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Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

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The United States General Services Administration has announced a change for the rate of Transportation Mile reimbursement rate, procedure code W7271, beginning January 1, 2025. The new rate is $0.70 per mile. Communication ODPANN 25-004 provides notice of the rate change, as well as instructions for Supports Coordination Organizations (SCO) on how to add transportation mileage to the vendor screen. It also instructs direct service providers on how to submit claim adjustments, if applicable.

Please view the announcement for additional information and details.

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) has announced Introduction to Charting the LifeCourse Foundation, which is now available on MyODP under Community Integration.

Introduction to Charting the LifeCourse (CtLC) is designed to present learners with an overview of the CtLC person-centered framework and provides a general awareness of the guiding principles and tools presented by a Certified CtLC Presenter.

Note: If you experience issues accessing the link, right click the link, select “Copy Link,” and paste the link into your browser. If the problem persists, try a different browser.

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Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Adult Autism Waiver (AAW) providers are invited to participate in the AAW Provider Quarterly Incident and Risk Management meetings.

The meetings will be held for all Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) providers and Support Coordinators (SC) providing Adult Autism Waiver (AAW) services. Pam Treadway and Heather Easley will facilitate these meetings with the intent to provide updates on incident and risk management related activities, share AAW data, inform providers of any upcoming changes, review ODP expectations, etc. Providers will be able to network with one another and ask questions directly to the Bureau of Supports for Autism and Special Populations (BSASP).

The upcoming meeting will include a discussion on risk mitigation activities. Behavior Support Services can be an effective means for mitigating risks. For that reason, we strongly encourage Behavior Specialists to participate in the meeting.

January 30, 2025
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Register Here

Multiple staff from a provider may attend but should register separately. Be sure to complete all required information to confirm attendance. A link to the meeting will be send prior to the scheduled meeting date.

Please contact the Provider Support inbox with questions.

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The Office of Developmental Programs has shared an updated copy of the PBC Implementation Guide that was released yesterday.

In Attachment 1 — Performance Based Contracting (PBC) Residential Services Implementation Guide, Appendix F: Performance-Based Contracting Residential Scoring Tool, a typo has been corrected within Measure RD.01.1 and now displays the correct date (January 1, 2026).

The updated Implementation Guide is available here or at the Performance-Based Contracting Information web page on MyODP.

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is informing stakeholders of updates to the Performance-Based Contracting (PBC) Residential Services Implementation Guide. Revisions to the Implementation Guide appear in red.

Some significant changes to the Performance-Based Contracting Proposal (Appendix A) are as a result of public comment and feedback from the first round of tier determinations. These changes include:

Performance Standard:

  • Revision: (RM-IM.01.3) Data pull will be for 2024 calendar year (CY) quarters 1-2 (Q1-2), and an adjustment variable of 1% will be applied.
  • Revision: (RM-IM.01.3) Temporarily changing the threshold from 90% to 86%. For fiscal year (FY) 2027-28, the threshold will return to 90% using CY 2026 data.
  • Revision: (RM-IM.01.4) Moved to future measure in FY 2027/28 using CY 2026 data.

Scoring Tool:

  • Revision: Measures RM-IM.01.1, RM-IM.01.2, and RM-IM.01.3, RM-IM.01.1 – RM-IM.01.3 Scoring as composite requiring 2 out of 3.

Attachments:

  • Attachment 1: Performance-Based Contracting Residential Implementation Guide
  • PBC Residential Services Provider Self-Assessment Toolkit
    • Attachment 2A: Provider Performance-Based Contracting Preparedness Self-Assessment
    • Attachment 2B: Provider Preparedness Workbook 2025 Updates (20250107)
  • Attachment 3: Residential Performance-Based Contracting Attestation

Please view ODPANN 25-003 for additional changes, information, and details.

The updated version of the PBC Residential Services Implementation Guide is located on the Performance-Based Contracting Information web page on MyODP.

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Senator Carolyn Comitta and Senator Lindsey Williams shared the following message with all Senate members. You may want to contact your local legislator requesting their support.

Posted: January 6, 2025, 12:56 pm
From: Senator Carolyn T. Comitta and Sen. Lindsey M. Williams
To: All Senate members
Subject: ID/A Market Index for DSP Services

Making our government more efficient and effective often means innovating ways to more closely align bureaucratic processes with best practice solutions. Pennsylvania’s method of compensating our invaluable Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) is one such opportunity. Over 55,000 Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities and autism need some assistance during the day to reach their highest level of independence and opportunity. These people and their families rely upon our committed DSPs to support some of the most personal tasks and make sure they live safely while engaging in the community. Often, our DSPs become like family to their clients.

Sadly, if you looked at the pay DSPs receive in Pennsylvania you would not know how critical they are to those who need their services. Despite best efforts, too many great staff leave the profession due to necessity in order to support themselves and their families. This often leads to a very high staff turnover rate even amongst our best providers, which has a negative effect on their clients.

Regulation requires a three-year refresh of market-based data in order to adopt a fee schedule, but there is no requirement for Pennsylvania to change rates at all – no matter what happens to inflation. Under this process, rates are already a year behind by the time they become effective. Last year’s rate increase was 3-4% below actual inflation, without any guarantee of correction for at least 3 years. For many providers, annual increases to health insurance, worker’s compensation, liability and other factors far exceed the available funds.

To help stabilize this workforce and provide better care for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism, Senator Lindsey Williams and I will soon introduce legislation to amend the Human Services Code requiring that rates annually be set based on a national market consumer index. The adoption of a nationally recognized market index will help provide stability to this system and also support the hard-working DSPs that are essential to the delivery of services for Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities and autism. This legislation was SB684 and a companion to Rep. Miller’s HB661 in the 2023-24 session.

We hope you will join us in cosponsoring this important legislation.

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Happy New Year! Now that you have turned the page to your 2025 calendars, we want to be sure that you do not miss saving the dates for the RCPA Annual Conference in 2025. We will be holding the conference earlier than we traditionally have, so we want to be sure you know the date. We will be meeting again at the Hershey Lodge, September 9 – 12, 2025! But not to worry — we will be offering the same high level of quality you have come to expect from our selection of workshops, speakers, and activities! Stay tuned to our social media and Conference website for future developments.

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Supports Coordinator (SCs) Monitoring Residential Services Webcast Training

Supports Coordinators (SCs) have a critical role and responsibility on the team to monitor all the services that are being provided to the individuals they support. Residential Service Providers have a unique responsibility to protect and promote the health, safety, and rights of individuals they support in all aspects of their life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This 4-part training specifically focuses on the Supports Coordinator’s authority and responsibilities when monitoring Residential Services.

Audience: Intellectual Disability and Autism (ID/A) and Adult Autism Waiver (AAW) Supports Coordinators (SCs), SC Supervisors, and Support Coordination Organization (SCO) Administration.

There is no registration for this online training. Any learner with a professional profile role can access the training directly in MyODP. The current link in the announcement will take the learner to the SC Landing Page, where there will be a direct link to the course. Link will be available starting Thursday January 2, 2025.

Supports Coordinator (SCs) Monitoring Residential Services — Live, Virtual Sessions for SC Supervisors and Support Coordinator Organization (SCO) Trainers

The Department of Human Services is holding a live, virtual Zoom training to provide Support Coordinators (SCs) Supervisors and Support Coordinator Organization (SCO) Trainers the opportunity to apply learning from the Supports Coordinator Monitoring Residential Services training to support their SCs to effectively monitor Residential Services. Each session will include small and large group discussions of two scenarios an Intellectual Disability and Autism (ID/A) or Adult Autism Waiver (AAW) SC might encounter during a residential monitoring. SC Supervisors and Trainers can use these scenarios and discussions as a model for similar discussions with their SCs to improve the thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and quality of residential monitoring.

Session recordings (6 scenarios) will be made available on MyODP and announced through ODP Communications. The recordings can be viewed by SCs and used by SC Supervisors/Trainers to support additional SC staff development.

Audience: Intellectual Disability and Autism (ID/A) and Adult Autism Waiver (AAW) Supports Coordinators (SCs) Trainers, SC Supervisors, and Support Coordination Organization (SCO) Administration only.

SCs are not the audience for these sessions and will not have access to registration due to role restrictions.

Please register here.

Three sessions are being offered with each session exploring different scenarios.  You are invited to register and attend one or more of the sessions.

  • Monday, February 3, 2025, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
  • Wednesday, February 5, 2025, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
  • Friday, February 7, 2025, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Prior to the sessions, completion of the Supports Coordinator Monitoring Residential Services training is required.

Note: If you are experiencing issues accessing the link, try right clicking the link, selecting “Copy Link,” and pasting the link into your browser. If the problem persists, try a different browser.

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