Shawnee County CDDO
Affiliate Meeting
May 11, 2009
Present: Donna White, TARC; Mary Ann Keating, TARC; Ramona Macek, CDDO; Kathy Stiffler, ISS; Doug Gerdel, Life Patterns; Tim Gorton, Sheltered Living; Lisa Gates, Sheltered Living; Jennifer Brancaccio, TARC; Linda Selbach, Dream Catchers; Kelly Zink, Dream Catchers; Reggi Greco, EVF; Roseanne Holloway, EVF; Mary Stafford, Exploring Life; Rachel Lamond, Exploring Life; Timili Gartner, CDDO; Cheryl Davenport, CDDO; Olga Hennessey, TARC; Mitzie Tyree, TARC; Shelby Fry, TARC; Tandy Walsh, Sheltered Living, Joe Bleidissel, Advanced Individual Services, Cathy Baer, Catholic Charities of NE KS
CDDO Updates:
The meeting opened with Ramona welcoming everyone. Ramona also stated that she would not be going over the April Affiliate Report but made a correction that there had been 4 determined eligible and 2 ineligible.
ª The meeting was then turned over to Donna White, Fiscal Director, who gave the latest update from InterHab regarding the state budget cuts. She also stated that none of this is definite. The CDDO should know more by the June 8th meeting.
ª At this time it appears to be a $5 million HCBS waiver reduction. It is projected as a 1.77% cut from last years contract (figures used) which is a $450,000 reduction for Shawnee County. Doug Gerdel stated that the MRDD Program Manager said it would probably be a .75% cut to the waiver. The reductions could have been worse had the house version of the omnibus passed. The actual fiscal impact in Shawnee County is still not finalized.
ª State aid is being eliminated and there will be an 11.56% reduction of community support dollars that funds people not on the waiver receiving the family support grant, day, residential and supportive home care services.
ª Donna stated that the CDDO and the funding committee would like the affiliates’ suggestion on how to stretch the dollars that we have to work with. The ultimate goal is to protect the services we are currently providing. There are 173 individuals receiving the family support grant. There are 41 receiving residential services 39 individuals receiving day services and 6 individuals receiving supportive home care (SHC) with community support dollars.
ª Suggestions made by affiliates included:
Family grant -
* lower the household income from $70,000 to $60,000
*1 grant per household – which would affect 13 individuals
*sliding scale
*drop back the amount to $80/month from $100/month
*accountability of what the funds are used for
*reducing the number of families
ª It was requested the CDDO research how many would be affected by lowering the income guideline and the ages of individuals receiving the grant. It was thought that there should be an age limit (up to age 21) for individuals that receive the grant.
ª Another suggestion was providers only be reimbursed for delivering the direct service vs. receiving a daily rate to be available to the person if needed. It was noted that providing the staffing is costly.
ª Suggestions included – billing for actual encounters (fee for service); looking at independent individuals and determine if they really need to be on the grant. Ie: job coaching and independent living programs.
ª It was asked if a back-up plan had been considered if an individual lost their job and no longer was receiving services from a provider. This would fall under the “Risk Pool” monies allowing someone to come back to services as well as someone falling off of the HCBS waiver.
ª Another area discussed was the case management services provided to 106 non-medicaid individuals. Last year Shawnee County CDDO paid out $84,000 for TCM services.
ª It was suggested that there be an across the board percentage reduction (FSG, Day, Res, SHC) so that it was a shared reduction rather than one or two agencies to take big hits.
Question & Answer:
ª Q. Is it possible to transition waiver eligible individuals receiving community support dollars to the HCBS waiver? Donna has emailed SRS asking if this is possible. The problem with this is these individuals tend to flip back and forth from tier 5 to 0 and if they drop out of services they would have to either go on the waiting list or be crisis funded.
ª A. There are approximately 20 individuals receiving day and residential services that could be HCBS waiver eligible.
ª Q. What was the dollar amount that was paid out in cash subsidy?
A. $198,000 last year
ª Q. Where does the crisis funding money come from?
A. Crisis funding is considered an exception in the SRS/CDDO contract.
ª KNI and Parsons have sent announcements to parents, guardians and stakeholders indicating a location, date and time to discuss possible closure. KNI is closing a wing which means that they are moving residents into another wing to cut building maintenance costs.
If anyone has any other ideas or suggestions email Ramona () or Donna ().
ª InterHab member CDDOs requested mediation regarding the extraordinary funding issue. All 27 CDDOs have signed the petition whether they are InterHab members or not. The issue is about the contract and EF policy, not an agency being granted additional funds by the Secretary.
ª At this time it has been decided family support grant checks will not be mailed until a contract is signed. A letter will be mailed to recipients informing them of the possible changes and the possibility of funding reductions for the grant.
ª Mary Ann stated that there are legislatures that believe that the economy will improve by the end of the year and will put money back into programs especially for DD.
ª Ramona presented the results of The Council of Community Members survey to the CDDO oversight committee. The top three top areas identified on the survey were funding, health care and transportation. The council is also looking for new members if you know of any one interested contact Ramona.
ª Handouts were given with the BCI instructions on how to upload documents, enter POC obligation changes and critical incident reporting. There will also be a short tutorial video on the home page for the Critical Incident Reports as of May 18th. Once a critical incident report is sent, Kathy Bryan, SRS will be sent an email notification alerting her incident report has been made.
ª Ramona will be attending SRS/CDDO Business meeting on May 21st and Secretary Jordan stakeholders meeting on May 29th.
ª SRS contract negotiations are scheduled for June 2, 3, 4 and 10, 11 if needed.
The meetings will be held at the Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka.
Upcoming training opportunities:
v May 19th – RRAPS (this class is full as there are 24 individuals registered to attend. A fall class will be offered.)
v June 25 – CDDO Quarterly Training (flyer to be emailed)
Next meeting is scheduled June 8, 2009