Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities to hold Statewide Meetings

Baton Rouge, LA – The Louisiana Department of Health’s Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities will host a series of statewide community meetings for individuals with developmental disabilities who are on the agency’s waiting list for home and community-based waiver services. There are 20 meetings scheduled in 13 communities, beginning on March 20 in Pineville.

The meetings will allow people who are waiting for community-based waiver services to learn about OCDD’s efforts to change its service delivery system to a new tiered waiver system. Previously, waivers were offered on a first come, first serve basis. The process is being changed so that an individual with a greater urgency of need will be prioritized for services. 

The meetings will be held at the following dates, locations and times.

The Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities, in partnership with regional Families Helping Families, stakeholders and other agencies that assist people with developmental disabilities, will be in attendance at the meeting.

Currently, there are more than 16,000 people on the waiting list that is formally called the Request for Services Registry (RFSR) for the New Opportunities Waiver (NOW). This list has been in place for more than 20 years and is now at an all-time high.

How it Works

Beginning in October 2016, the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities conducted a screening initiative to determine the urgency of need of those individuals who were on the Registry. To date, more than 9,400 of those individuals have been screened. The screening initiative uses a nationally-accepted best practice and gave the agency an understanding of the needs of each individual on the list.

The screening process identified people who would benefit from non-waiver services and referred those people to the appropriate service providers. Typically, these services are less costly than the benefits offered under the NOW waiver.

Individuals who do not need services immediately will remain on the list in their proper order.

“To address the existing number of individuals on the waiting list, it would cost nearly $832 million in new state and federal dollars,” said LDH deputy secretary Michelle Alletto. “Knowing those dollars would likely not be available in the near term, our agency took an innovative approach to improve services by developing a new tiered waiver system. By making the appropriate services available to people at the right time in their lives, we can offer services to more people while best utilizing our limited dollars.”

Mark A. Thomas, assistant secretary for the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities said his staff worked with stakeholders representing the Developmental Disabilities Council, Families Helping Families, ARC of Louisiana, and individuals and families to develop this new approach to getting people the services they need when they need them.

“We call this a tiered waiver service delivery system,” said Thomas. “We believe this new system is a comprehensive plan to assist individuals and family members who have the most urgent and emergent needs, and who have been waiting for services for a long time.”

For a complete listing of the OCDD community meetings, visit www.ldh.louisiana.gov/systemtransformation.

About the Louisiana Department of Health 

The Louisiana Department of Health strives to protect and promote health statewide and to ensure access to medical, preventive and rehabilitative services for all state residents. The Louisiana Department of Health includes the Office of Public Health, Office of Aging & Adult Services, Office of Behavioral Health, Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities, and Healthy Louisiana (Medicaid). To learn visit www.ldh.la.gov or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or our blog.