Regulations are needed to ensure that Home and Community Based Services are not delivered on the grounds of an institution, in a housing complex designed expressly around an individual’s diagnosis or disability, or in a setting that has the characteristics of an institution.
Public Comments Needed on Home and Community Based Services. Proposed rules will ensure that Medicaid community living funds go toward keeping people in the community and not in institutions. Your comments will help make this happen.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are developing minimum standards for home and community based services settings. ASAN has prepared comments on the proposed rulemaking.
New Report on Home and Community Based Services Funding: Community living is the topic of a new report by ASAN and two other leading self-advocacy organizations, Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), and the National Youth Leadership Network (NYLN). The report is intended to guide the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in developing new rules for funding home and community based services.
Medicaid Cuts Opposed: ASAN and other groups in the National Disability Leadership Alliance have submitted a joint letter to Congress urging rejection of proposals to repeal the Medicaid Maintenance of Effort requirements.
Community Living Funds Increased: The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has announced that significant new federal support will be provided for community-based alternatives to institutional long-term care for Medicaid recipients.
Long Term Services and Supports Advocated: ASAN and several other disability rights organizations have sent a joint letter to Secretary Sebelius urging that the Community Choice Act, which would eliminate the institutional bias in Medicaid and enable people with disabilities to live in the community, be included in health care reform legislation.
Medicaid Waiver Approved in Pennsylvania: The U.S. government has approved an Adult Autism Medicaid Waiver to enable autistic adults living in Pennsylvania who are not currently receiving services to receive funding for needed supports and services in the community.
