Providers and DDRS Planning Indiana’s Future Together

On May 8th, the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) hosted its Quarterly Provider Meeting. The meeting kicked off with a presentation from DDRS Director Nicole Norvell highlighting activities and initiatives happening now and moving forward. 

The Division is continuing to work on bringing its waiver programs into compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Settings rule. As a first step, Indiana submitted both a DDRS specific and a Statewide Transition Plan to CMS for review in late 2014. Following that review, CMS submitted comments and questions to DDRS for their response. The Division is finalizing their response to those questions and intends to submit it within the week. DDRS is also drafting responses to CMS questions and comments on the Family Supports (FS) and Community Integration and Habilitation (CIH) Waivers to be submitted within the same timeframe. The Division is still anticipating an effective date of the submitted waivers of July 1st. 

As the transition plan is finalized and the Division dives deeper into considering Indiana’s compliance with the HCBS settings rule, they have partnered with the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS) for technical assistance and consultation. Their initial work with NASDDDS included hosting a “Planning Indiana’s Future” presentation for providers from around the state. The presentation included a high level overview of trends and issues impacting people with disabilities and the service system that supports them. 

Following the presentation, DDRS hosted a smaller stakeholder group to provide more specific feedback on challenges and opportunities within the current service delivery system. Using information gleaned from the provider presentation and the stakeholder group, DDRS worked with NASDDDS to begin identifying opportunities to enhance and improve the service system. Those insights were used, in part, to help define the topic areas for the small group discussions planned for the remainder of the provider meeting. In all these activities are intended to create a system wide dialogue to identify how the community service systems should look like in the future. 

Also, as part of her remarks, Director Norvell shared details on rate restoration to take effect on July 1st. This will impact those services that were reduced in 2010 – Individual Community Habilitation, Individual Facility Habilitation, Respite, Residential Habilitation and Supports Level 1. The increases will occur over a two year period with a 2.5% each year. Residential Habilitation and Supports Level 2 will also see a similar rate increase effective July 1st. The increase will also be reflected in the Daily Rate when it is approved and implemented. Finally, the Supervised Group Living program will see a 1% increase to achieve full restoration beginning July 1. 

As the dialogue on Indiana’s future moves forward, INARF will work to ensure its members are an active part of the conversation and work to keep you up to date on decisions being made.