Study Utilizes NCI-AD Data to Highlight Connections Between Unmet Needs and Poor Health
hcbs
HCBS Day of Action: ANCOR Update
Message from ANCOR:
The White House just released its framework for the Build Back Better Agenda this morning. The framework includes $150 billion for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services. There is still no legislative text available for the budget reconciliation bill, which is how Congress will move forward this framework. Negotiations are still ongoing. We will continue to update you as we know more.
We are encouraged that reports indicate that HCBS funding will be included in the final bill. But we want to make sure we don’t let up on our advocacy in this final stretch!
Please join us TODAY as we participate in a Day of Action along with our coalition partners from disability, aging, and labor groups.
- Please take action with our latest action alert and ask your members of Congress to support increased funding for HCBS. And please continue to share this widely with your networks!
- Take a moment to engage on social media. You can tweet your members of Congress by using the directory linked here. Sample social media posts are below.
Here are some sample tweets you can use:
- #Medicaid #HCBS is key to including ppl w/ #disabilities in the community, but the direct support workforce is in crisis. Read more from ANCOR about this devastating crisis and why #CareCantWait:bit.ly/3ASgUH9
- Funding for home & community-based services is essential to the health and well-being of people w/ disabilities, but the #HCBS direct care workforce has been underfunded for too long. Congress must invest now because #CareCantwait bit.ly/3ASgUH9
- Without funding for #Medicaid #HCBS, it’s only a matter of time before people w/ disabilities completely lose access to the options and resources needed to remain in their homes and in the community. Fund HCBS because #CareCantWait
- 81% of American voters support increased funding for home & community-based services. Support funding for #Medicaid #HCBS now. #CareCantWait
- “We have to look at how we are going to provide services for our most vulnerable adults and children in the coming decades, and we need to create a long-term, sustainable solution for that.” #HCBSCantWait bit.ly/3jDoS0b
- Please support including HCBS funding in the Build Back Better Act to ensure people w/ disabilities & their families do not lose access to the options and resources needed to remain in their homes and in the community. #CareCantWait
- Congress must include funding for HCBS in the budget reconciliation bill. People like Brandon depend on it. #HCBSCantWait RT twitter.com/POTUS/status/1451544259992203266
You are also encouraged to tweet your own stories. Below are additional hashtags to use:
- #CareCantWait
- #BuildBackBetter
- #HCBSCantWait
We also wanted to make sure we shared with you ANCOR’s letter sent to Congressional leadership yesterday in a final push to support increased funding for HCBS.
Thanks for all of your hard work and please keep it going!
Here are the resources from the White House:
MICROSITE
The Build Back Better Framework: President Biden’s Plan to Rebuild the Middle Class
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Elise Aguilar
Director of Advocacy
ANCOR
Alexandria, VA
(703) 535-7850
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Donna Martin
Director for State Partnerships and Special Projects
ANCOR
1101 King Street, Suite 380
Alexandria, VA 22314
Office: 703.535.7850 x116
Direct Line: 571.781.0456
HCBS Virtual Policy Forum: “The Direct Support Workforce and COVID-19″
HCBS Virtual Policy Forum: “The Direct Support Workforce and COVID-19: What We Know and What We Need to Do”
Join Megan Sanders from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration as she summarizes the results of a 12-month follow-up survey on the direct support workforce and their experiences supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities during the COVID-19.
This webinar will be held on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 from 11:00 am–11:45 am ET.
Click here to register.
Related resources to the above DSP workforce study report:
- Access Initial COVID-19 and DSP Workforce Survey short-report here.
- Access 6-month follow-up survey report here.
- Access 12-month follow up survey report here!
- DSP vaccination awareness PSA short-videos. Use these free in your health + wellness digital campaigns.
ODP 2021 Annual Waiting List Report
ODP Announcement 21-076 announces the release of the Office of Developmental Programs’ (ODP’s) Annual Waiting List report. The waiting list is comprised of individuals who are eligible to receive services and supports through ODP’s four home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers; however, due to insufficient waiver capacity, the state cannot currently meet their needs.
In this report, you’ll find information regarding ODP’s strategies and initiatives to address the problem. The report also demonstrates the progress that has been made since 2015 to reduce the number of individuals on the waiting list. The Annual Waiting List Report 2021 is located online at MyODP.
CMS Website Posts American Rescue Plan Act State Plans
HCBS At-A-Glance by Level of Community Transmission Announcement
The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is re-releasing Announcement 20-072 with “HCBS At-A-Glance By Level of Community Spread” to better assist stakeholders in tracking and referencing specific guidance related to ODP functions in the context of the Level of Community Spread within a County. Updates appear in red.
The At-A-Glance Guide provides a quick reference on related operational guidance and will inform providers, Supports Coordination Organizations (SCOs), and Administrative Entities (AEs) planning across multiple counties. The At-A-Glance Guide has been updated to align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Data Tracker as a primary source for monitoring the level of community transmission of COVID-19. The CDC COVID Data Tracker uses four (4) levels of community transmission: Low, Moderate, Substantial, and High.
The At-A-Glance Guide addresses the following functions:
- Compliance with 55 Pa. Code Chapters 2380, 2390, 6100, 6400, and 6500;
- Quality Assessment and Improvement (QA&I) process;
- Independent Monitoring for Quality (IM4Q);
- Supports Intensity Scale (SIS™) and PA Plus Assessments;
- Administrative Entity (AE) Processes;
- Licensing Inspections;
- Investigations Completed by Certified Investigators; and
- Supports Coordination Organizations (SCOs).
CONTACT: Please contact your ODP Regional Office for any questions about this announcement.
ANCOR Issues Statement on House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Proposed Investment in HCBS
ALEXANDRIA, VA. – Today, ANCOR CEO Barbara Merrill issued the following statement in response to the news that the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s budget proposal will include a $190 billion investment-less than half the amount proposed by President Biden and Senate Democrats-in Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS).
“Although decades of underinvestment in the Medicaid HCBS program make us grateful to see any allocation of resources to support community-based disability services and thankful for legislators who see these services as a priority, we were disheartened to learn that the House Energy & Commerce Committee is proposing to invest only $190 billion in HCBS in the Committee’s response to the Senate’s budget resolution.
“Indeed, $190 billion is not an insignificant amount of money, but it falls woefully short of the $400 billion proposed by President Biden in his Build Back Better agenda and approved by the Senate in the budget resolution it passed prior to the August recess.
“If our elected officials are to take seriously the need to overcome a decades-long direct care workforce crisis and support people with disabilities to bounce back from the perilous effects of the pandemic, it is absolutely essential that Congress approve the full $400 billion originally proposed for the Medicaid HCBS program. We know that legislators who care about their most vulnerable constituents will do the right thing and continue to push for the largest amount of funding possible to ensure that community-based services won’t continue to languish.”
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Barbara Merrill
Chief Executive Officer
American Network of Community Options and Resources
Alexandria, VA
(703) 535-7850 (103)
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HCBS Innovation During COVID
The Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Service (CMS) are hosting a webinar discussing the experiences of home and community-based services payers and providers in altering their service delivery models in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Presenters will also discuss how they have addressed social determinants of health (SDOH). This webinar is part of a monthly webinar series highlighting Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) promising practices.
This webinar will be held on Thursday, November 12 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm ET.
Click here to register
Podcast / Webinar: How My Agency Survived EVV
Changes in OLTL Waiver Enrollment Process
The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has announced changes that are being made to the enrollment process for Home and Community-based Services (HCBS), including the Aging Waiver, Attendance Care Waiver, CommCare Waiver, Independence Waiver, OBRA Waiver, and Act 150 Program. Effective Tuesday, March 1, 2016, OLTL will enter into a new contract with MAXIMUS, the PA Independent Enrollment Broker (IEB). According to OLTL, the adjustments being made and expectations regarding this new contract will streamline the enrollment process, as well as ensure consistency across all home and community-based programs, in anticipation of the roll-out of Community HealthChoices (CHC), a Managed Long-Term Services and Supports program for older Pennsylvanians and adults with physical disabilities. CHC will move the Commonwealth’s home and community-based waiver system from fee-for service to a capitated Medicaid managed long-term services and supports delivery system. The changes OLTL is making to the enrollment process support the Commonwealth’s efforts to ensure that the enrollment process is conflict free, strengthening necessary firewalls between enrollment in services and the provision of ongoing service coordination and other services.
Changes made to improve the IEB process:
- The enrollment timeframe requirement has been reduced from 90 days to 60 days. This change is effective March 1, 2016.
- The IEB will assume the Aging Waiver enrollment process effective April 1, 2016.
- Enrollments that are already in process before April 1 will remain the responsibility of the Area Agency on Aging. Aging Waiver applications initiated prior to April 1 must be completed by the AAA prior to June 30. Applications still pending on June 30 will revert to Maximus for completion. OLTL will provide additional information on this process in an upcoming webinar.
- These changes, which affect all OLTL Home- and Community-Based Programs – Aging, Attendant Care, CommCare, Independence, OBRA and the Act 150 program administered through the Office of Long-Term Living – will be completed by the PA Independent Enrollment Broker (IEB), Maximus.
The tasks completed by the IEB (Maximus) include the following:
- Coordinate with the County Assistance Office to ensure timely completion of the PA 600L Medical Assistance Applications.
- Coordinate with the Area Agency on Aging to ensure timely completion of the Clinical Eligibility Determination (formerly known as the Level of Care Determination). Complete in-home visit with applicant to gather information for enrollment.
- Complete the Program Eligibility Determination.
- Provide applicant with choice of Service Coordination provider.
- Enroll applicant in waiver upon receipt of PA 162.
- Transfer record and enrollment documentation to the selected Service Coordination agency.
If you have any questions, please contact Amy High, Office of Long-Term Living, Bureau of Participant Operations, at 717-787-8091.
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