OPWDD Comprehensive Home and Community Based Services Amendment

March 8, 2018

On February 14th, the Office of People with Development Disabilities (OPWDD) released for public comment a proposed amendment, “Amendment 03,” to the OPWDD 1915(c) Comprehensive Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Waiver Application. Amendment 03 largely deals with the wind-down and transition of the 1915(c) waiver into the People First Care Coordination program.

Through this amendment, OPWDD plans to move the federal authorization for HCBS now provided under the 1915(c) waiver to New York State’s 1115 Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) Waiver. In addition, Medicaid Service Coordination (MSC) services will be moved into regional Care Coordination Organizations which will be federally designated as Health Homes (HH/CCOs). HH/CCOs will create comprehensive person-centered Life Plans for their enrollees, coordinating a full range of services and supports, including behavioral and OPWDD services. To further support these changes, the State has submitted a proposed amendment to the MRT waiver and a proposed State Plan Amendment (SPA) to expand Health Home eligibility criteria to include I/DD conditions.

The amendment also includes proposed changes to the rate setting process:

  • Updating the base period for transportation costs for day habilitation and prevocational services;
  • Seeking funding above the cap established in the current Amendment 02 for higher-needs funding for supervised residential habilitation and day habilitation; and
  • Changing the supervised residential habilitation occupancy adjustment calculation to allow for more timely rate development.

The amendment also outlines the transition of HCBS care planning and care management services. After July 1st, MSC and Plan of Care Support Services (PCSS) will no longer be available and individuals will be able to choose between care management through HH/CCOs or Basic HCBS Plan Support services (also referred to as “HCBS Care Management”).

OPWDD held a webinar on February 15th to review the draft of Amendment 03. Slides from the webinar presentation are attached. OPWDD will also be releasing a forthcoming Q&A document regarding the amendment and proposed changes. The draft amendment is available on the OPWDD website here. Comments may be submitted to peoplefirstwaiver@opwdd.ny.gov until March 19th.