January 27, 2018
Follow-up from the Member’s Call:
- The DD-WAC meeting, which I mentioned, was held; all Associations were represented;
- We had the opportunity to discuss the purpose and the structure of this group with Connie Cochran, DBHDS – he supports the “policy” role of this committee (which is a radical departure from their earlier position. He did offer that they intend to create a provider workgroup to deal with specific issues, and will invite each Association to select their representatives to that Workgroup.
- We proposed some positive steps to prevent delays on approval of service authorizations which frequently leave providers “forced” to continue to provide services with out an approved authorization; several suggestions were made which DBHDS will review and report back.
- We also discussed the challenges which will be presented if providers are required to enter Part V manually into WaMS; one option was to determine exactly which data elements are required (the proposed system will not result in any clean data being available!) and include a list of questions (with “checkbox” answers) which the provider can complete before submitting the authorization request. This would/could provide the data needed, save significant time and money for the provider and still give the Support Coordinator and the Service Authorization Specialist the information needed from the Part V through the uploaded plan. We expect to hear back from the DMAS staff on this and other WaMS questions at future meetings.
- The final “paper” version of the HCBS Self-Assessment (Part 4) is available here
- Supported Living, Sponsored Residential and Group Home Residential site (new or relocating) must be assessed using Part 4 prior to opening.
- Teri Morgan will be our guest on the next Member’s Forum Call to bring everyone up to date; from our discussion last week, however, it is clear that this transition is very much a work in progress and they are very conscious of the need to do nothing to impede service development. Questions and requests for new settings should be addressed to hcbscomments@dmas.virginia.gov
- We have posted the information on the CCCPlus provider calls on the Behavior Health Member’s page – please note the difference in emphasis between the two weekly calls.
- Lastly, we are working on some points from providers to consider to educate the individuals they support and their staff about what is sexual abuse, what are the signs and what steps we can take to prevent it. Look for something to be posted in the coming weeks.
Session Update #3
This is when the Session becomes a slog as the committees try to clear their dockets to get ready for “cross-over” – the Senate seems to be moving at a much faster pace than the House. We have several bills of concern still in flux, but many have, or will, just disappear. We will not have any information on budget items until mid-February, but
here is a short list on a convenient table for you to review.