Via Luda Demikhovskaya (6.13.11):
Push New Medicaid Rules Supporting Services in Truly Integrated Settings by:
TODAY, Tuesday at 5pm!
Support Proposed Regulations for Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Waivers!
June 13, 2011 -- The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law urges you to support rules proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that would help ensure scarce waiver dollars are used to support services in truly integrated settings -- not settings that are institutional in nature!
Use the Bazelon Center's comments as a model, or tell CMS that you agree with our comments. Also, consider telling CMS to include the "qualities of an institution" list in the regulation -- not in the background; and that there is no reason to have separate rules for assisted-living facilities.
Submit Comments by Tuesday, June 14, 5 PM EST electronically via http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions under the "More Search Options" tab.
Include reference code CMS-22296-P.
You can find the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking here.
The Proposed Rules:
- Permit states to serve individuals with different types of disabilities in one waiver.
- Define "home and community-based."
- Include requirements for person-centered planning.
- Indicate that waiver services must not be provided in "a building that is also a publicly or privately operated facility that provides inpatient institutional treatment or custodial care; in a building on the grounds of, or immediately adjacent to, a public institution; or a housing complex designed expressly around an individual's diagnosis or disability, as determined by the Secretary."
- And, among other things, indicate that waiver services must not be provided in a setting that "has qualities of an institutional setting." CMS notes that such qualities may include regimented meal and sleep times, limitations on visitors, lack of privacy and other attributes that limit individuals' ability to engage freely in the community.
Recent Comments