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There's something called the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Final Settings Rule which is supposed to guide what kinds of programs you can spend Medicaid HCBS Waiver funds on. HCBS Waiver funds are earmarked for Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) ...
... in non-institutional community settings. There's already money guaranteed for everyone who gets those waiver services if they live in an institution. Only a lucky few get waiver services. But a lot of "community" settings, like the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) ...
... which uses a group-home-and-day-program physical structure rather than collecting everyone on one physical campus all the time, but which also imposes a system of strict and punitive behavioral "supports" that still includes outright torture, are actually institutional.
We don't want limited money earmarked for keeping people out of institutions to be spent on keeping people in institutions, so: HCBS Settings Rule. https://autisticadvocacy.org/policy/toolkits/hcbsrule/
Here's the thing. The Rule hasn't taken effect yet. The current Republican administration, which likes institutions, already pushed it back 3 years. And today the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pushed it back another year. 'Cos of the pandemic, you see.
Here's a response to the letter from the HCBS Advocacy Coalition.
https://hcbsadvocacyfiles.wordpress.com/2020/07/hcbs-coalition-statement-on-covid-19-extension.pdf
https://hcbsadvocacyfiles.wordpress.com/2020/07/hcbs-coalition-statement-on-covid-19-extension.pdf
Here's the thing. States don't need a break from putting HCBS Settings Rule protections in place so they can address #COVID19 -- they need to address the scourge of institutionalization as PART of addressing the pandemic! https://montgomerycal.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/why-we-need-to-get-people-out-of-congregate-care/
This is yet another in a long line of government betrayals of institutionalized people and people at risk of institutionalization since this pandemic began.
Public policy is (supposed to be) for the people, and the delays in Settings Rule implementation do not serve the people.
Public policy is (supposed to be) for the people, and the delays in Settings Rule implementation do not serve the people.
They serve those who profiteer at the expense of the people whose lives they control in the guise of "care" and "support."
I am outraged!
I hope you are, too.
I am outraged!
I hope you are, too.
