What a week last week was!
There is so much that I want to share with you from The Arc’s Leadership Conference including Dept. of Human Services Secretary James Dimas comments. But first, I have a Board of Director’s meeting today!
Late Friday afternoon the state responded to the Court Monitor’s finding of non compliance. As you might have expected, the state does not agree with the Monitor’s finding . The state would like to discuss the facts further in 2017! We may be headed back to court, rather than addressing the finds of the Monitor and seeking immediate solutions to protect and implement person center services, Of course, if we do head back to court, the Monitor is going to require data from providers, affidavits and possible testifying in court so we need to be prepared.
From the State’s response:
- While the Department believes the findings of non-compliance are not warranted at this time, it is fully aware of these areas of concern. The Department is committed to continuing discussions with the Plaintiffs, Intervenors, and Monitor to identify strategies and proposals outside of the Ligas Decree requirements that will reduce financial pressure on both community and ICF/DD providers.
- While we are open to discussing other suggestions, we offer the following courses of actions for consideration:
- The Division is required to develop and monitor performance measures as a part of its federally approved Medicaid Waiver. We currently have over 30 performance measures in the Waiver through which we collect data, review compliance, analyze trends, and develop remediation. We must report results to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on an annual basis. These measures cover such quality of life areas as eligibility, choice, service planning and implementation, abuse/neglect/exploitation, individual rights, as well as financial integrity. The measures are now being reviewed as we develop the renewal application for the Adult Waiver, due no later than April of 2017, but can also be modified at the change of a Waiver Year. We would be willing to seek input from the Parties on these measures and routinely discuss results of monitoring activities.
- As previously suggested by the Department, additional qualitative indicators can be identified in order to more accurately and precisely measure the non-numerical requirements of the Decree. Potential measurements could include additional data for both ICF/DDs and CILAs reflecting vacancies, development of capacity, quality of life and other measurable factors. In developing such factors, we can refer to the core indicators utilized by the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS) to better assess the sufficiency of Illinois’ resources and capacity.
- The Department remains committed to the tenets of the Ligas Decree and looks forward to suggestions from all sides on ways in which we can serve this population more effectively, efficiently and with enhanced overall outcomes.
Read the State’s response to the Court Monitor’s findings.
Tony Paulauski
Executive Director
The Arc of Illinois
20901 S. LaGrange Rd. Suite 209
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-464-1832 (OFFICE)
815-464-1832 (CELL)
Tony@thearcofil.org