Editorial: Va. Prepares for Closures

In only five years, all but one of Virginia’s training centers, as the residential complexes for Virginians with intellectual and developmental disabilities are known, will be closed. Only one facility, with just 75 beds and located in Tidewater Virginia, will remain open; Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights will shut its doors in 2020.
It’s all part of how the commonwealth chose to implement a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over Virginia’s handling of the care, treatment and housing of people with profound developmental disabilities.

Kansans with Disabilities Complaints Prompt Delay in Service Changes

The state said Tuesday that it will delay a major overhaul in the way it provides services for the disabled.

The announcement comes after people with disabilities, their family members, providers and care takers voiced major concerns with the state’s nine-month time line to switch a complex system of care for some of Kansas’ most vulnerable populations.“This is probably the single biggest change this system has seen” in nearly 20 years, said Dee Staudt, director of the Sedgwick County Developmental Disability Organization. In 1995 the state passed a law, guaranteeing certain rights for people with developmental disabilities.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article38029176.html#storylink=cpy

Wyoming's Medicaid Overhaul Taking Shape

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wyoming lawmakers are still ironing out details of legislation that would overhaul the state’s Medicaid program.
The legislation, now before the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, would implement a number of reforms to Medicaid. State health officials and advocacy groups say the bill could decrease costs, while making new services available to those already enrolled in the program.
Health officials spent Monday detailing how the reform package could address the increasing cost of Medicaid, which provides health coverage to about 77,000 poor and medically needy people in Wyoming.

5 Pending Medicaid Waivers to Watch in 2013

In the midst of the national push for Medicaid reform, one albatross is often cited by state policymakers for impeding their progress: the federal waiver process. The long and short of it is that it takes too long to get a waiver approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) if a state has an innovative idea to test. There are horror stories about waivers taking more than a year to be approved, even if they’ve been approved in the past and states are just looking to continue their programs. Six former governors (three Democrats and three Republicans) issued a report last year, bemoaning the problems with the waiver process and offering their recommendations for fixing it. CMS officials have acknowledged that it could be streamlined, though no specific improvements have been named or acted upon.

Thousands in Indiana Finally Get Services

INDIANAPOLIS -- Thousands of Hoosiers with developmental disabilities are coming off the Medicaid waiver waiting list and getting the services they need.
A year ago, 20,000 people were waiting for services, but that number has been whittled down to 13,000.

New Mexico Residents Await Waning Waiver

Jenna Montoya, right, and her mother June.

Jenna Montoya is an active 25-year-old who likes going to the movies, the mall and the zoo. She was born with cerebral palsy and has relied on the developmental disability waiver—a state Medicaid program—to improve her quality of life. She gets services like physical therapy and day habilitation. Even after she was placed in one of the state's most high-needs categories, her mom is concerned that alterations to the waiver program on Oct. 1 will mean big cuts to the therapy her daughter receives.
“If Jenna didn’t get the movement she gets in physical therapy, because of the spasticity of cerebral palsy, her joints would atrophy,” June Montoya says. Her daughter also had issues with drooling until she underwent extensive swallow and speech therapy. “None of us can imagine where she would be if she hadn’t had therapies because she’s been getting them since she was 8 years old,” she says, “and just the maintenance is important.”
Right now Jenna Montoya gets an hour of physical therapy every week, which her parents agree has improved her strength, endurance and digestion. As far as the Montoyas have been able to tell, coming changes could mean that she’d have to scale back all therapy to a total of 32 hours per year.

Medicaid Waiver Would Increase Community-Based Services in New Jersey

New Jersey’s application for a Medicaid waiver would change the way federal money is administered for people with developmental disabilities, allowing many to stay out of institutions by receiving more community-based support services.
If approved, the state is proposing to spend $90 million a year on support that includes day programs for the disabled as an alternative to living in one of the state's seven developmental centers.

Kansas May File Medicaid Waiver Application Soon

TOPEKA, Kans. — The waiver application needed for Gov. Sam Brownback's proposed Medicaid makeover is nearly complete and could be filed with federal officials before the month is up, Brownback administration officials said yesterday.
Still unclear, an administration source said, was whether public hearings on the waiver application would be required in order to satisfy new federal regulations governing so-called Medicaid 1115 waiver applications.

Judge Issues Ruling in Idaho Medicaid Case

BOISE, Idaho — A judge says Idaho can't switch to just one provider for some types of Medicaid services for the developmentally disabled until the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decides whether the practice complies with federal law.
The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill was handed down Thursday — just one day before the state's contract with Community Partnerships of Idaho was to go into effect. The ruling keeps dozens of other residential habilitation companies across Idaho in business, at least for now.

Florida Cuts Rates to Providers

TALLAHASSEE -- The Agency for Persons with Disabilities implemented a 4 percent provider rate reduction July 1, as required by the Florida Legislature.
Additionally, the law requires a cost plan freeze for all waiver recipients. No one may increase their waiver services unless they are in a crisis situation. The Florida Legislature has mandated that the group bring its Medicaid waiver expenditures within is appropriation.

Man Losing Aid That Lets Him Live at Home

DUFF, Tenn. -- For 17 years, Christopher Hughes' body held his mind prisoner.
Most of his teachers labeled Hughes "profoundly mentally retarded." The athetoid cerebral palsy that wracks his body with involuntary movements also prevents him from speaking words. Hughes, 34, cannot sit up unassisted. He cannot scratch an itch, bathe himself, eat, drink, go anywhere on his own, even across the room.

Editorial: Virginia Needs Reform Now

Virginia ranks in the gutter among states for Medicaid services provided to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, formerly characterized as mental retardation. They include those with a range of disabilities, including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. Medicaid, a federal-state partnership, provides funding for people who are eligible for long-term care in institutions; Medicaid waivers allow payment for community-based services, such as group homes, supported employment and day activities.
The shortfall in waivers has to change — and sooner, rather than later. The U.S. Department of Justice made that clear in February when it lambasted the state for its policy of institutionalizing the intellectually disabled instead of providing community care.