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Tags Posts tagged with "CMS HCBS"

CMS HCBS

Sarah Meek, ANCOR’s Senior Director of Legislative Affairs, appealed to Secretary Xavier Becerra and Acting Administrator Liz Richter “to swiftly issue guidance on the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) provisions of the recently enacted American Rescue Plan (ARP). Strengthening the Medicaid HCBS program is essential to saving lives in the disability community, which has been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic.”

“States should be urged to closely work with stakeholders, including consumers, providers, and workers, on the investment of funds in a reasonably expediated approach to address the specific needs in their state. States should be encouraged to fund measures that include, but are not limited to, bolstering the direct care workforce, increasing access to and use of technology and remote supports, and promoting the safe provision of services with social distancing and PPE.”

The letter includes additional thoughts regarding recommended uses of the funds to support the administration, quality, and availability of HCBS.

ODP Announcement Number 100-18 provides an update regarding feedback to providers after the completion of self-assessments this summer. Due to the amount of analysis needed and the quantity of self-assessments received, ODP began to email providers this week. The email contains a report for each self-assessment completed per service location along with guidance on how to correct areas on the self-assessment that could potentially be non-compliant according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) HCBS Final Rule.

ODP began emailing residential providers who completed a self-assessment starting Monday, November 5, 2018. It will take at least two weeks for ODP to email all residential providers. Non-residential providers will begin to receive emails starting Monday, November 19, 2018. If a provider does not receive a report for all of their service locations for which they completed a self-assessment by November 30, 2018, please contact ODP via email.

Please note that if a new service location has opened since June 12, 2018 (the date the HCBS Provider Settings Self-Assessment process officially closed), a self-assessment is not required to be completed for that service location. The only exception is for new Life Sharing homes that will provide services to individuals in the Community Living Waiver, for which a self-assessment must be completed. ODP will assess compliance with the CMS HCBS Final Rule for all other new service locations through multiple processes such as licensing, Quality Assessment and Improvement (QA&I), and approved program capacity and noncontiguous clearance.

For questions related to this communication, please contact ODP via email.