Fact Check: DME halted??
Plus: Dutch researchers find "moral energy problem" among medical parents; Washington may cut early childhood intervention; and an NYC dance program includes everybody
I have seen a lot of scared parents on social media this week talking about the Trump Administration halting durable medical equipment (DME). This is the name for the category of medical goods ranging from catheters and diapers to tube food and wheelchairs.
I can track this panic to clips taken out of context from an announcement this week from Vice President J.D. Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz, leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
Dr. Oz certainly looks like he is reading from prepared remarks in the video but his speech writer needs an editor. The phrasing was incomplete — to terrifying effect for those who only saw that clip and rely on Medicaid-funded DME daily to literally live.
Better information can be found in the Health and Human Services press release or by skilled reports from MedTechDive or Reuters.
The Trump administration is imposing a six-month moratorium on Medicare enrollment for certain suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotics, or DMEPOS, as part of a broader plan to combat fraud in healthcare. (MedTechDive, Feb. 27, 2026)
Catch that? The freeze is on supplier enrollment. Not patients.
DME fraud is a serious problem. There are cases where DME suppliers invent patients and/or needs, charge the government thousands — even millions — of dollars for invisible, non-existent supplies. Take the case last July of a Florida convict’s $61 million in fraud.
This is not to say the Trump administration is not causing justifiable panic in disability families. The list of states — red and blue — that are looking at cutting disability services in the wake of H.R. 1 keeps growing. The guidance from CMS so far on how to implement H.R. 1 is woefully inadequate. And there is no good information yet on what exactly the impact will be on withholding $259 million from Minnesota Medicaid, announced at the same time as the DME freeze.
There’s plenty to worry about. But I worry most about families who are so burned out and buffeted by scary, inaccurate information that they don’t have the spoons to react to scary, accurate information.
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From Seattle Times via Yakima Herald-Republic: “Washington lawmakers propose cuts to services for children with disabilities”
State lawmakers have proposed substantial cuts to funding for services for infants and toddlers experiencing disabilities and developmental delays, a move that advocates say could jeopardize critical support for the youngest children and increase future state costs.
The proposal also likely violates a federal law requiring the state to spend the same amount of money or more year over year on these services, said Kristina Mendieta, director of public affairs for Kindering, Washington’s largest Early Support for Infants and Toddlers provider. That could put federal funding in jeopardy, she said.
The program, known as ESIT, serves thousands of Washington kids under 3 experiencing developmental delays or disabilities each year with support like speech and occupational therapy. In the federal fiscal year that ended in September 2021, the program reached about 21,400 Washington kids.
But as the state wrestles with a budget shortfall, lawmakers have advanced a proposal that would change the program’s funding formula, amounting to a 17% funding cut, through House Bill 2688. This could affect services for about 3,600 infants and toddlers. […]
• From Psychology Today: “The Moral Energy Problem”
[…]Edith Raap, a researcher at University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht who studies what she calls levend verlies or living loss, studies the chronic grief that parents of disabled children carry, not because their child has died, but because the life they imagined turned out radically different. Raap’s research began with a simple observation: There seems to be little space in the Dutch care system for the parent’s voice. Professionals are trained to look at the child, while the parents are placed more as an observer than an integral part of the conversation.
The judgment, Raap argues, is in the language itself. Professionals talk about “involving parents” as if parents aren’t already involved, as if they need an invitation to care about their own child. Parents should involve professionals, she says, since parents are the ones navigating the system, filling out the paperwork, proving every year that their child is still disabled.
[…Simon van der Weele, a moral philosopher at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, comes at the same problem from the institutional side. He has spent years doing ethnographic fieldwork inside Dutch group homes for people with severe intellectual disabilities.
When I interviewed van der Weele, he often used the term “moral energy” or the capacity to see another person as fully human. There is a gradual decay of empathy among professionals who work long hours, get little recognition, but must use a range of creative energies to constantly connect with the severely disabled.
[…]Raap and van der Weele are describing two ends of the same failure.[…]
• From CBS News: “Dancers of all abilities take center stage during NYC National Dance Institute's DREAM Project”
Parents of children with disabilities say it can be difficult to find extracurricular activities that are inclusive and accessible. But twice a year, the National Dance Institute in Harlem brings together dancers with and without special needs for a camp, proving anyone can take center stage.
In February and August, dancers with and without disabilities participate in DREAM Project, a week-long program that’s tailored around each participant’s unique abilities. Some use wheelchairs; others may be blind or have Autism.
Instructors say choreography starts with what everyone can do, then dancers can differentiate based on their own individual skills.
[…]The New York City Comptroller surveyed over 600 school principals in 2025 and found that many after-school programs exclude students with disabilities.
Affordability, availability, proximity, and staff experience are all factors families have to consider when finding a program.
[…]Organizations like INCLUDEnyc attempt to bridge this gap. It offers resource fairs each winter to help parents navigate the school system and find affordable, inclusive activities for their kids.[…]
Medical Motherhood brings you quality news and information each Sunday for raising disabled and neurodivergent children. Get it delivered to your inbox each week or give a gift subscription. Subscriptions are free, with optional tiers of support. Our paid subscribers make this work possible! Not ready to subscribe but like what you read here? Buy me a coffee.
Follow Medical Motherhood on Facebook, Bluesky, X, TikTok, Instagram or Pinterest. Visit the Medical Motherhood merchandise store.