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Physical Disabilities & Aging

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

A federal judge has halted President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal aid programs, ruling that the courts need more time to consider the potentially far-reaching ramifications of his order.

Minutes before the directive from Trump’s budget office was to take effect Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan blocked the Trump administration from implementing it for now.

AliKhan’s order will expire February 3 at 5:00 pm. The Trump administration cannot suspend disbursement of any congressionally-appropriated funds until then. The judge described the move as a “brief administrative stay” intended to maintain the status quo while further litigation can play out.

“I think there is the specter of irreparable harm,” said AliKhan, an appointee of President Joe Biden.

The ruling is a win for nonprofit and public health groups who said even a brief implementation of Trump’s freeze could cause devastating outcomes for people who rely on federal funds for services, as well as the workers who provide them. The nonprofits also argued the order from the Office of Management and Budget intrudes on First Amendment rights by seeking to block funding for groups that engage in “DEI programs” or promote “Gender Ideology Extremism,” concepts targeted in Trump’s initial round of executive orders.

Justice Department attorney Daniel Schwei had argued that the groups had failed to show that they needed an immediate halt to the order issued by Trump’s budget office and set to take effect at 5:00 pm Tuesday. He said additional guidance offered by the Trump administration should alleviate concerns about the OMB directive cutting off essential programs.

“They request sweeping relief… not tethered to any identified grant programs,” Schwei said. “It would be appropriate to allow these issues to be addressed on a more orderly timeframe.

RCPA will continue to update members as we work with our national partners to gain greater clarification on this Federal action. If you have further questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.

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Monday, March 3, 2025
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST; 11:00 am – 12:00 pm CST;
10:00 am – 11:00 am MST; 9:00 am – 10:00 am PST
Register Here

Tiffany Prince-Kandrakota, PT, DPT, MSHQS

Presenter Bio:

Tiffany Prince-Kandrakota is a physical therapist with more than 20 years of experience. Her career has included clinical work as well as progressive leadership responsibilities in multiple large health systems in the Philadelphia area. In this time, she found a passion for the quality of the care that was being provided, which drove her to return to school for a Masters in Healthcare Quality and Safety. She currently works as the Rehabilitation Quality Improvement Coordinator at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Objectives: At the end of this session, the learner will:

  • Define quality improvement in healthcare.
  • Why quality? And how do we achieve it?
  • Understand the steps in the Model for Improvement.
  • Understand the tools available for quality improvement work.
  • Discuss using data to drive quality improvement.

Audience: This webinar is intended for all interested members of the rehabilitation team.

Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Certificate of Attendance: Certificates of attendance are available for all attendees. No CEs are provided for this course.

Complimentary webinars are a benefit of membership in IPRC/RCPA. Registration fee for non-members is $179. Not a member yet? Consider joining today.

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The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) is partnering with the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP), The Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, College of Education and Human Development, and the University of Kansas Center on Disabilities’ State of the States team to host Pennsylvania Technology Summits as part of a statewide initiative called PA Tech Accelerator.

The goal of the Summits is to expand the awareness of, and access to, assistive technology and remote technologies in order to build capacity of technology users throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The Summits will be held on March 6, 2025, in Philadelphia and March 13, 2025, in Pittsburgh. To attend, please register here.

The Summits will feature a keynote address by Rebekah Taussig, PhD; a panel of technology users giving advice, sharing their stories, and answering questions; and vendors showcasing services, devices, and solutions.

Who is invited?

  • People with disabilities and their families.
  • Direct Support Providers and professionals working with people with disabilities, such as Direct Care Workers, Direct Support Professionals, Support Service Professionals, Supports Coordinators, Job Coaches, and healthcare professionals.
  • Organizations and providers who serve people with disabilities.
  • Policymakers, advocates, and allies for people with lived disability experience.
  • Students looking to work in disability-related fields.
  • Anyone interested in technological supports for people with disabilities.

If you have additional questions about the Summit, please contact Kristy Crocetto at (215) 204-1356 or via email.

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Young caregiver helping older lady to stand up

The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) recently shared additional guidance for providers related to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Settings Final Rule.

This clarification applies to Residential Habilitation and Personal Care Home Providers.

Regulations at 42 CFR 441.301(c)(4)(vi)(B) require that participants in residential settings have the ability to close and lock doors within their living units. As a part of the Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) residential provider reviews, it was found that several sites did not meet this requirement. As remediation, some providers opted to have participants sign a form stating that they do not wish to have a lock on their doors, which OLTL’s settings review panel accepted as compliant.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reviewed OLTL’s oversight activities and has deemed that participant sign-off waiving installation of locks does not sufficiently satisfy the requirement. CMS has determined that all doors with access to participant units or private spaces (such as a bedroom) must have locks installed. The participant’s choice is whether to utilize the lock or not. Based on this feedback, as OLTL moves forward with ongoing oversight of HCBS settings requirements, all doors to participant units/private spaces in residential settings will be required to have working locks in order to be deemed compliant for future settings reviews.

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The Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Subcommittee has released its agenda for the February 5 virtual meeting. The meeting will have no onsite options for attendance and will be held via webinar at 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. You can view the agenda, which includes the webinar link, here.

The key agenda items are:

  • Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) Updates
  • Assisted Living Residences — In Lieu of Services Policy Updates
  • Assisted Living Residences and Personal Care Homes — MCO Updates

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The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) Critical Incident Management Unit monitors provider compliance in the application of guidance specific to critical incident management. OLTL has identified compliance concerns and is issuing the following clarification.

This communication focuses on required critical incident notification by provider agencies to the participant’s assigned service coordinator and the documentation of such notification in the Enterprise Incident Management (EIM) entry. The OLTL Critical Incident Management Bulletin, which is also available on OLTL’s website, indicates the following:

  • Within 48 hours, the Managed Care Organization (MCO), Service Coordinator (SC), provider agency that discovers or has independent knowledge of the critical incident is to submit the First Section of the critical incident report to OLTL using OLTL’s critical incident management system. If the critical incident was discovered on a weekend or holiday, the 48 hours begin at 12:00 am on the first business day after discovery of the critical incident.
  • Providers must inform the participant’s SC within 24 hours of discovering or first learning of a critical incident.

Notification to the participant’s SC that a critical incident was discovered must not be made using the HHAeXchange system. The required notification to the participant’s SC must be made by telephone call, electronic mail communication, or any other method that is agreed upon by all parties involved, excluding the HHAeXchange system.

In addition, the notification by the provider to the participant’s SC that a critical incident was discovered must be clearly documented in the EIM incident report, specifically within the “Agencies Contacted” page. Instructions are below:

  1. Enter the first name of the SC in the Person Contacted (First Name) Field.
  2. Enter the SC’s last name in the Person Contacted (Last Name) Field.
  3. Enter the contact phone number. Note that the email address field is not mandatory; however, it should be completed when notification to the SC was made via email.
  4. Click the SAVE button when all information has been entered.

See an example of page completion below.

Providers who are experiencing difficulty meeting the Critical Incident Management Bulletin requirements may email concerns to the resource account. Additionally, questions related to critical incidents may be emailed to the Critical Incident Management team member identified in any case-specific communication.

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RCPA will be hosting our 2025 Capitol Day on Wednesday, March 26. We will hold a press conference/rally from 10:00 am – 11:00 am in the Capitol’s Main Rotunda. Members are requested to schedule appointments with their State Senate and House legislators to discuss the state budget, legislation, and regulations that affect the day-today activities of our members. For your convenience and use in legislative meetings, RCPA has developed a brochure highlighting our legislative and regulatory priorities. More information will follow, but if you have questions or suggestions regarding our 2025 Capitol Day, please contact Jack Phillips, Director of Government Affairs.

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This is to notify you that the 2025 Act 150 Sliding Fee Scale Bulletin (54-25-01, 59-25-01) has been posted to the Bulletins web page on the Department of Human Services (DHS) website. This bulletin has an issue date of January 1, 2025, and an effective date of January 1, 2025.

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide the most recent sliding fee scale to all Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) Service Coordination Entities (SCEs) working with Act 150 Program participants. This bulletin applies to any SCEs that provide service coordination services to participants in the Act 150 Program.

This bulletin rescinds OLTL Bulletin 54-24-01, 59-24-01 issued on January 16, 2024, and all other communications, bulletins, and/or directives distributing previous sliding fee scales for the Act 150 Program.

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