June 08, 2016
Donald Fletcher has issued his semi-annual report to the court which is posted on the Member’s DOJ Agreement Updates page; notably he acknowledges the efforts being made by all in the Waiver Redesign effort, but focuses a great deal of attention on the lack of access caused by a lack of providers. He recognizes the significant connection between the reimbursement levels and the ability of providers to thrive.
The report also, again, talks about the lack of agreement between the CMS Final Rule/DOJ “requirements” and the existing licensing regulations. In his discussion he states that he had reviewed a draft of proposed revised regulations before they were submitted for review in June 2015 and that DBHDS reports that it is now revising the draft again. We continue to wonder why there is no stakeholder/provider input into the process – it is hard to imagine that these multiple drafts which have been in process for more than 18 months are accurately categorized as “Emergency” Regulations which would allow them to be processed without public input.
The report should be reviewed if for no other reason than to understand what the focus will be for the Independent Reviewer during the upcoming review period.