Week in Review: Hearings & Meetings

It was indeed a busy week in the legislature – particularly in the House!  On Tuesday morning, Interhab staff presented testimony to the House Children and Families Committee.  Policy issues surrounding the HCBS MR/DD Waiver and the subject of direct care workers and wage parity were discussed.  Staff also shared written testimony by Colin McKenney, MCDS regarding the concept of a Family Support Waiver.

On Wednesday afternoon, InterHab staff attended the House Social Services Budget Committee hearing to listen in on an update from Deputy Secretary of Disability and Behavioral Health Sciences, Ray Dalton regarding the Money Follows the Person (MFP) grant.  Dalton reported that the federal Affordable Care Act has extended the MFP grant to 2016.  He informed the committee that the overarching goal of the grant is to assist states in moving individuals from institutional settings to community-based care.  Dalton informed the committee that the grant offers an enhanced federal match rate (80/20) for the 1^st year an individual is in the community and that this would be very useful should individuals transition from KNI to the community.  While there were plenty of handouts, including the Facilities Closure Commission recommendations and Governor Parkinson’s Executive Order, there was not much discussion on institutional closure following Dalton’s report.

Staff also attended the House Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care this morning where SRS Secretary, Robert Seidlecki gave an overview of SRS.

InterHab staff have also met with principal advisers to the new Governor, as well as key legislators in the past week to review the fundamental principles of the proposal to adopt a DD Provider assessment law. To date the proposal has been received everywhere with genuine interest, which has helped to sustain our optimism for the adoption of this vitally needed funding method.. There remains several small technical matters to resolve, but progress has been made each day since the inauguration of the new Governor and the swearing in of new legislators.