Michigan: Update on Home and Community-Based Services Transition Project

This is from Phil Kurdunowicz at the Michigan HCBS Program Transition Project. Every state has a transition plan to implement the 2014 Home and Community-Based Services rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This update concerns surveys that will assess individual settings for "HCBS chacteristics". For people with DD covered by the Habilitation Supports Waiver, surveys of all HCBS-funded programs will begin this month, May 2016. People with DD living in their own or their family's home will be assumed to be compliant with the HCBS rule and will not be part of the survey unless they also attend a program funded by the HSW waiver. 

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Dear stakeholders,

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services provides Home and Community-Based Services to individuals in the Medicaid program. These services help Michigan citizens with disabilities or other health issues to live at home or in the community. The Department offers many of these services through “waivers,” which were approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a new rule in 2014 for home and community-based services waivers. The Department has since developed a statewide transition plan to bring its waiver programs into compliance with the new rule.

As part of the transition process, the Department must determine whether settings under these waivers have “home and community-based” characteristics. For this purpose, the Department has developing a set of “survey tools” to assess individual settings for home and community-based characteristics.

The Department has published the final versions of the survey tools for the Habilitation Supports Waiver to the project website. Survey tools that have been finalized by the Department can be found on the Department’s website at www.michigan.gov/mdhhs >> Health Care Coverage >> Home and Community-Based Services Program Transition.

The Department will start the statewide assessment process for the Habilitation Supports Waiver [for people with DD] in May 2016. The Department will work with the Developmental Disabilities Institute of Wayne State University to conduct these surveys.

If you would like to learn more about the survey process, please visit the following website: http://ddi.wayne.edu/hcbs.php

If you have questions about the survey process, please send an email to hcbs@wayne.edu.

If you have questions about the Home and Community-Based Services rule or the Statewide Transition Plan, please send an email to HCBSTransition@michigan.gov.

Thank you for your continued support for Michigan’s home and community-based waiver programs.

Best regards,

The HCBS Program Transition Team
 
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Frequently Asked Questions regarding the survey process