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Reinvest Federal Medicaid Waiver Funds into Services for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities
To/Against/For: waiver reinvestmentBackground
For the past decade, the Developmental Disabilities community has been vocal that all federal funds from the Home and Community-Based Services Waivers for people with developmental disabilities should be reinvested in DDD community services. Despite our best efforts, a significant amount of the funds from the current Community Care Waiver have been used for other purposes (such as filling budget gaps). The diversion of this money weakens an already fragile system and directly impacts the amount of people able to be served.
Issue
New Jersey’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) is currently developing a new Medicaid Home and Community-based Services Waiver. This new waiver is intended to cover individuals in day programs and those receiving family support services (such as respite care, camp, etc.), and will bring in federal matching funds for these services. DDD’s goal is to send the application for this new waiver to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for review and approval of waiver applications, by the end of the calendar year for review and approval by July 1, 2011. With the CMS approval, DDD will begin enrolling individuals immediately into the new waiver. This means that the new waiver will be included in next year’s (FY2012) State budget.
The tenets of the new “Support Waiver” are to: (1) ensure that individuals living with families, as well as their family members receive adequate services; and (2) maximize federal funds for Family Support, by ensuring that the support services are Medicaid waiver eligible. Currently, approximately $40 million in State-only funds are used for Family Support. It is planned that a significant portion of these funds, as well as funds from day programs for individuals who are currently not eligible for the comprehensive Community Care Waiver, will be used for this waiver. The federal government would then reimburse the State 50% of the funds for services.
It is critical that any additional federal funds from this new waiver be re-invested in family support services to expand desperately needed support services to families. Without all federal funds being reinvested into community supports for people with developmental disabilities we will have a whole new waiting list with thousands more families in desperate need of basic services. We need commitments from Governor Christie, his administration, and the State Legislature to ensure that the federal funds are reinvested in DDD support services and not used to plug other holes in the FY2012 State budget.
The signatories of this petition are individuals with developmental disabilities, family members, advocates, and representatives of provider organizations who strongly believe that all federal matching funds for Medicaid Home and Community-based Services Waivers must be reinvested into the developmental disabilities service system.
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