Advocates meet with Office of DD

A group of advocates met with DHR's Director for the Office of DD, Steve Hall, today to discuss a list of agenda items developed by the Arc of Georgia's Julia Bowen. The conversation turned most interesting when we began to discuss the new waiver that is being developed for Georgia. Some possibilities for this waiver included:

• To get a flavor of where they are going, you need to look to waivers currently in Colorado and Oregon.
• Georgia has the oldest waiver in the Nation, 15 years old.
• Two new waivers will replace the current MRWP and CHSS waivers and will be a) Support Services or day supports and b) Comprehensive Supports or Residential.
• There will be as few as 3 categories of services.
• Individual budgeting will be based on needs and costs of services. Needs will be defined by SIS, age, type of disability and factors related to existing housing and supports.
• Dental and transportation will be added services under the new waiver.

There will be forums in late October to get input into this process - so stay tuned for locations and times.

The hope is that this new waiver will be written submitted for approval to CMS this fall and to be in place July 1st 2006.

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