Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities

This brief examines four key questions that emerge related to how dual eligibles will fare under the Medicare Part D plans starting in January 2006. Given the potential that the dual eligible population could be adversely affected by the current legislation, it may be prudent to give serious consideration to the issues highlighted in this brief as the new benefit is being implemented.

This brief examines the efforts of a local area systems collaboration. In order to better understand partnership and collaboration at a local level, the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on State Systems and Employment at the Institute for Community Inclusion facilitated a collaboration to assist state systems in a local area to address employment services for people with disabilities.

In response to the growing demand for self-directed services, state developmental disabilities agencies have begun to use individual budgets as a cornerstone of their efforts to help persons with disabilities to gain control over their lives. While interest in this subject is strong, until now very little comparative information has been available. To address this, NASDDDS is pleased to announce the report Having It Your Way: Understanding State Individual Budgeting Strategies.

The TTW was designed to remove many of the barriers that previously influenced people’s decisions about going to work because of concerns over losing health care coverage. The goal is increase opportunities & choices for beneficiaries to obtain employment, vocational rehabilitation, & other support services. The attached regional updates offers statistics, newly-approved provider listings, & upcoming events. More information: visit website or fill out fax form on the newsletter backside.

This report describes the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of Mental Retardation's efforts to implement a system-wide reform of its supports for people with mental retardation. The objective of this Transformation Project is to improve the quality of life of people who use publicly funded supports by providing them with more choices and greater control over these supports.

This document describes New Hampshire’s community based service system for people with developmental disabilities. The document provides a brief overview of the community based system and a discussion on the integration of services and programs, as well as the funding sources.

This report describes Wyoming’s individual budgets for its Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers for people with developmental disabilities and the statistical method used to determine individualized budgets. The report also discusses how the budgets were implemented and their impact thus far.

Oregon's Independent Choices Program allows Medicaid-eligible individuals to pay cash directly to providers for personal care and related services. Under this five-year project, participants receive a monthly cash payment and are fully responsible for the mechanics of payroll and budgeting for needed services.

This report describes a Florida cash payment program, Consumer Directed Care, which is testing the effectiveness of increased participant control for people with disabilities, including children and older persons. Florida is part of a demonstration project to measure the impact of substituting a cash allowance for Medicaid services from provider agencies. This document provides information on the program implementation and impact.

Families USA has released Medicaid: Good Medicine for State Economies predicting the impact state Medicaid spending will have on business activity, jobs, & wages in 2005. The report argues that extending the $10 billion in fiscal relief provided by Congress to the states last year, through enhanced Federal participation in Medicaid, through the end of fiscal year 2005 would help strengthen state economies by generating even more business activity, jobs,& wages. Includes data for every state.