March 08, 2018
This is a story about “Parts” and several significant announcements that were made today at the DD Waiver Advisory Committee by DBHDS and DMAS representatives:
- Parts 1 -4 of the ISP, which are those produced by the Community Services Boards, are scheduled to be included in WaMS. The information will be extracted from the CSB’s electronic health record when a new ISP is developed following the final testing of the “interface” being developed now – the target start date is July 2018. All ISPs should, therefore, be included by July 2019.
- Part 5, which is the provider’s responsibility, can then be entered with activities “tagged” to the Outcomes available in the Part 3. Our concern has been the format, time and effort that this would take. We were pleased to hear today that there are now two options for manual entry of the Part 5 –
- “Complete use” – the provider can enter all of the requested information for each outcome – the description of the activity, frequency, etc. The staff “instructions” will have to be attached and uploaded separately. While we are assured that the plan for supports, as entered, will format and print, it will not be integrated with the staff “instructions.”
- “Modified use” – the provider can enter four items for each activity (the description of the activity would be a phrase beginning “detailed plan includes . . .” with one or two words following), frequency, target date and a radial button to indicate whether or not this activity is a skill building activity. The provider would attach the Part 5 and “upload” as they do currently.
- We do recognize that this is more complex and more time consuming than the current procedures – but it is far less complicated, and labor intensive than the what we had been advised to expect. We do appreciate that the DBHDS staff were willing to listen to our concerns and look carefully at exactly what data could be collected with the least amount of disruption!
- Regardless of the choice made by the provider, no changes will be made until a “new” ISP is entered b y the CSB during FY19.
- There is a separate initiative to capture changes made in any Plan for Supports during the course of the year; changes would reflect when the individual meets a goal, has a significant change of need, or decides that they are no longer interested in a specific activity, for example. This process now requires that the provider make the necessary changes in their plan for supports (Part 5) and forward the revised information to the Case Manager. The WaMS will now have the capacity for this communication to be done “online.”
More information including a timeline for implementation, user testing, and training will be forthcoming.
The second update is that the Part 4 of the HCBS Self-Assessment is now available in RedCap for use by any provider who has completed Parts 1, 2 and 3 as appropriate in RedCap and is relocating a site or opening a new location. Access to Part 4 in RedCap will be provided when the provider informs DMAS of their intention to open a new/relocated location.