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ODP

ODP Announcement 22-059 informs readers that the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is pleased to announce that an amendment to the AAW was submitted to CMS on May 9, 2022. The submitted AAW includes modifications that were made as a result of public comment. The AAW amendment includes the following substantive changes:

  • Adding reserved waiver capacity for individuals who are discharged from a state center. Reserved waiver capacity is also being added for participants who have been incarcerated for more than six consecutive months;
  • Aligning provider qualifications in the AAW with the Consolidated, Community Living, and Person/Family Directed Support (P/FDS) waivers, whenever possible;
  • Allowing relatives to deliver the Life Sharing component of the Residential Habilitation service;
  • Requiring that agencies that provide Residential Habilitation/Life Sharing must be qualified and enrolled to provide Residential Habilitation/Life Sharing in the Consolidated or Community Living waivers;
  • Increasing the annual fiscal limit in the transportation service to $5,000 per participant’s ISP year;
  • Allowing one of the four required monitoring conducted by the Supports Coordinator each year to be conducted remotely;
  • Adding a new service, Remote Supports; and
  • Delivering direct services using remote technology.

The requirements in the AAW will become effective when Appendix K flexibilities expire, six months after the expiration of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency.

Please note that aligning the Assistive Technology service, where possible, with the Consolidated, Community Living, and P/FDS waivers includes adding generators for the participant’s primary residence.

The full AAW application, as well as a record of substantive changes, is available here.

CMS has 90 days to review the amendment, and changes may occur to the content based upon discussion with CMS during the approval process. The proposed effective date of July 1, 2022, is also subject to change. ODP will inform all stakeholders when CMS has officially approved the AAW and will make the approved waiver available at that time.

Questions about this communication should be directed via email.

The ODPANN 22-054 Update is to inform all interested parties that important infrastructural changes to the Medication Administration Training Program will now be rescheduled to take place from Friday, July 1 – Sunday, July 31, 2022, which will cause an outage. If you attempt to conduct a class or complete any training on the system during this outage, your work will be lost.

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) and the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) are pleased to announce this latest edition of the Positive Approaches Journal titled “Innovation & Best Practices in Supporting Autistic Adults.”

The focus of autism supports has almost exclusively been on children. Articles in this issue of Positive Approaches seeks to shed some light on adults with autism, including:

  • An article on transgender identity and gender dysphoria highlighting ways that adults with autism can be supported and accepted while defining who they are;
  • An article on the Temple University Community Participation Measure and its success in showing areas where adults with autism are spending their time, thereby giving a clearer picture on where supports and services may best be provided;
  • An article on an adult with autism’s journey from work into retirement and how he perceived this milestone;
  • An article discussing Pennsylvania’s continuing development of forward-thinking autism supports and services;
  • An article on the ongoing development and expansion of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Neurodevelopmental Residential Treatment Unit; and
  • An article on the reasoning, development, and success of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Western Behavioral Health Psychiatric Rehabilitation (PR) program carve-out program to serve autistic adults.

This journal issue focuses on the need to look across the lifespan to better understand the issues adults with autism may face.

Positive Approaches Journal is available for viewing online or for downloading in digital form.

ODP Announcement 22-058 announces the launch of the Health Risk Screening Tool (HRST) survey to assess interest in linking data systems to the HRST. Please assist the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) in completing this survey, as it will help to determine providers’ level of interest in linking existing data systems to the HRST.

This is an inquiry survey only and is intended to gauge provider interest. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Linking existing data would enable select data fields to autofill with data from these data systems on a routine frequency, thus reducing the amount of duplicate data entry.

The criteria for this service are outlined in this survey; please review the criteria carefully. You may need to consult with your IT personnel or your data system representative(s) to help determine if your agency can meet these criteria. This data import option would only be available to providers who meet all of the criteria listed. This survey will remain open for responses until Friday, June 10, 2022.

Image by photosforyou from Pixabay

This webinar is for residential and day service providers, families, and Supports Coordination Organizations (SCOs) to cover best practices for reopening day service provider facilities. Topics to be covered include best practices in screening participants, sanitation protocols, mitigation strategies, masking, distancing, and more. Sessions are split up by regional affiliation. See dates below to register for your region’s session.

Presenters

Antonie J. Auguste, MD, MPH
Dr. Antonie J. Auguste has been recognized as an IDSA Fellow (FIDSA). Dr. Auguste serves the ID division at UPMC/ID Connect. Her primary role focuses on providing inpatient Infectious Diseases consultation services via the Infectious Diseases Telemedicine service to multiple additional sites across telemedicine sites and rounding on the in-person services at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. Additionally, she provides telemedicine Infection Prevention and Control consultation to various telemedicine sites. Antonie earned her medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical University at Syracuse and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Infectious Disease at the State University of New York at Stony Brook University Hospital and School of Medicine. She obtained her MPH degree from Columbia University School of Public Health, and a BA degree in biology from Columbia University.

Dr. Nupur Gupta, DO, MPH
Dr. Gupta is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. She completed her undergraduate and MPH studies at UCLA and received her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Midwestern University in Phoenix, AZ. She completed her internal medicine residency at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, PA. Following her residency training, Dr. Gupta completed an Infectious Diseases fellowship with a special focus on HIV/AIDS at UPMC in Pittsburgh, PA. She has been a faculty member with UPMC since 2019. Her areas of interest include HIV treatment and prevention, medical education, infection control and prevention, and using telemedicine as a tool to reduce barriers to general ID care.

Kate Gass, RN, BSN, CIC
With a varied background in clinical nursing and nursing management, Kate has spent time working in intensive care, the emergency department, and the cardiac cath lab. Earning her ASN from Butler County College and BSN from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, she is certified as a cardiac invasive specialist and is also certified by the Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Register

Registration is required to participate. Sessions are assigned by region. Visit the appropriate session below to register.

Western Region
Tuesday, May 31 from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Northeast Region
Thursday, June 2 from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Central Region
Monday, June 6 from 9:00 am – 10:30 am

Southeast Region
Friday, June 10 from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

ODP Announcement 22-046 serves as a reminder about a recent update to recommendations from the Pennsylvania Department of Health about details for COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. The CDC updated their COVID-19 vaccine booster recommendations on May 19, 2022, to include guidance on boosters for children ages 5 through 11.

Pennsylvanians age 12 and older are eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine booster, and those who are immunocompromised should receive a second booster dose at least four months after their first booster.

Eligible individuals are now able to schedule appointments and receive vaccine or booster doses. The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) will not be coordinating clinics for COVID-19 vaccine or booster doses.

Supports Coordination Organizations (SCO) and Supports Coordinators (SC) must make note of the following:

  • Supports Coordinators (SC) are responsible for ensuring vaccine access for each individual supported by their organization.
  • SCs are expected to be aware of vaccine and vaccination process information.
  • SCs are responsible to support the vaccination process through coordination of vaccine access and vaccination appointments.

Residential Providers must make note of the following:

  • Residential service providers are expected to identify a vaccine provider or have a plan for vaccinations of residents.
  • Providers encountering difficulties locating vaccine resources can contact ODP via email.

Questions about this announcement may be directed via email to ODP.

ODP Announcement 22-057 announces that ODP is launching resource pages associated with MyODP called “home.MyODP.” In the near future, all resources currently on the MyODP website will be transitioned over to this new website. At this time, ODP is requesting feedback of the new pages, which may be sent via email.

All pages on home.MyODP are now publicly accessibly without a login. You can click on the Learning tab to go to MyODP’s website for all trainings. Resources will still be available on MyODP until home.MyODP is finalized.

MyODP News Online has also been revamped. View the latest stories, which are categorized by Policy, COVID-19, Events, and Tools & Guidance, on the MyODP News Online main page. The search feature on home.MyODP will now also find results in Aid in PA and PA Autism. More improvements are coming, including improved navigation, further integration with Aid in PA and PA Autism, and a new communication database. Please provide feedback on these updates via email.