The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has announced the cancellation of the procurement for Agency with Choice. RCPA and partners in the Coalition for Choice had opposed this new service and advocated for canceling the procurement. You can view the announcement here.
If you have any questions, contact Fady Sahhar, Director, PD&A Division.
The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) issued the following update to Service Coordination Entities of the Annual Review process in Home and Community Services Information System (HCSIS) for the Act 150 Program and OBRA Waiver. Found here are the procedures and instructions for entering these service plans in HCSIS, starting Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
The Annual Review process is a good time to review your caseloads and finalize any dis-enrollments or inactive service plans. The Waiver/Program Transfer instructions can be found here for your convenience. Please also reference the attached “OLTL Fiscal Year 2025/26 Annual Review Instructions for HCSIS” for additional information on how file closures may impact the current Annual Review process.
If you have any additional questions or wish to receive the attached forms in alternate format, please contact Brian Lester at (717) 346-0716 or via email.
The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has published responses to questions brought up at the Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Subcommittee meeting held on February 5, 2025.
The highlights include:
If you have any questions, please contact Fady Sahhar.
The Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Subcommittee meeting convened on February 5, 2025. During the meeting, a number of presentations were given. In addition to the presentations, the February meeting agenda and the meeting transcript from the January 8, 2025, LTSS Subcommittee meeting were provided.
Members should take time to review the PowerPoint presentations from the meeting:
The meeting transcript is available here.
The next LTSS Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for March 7, 2025, from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm and will be held via webinar and remote streaming.
To participate in the meeting via webinar, please register here.
If calling into the meeting, the dial-in information is: 1 (562) 247-8422; Access Code: 145-307-305#
As was shared in the RCPA Alert sent on Tuesday, January 28, the House Human Services and Insurance Committees held a joint informational meeting on January 29 on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Care Needs and Coverage Options, where testimony was provided by RCPA, OLTL, Success Rehabilitation, BIAPA, and insurers.
Following the hearing, leadership from the House Human Services Committee has requested additional information from BI providers. Please review the questions below and provide responses to Melissa Dehoff by close of business Monday, February 3.
The important message to share is that we have the legislators’ attention! Things are moving very quickly; there are many meetings, calls, and ongoing communications with leadership in the legislature as we enter the key phase of budget negotiations.
It is critical that we have full participation in providing this information from every single BI provider/program. If we do not provide responses from 100% of our BI members, it could have an impact on funds being allocated to us in the budget.
Please contact Melissa Dehoff with questions and your responses.
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?
If you have additional questions about the Summit, please contact Kristy Crocetto at (215) 204-1356 or via email.
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.
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:
