-discrimination settlement announced today by the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.

The nonprofit Philadelphia-based law firm and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had sued Pittsburgh-based Capital Healthcare Solutions for rescinding an employment offer to plaintiff D.B. of central Pennsylvania after learning he has HIV.

The company offered D.B. a job in September 2010, but rescinded its offer less than a month later because of his HIV status. In response to a question on a required medical-exam form asking if the applicant had any communicable diseases, D.B.’s doctor noted that he was HIV-positive but could perform the job.

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and state laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of a real or even a perceived disability, including HIV.

As part of the settlement, Capital Healthcare Solutions agrees to not engage in discriminatory employment practices on the basis of disability, real or perceived; to provide mandatory employee trainings, and to develop internal policies and procedures to prevent future discrimination.

Capital Healthcare Solutions also agrees to pay $22,000 to D.B. — $20,000 as compensatory and punitive damages and $2,000 as back pay — although it has not admitted wrongdoing or liability.

“I’m happy the company finally settled this,” D.B. said. “They’re a health-care company. They should know about HIV and how it is transmitted, not through casual contact. They should have known better.”

Despite the federal and state legal protections for people with HIV in the workplace, occupational-licensing requirements – such as those governing certified nursing assistants – have been a source of confusion to prospective employers and others. This confusion places HIV-positive applicants, seeking jobs for which state licensing is required, at great risk of discrimination.

In Pennsylvania, occupational-licensing requirements prohibit the employment of anyone with an “infectious, contagious and communicable disease,” although those terms are used inconsistently and imprecisely. Seeking to prevent discrimination in the 50 professions and occupations governed by occupational-licensing requirements, the AIDS Law Project has worked with the Pennsylvania Department of State to clarify the requirements. As a result of the AIDS Law Project’s efforts, the Department of State issued a clarification in January 2011, specifically excluding HIV as an infectious, communicable or contagious disease, “because it is not transmitted through casual contact or through the usual practice of the profession or occupation for which a license is required.”

A copy of the consent decree can be found by clicking here and the Pennsylvania Department of State Occupational Licensing Statement is available by clicking here.

D.B. was represented by Ronda B. Goldfein, Esq., and Matt Mossman (J.D. expected 2012) of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, and by Lisa H. Hernandez, Senior Trial Attorney of the EEOC.

Capital Healthcare Solutions was represented by Dinsmore & Shohl LLP.

#  #  #

The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit, public- interest law firm, serving the legal needs of those affected by HIV/AIDS and their families. Founded in 1988, and now with a staff of 12, the organization has helped more than 32,000 people free of charge. The agency also educates the public about AIDS-related legal issues, and works at local, state and national levels to achieve fair laws and policies.

If you are in a Medical Assistance managed care plan and your plan adopts the 6 prescription limit, it must notify you by letter, 30 days before the change.

As of this writing (3/1/12), United Healthcare implemented prescription limits on 3/1/12 and UPMC for You has a target implementation on 5/1/12. Keystone, Amerihealth, and Gateway will implement the limits but do not yet have target dates.  Aetna, Coventry Cares, and Health Partners still don’t have plans to implement the limit.

Drugs to treat HIV/AIDS are not subject to this 6 prescription limit because they are covered by an “automatic exception.”  Many other types of drugs are also covered by automatic exceptions. (Please see the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s Fact Sheet for the complete list). This means that, if possible, you should try to have prescriptions that are not covered by automatic exceptions filled early in the month and prescriptions that are covered by automatic exceptions filled later in the month.

If you are unable to fill a prescription because of this limit, you can ask your doctor to request an exception for that prescription.  Your pharmacist can also provide a 5 day emergency supply.

For more information, click here for the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s Fact Sheet or here for the Department of Public Welfare’s Bulletin on the Pharmacy Benefit Package Change.  

Last year, the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania scored a huge victory for the client: After a two-day public hearing, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) issued a decision awarding our client $50,000 plus interest, and ordered the personal care home to implement a non-discrimination policy. The personal care home remained adamant they had done nothing wrong and appealed the decision.

Now, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has issued an opinion affirming the PHRC’s decision in all respects.

In a forceful, published opinion, the Commonwealth Court also awarded delay damages and attorneys fees assessed against both the defendant and their counsel. Specifically, the Court held that the appeal had no basis in fact or law and was taken only to delay payment to our client.

Sarah Schalman-Bergen, of counsel to the AIDS Law Project and associate at Berger & Montague, P.C., was co-counsel on this case.

For more, see stories on the ruling in The Morning Call newspaper here:
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-northampton-hiv-canal-side-appeal-20111024,0,1020972.story

And in the Pennsylvania Law Weekly here:
http://www.aidslawpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/
Legal-Inteliigencer-article.pdf

The opinion can be read here:
http://www.courts.state.pa.us/OpPosting/Cwealth/out/2459CD10_10-20-11.pdf