Call to Action: Submit Comments to FSSA

In just over two weeks, the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) plans to submit a CIH Waiver amendment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that makes significant changes to current services and adds new service options. Your INARF Board of Directors, in concert with the INARF Governmental Affairs Committee, Consultants, and INARF staff, have been hard at work reviewing the amendment, calculating the potential impact to the overall system, and communicating our concerns to our state partners. 

Here are a few of their findings: 

-Submission of the Waiver amendment and related rate structure is premature and has the potential to result in unintended consequences with the possibility of negatively impacting persons served and to the system, as a whole.

-The proposed changes introduce and rely on several new policy concepts and/or changes to existing policy that have not yet been developed.

-The Division should further develop and test the service model and rate structure before submitting them to CMS for approval.

​We need your help to ensure the Division hears from a wide variety of stakeholders regarding these changes and their potential impact. 

What you can do: 

1. Write comments on the Waiver amendment and submit them to DDRS.

-Information about the CIH Waiver amendment and INARF’s comments are available here(login required).

-For more information about how to write public comments, click here (login required).

-Submit comments to DDRS here – Deadline: December 28, 2015.

2. Send the comments you submit to INARF at sarah@inarf.org. 

3. Educate your board, families, and self-advocates about the issue and encourage them to submit comments to DDRS.

If you have any questions on the Waiver amendment, contact Kim Opsahl (kim@inarf.org).

For questions on writing comments, contact Katy Stafford-Cunningham (katy@inarf.org).

Send any questions about resources to Sarah Chestnut (sarah@inarf.org).