DOH Issues Draft Transition Plan for HCBS Settings Rule

The Department of Health (DOH) has issued a draft transition plan for the state to comply with the federal Home and Community-Based Settings (HCBS) regulations that came into effect earlier this year.  The state must submit a plan to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with the ultimate objective of being in compliance with the conditions within approximately five years.  A key aspect of the rule is that it sets out the characteristics of a “home and community-based setting” for the purposes of receiving such Medicaid-covered services under a federal HCBS waiver.  CMS has indicated that these requirements will apply to 1115 federal waivers, which means that the regulations will ultimately apply to the provision of services to Medicaid managed care and Medicaid managed long term care enrollees in New York. 

To aid in your understanding of the rule and the draft transition plan, DOH has scheduled an informational webinar for Mon., July 7, 2014 from 3 - 4 p.m. The webinar will provide background and context to the federal rule and New York State's transition plan.  Click here to register. We encourage members who serve Medicaid-eligible individuals in community-based settings to participate in the webinar and provide us with feedback. LeadingAge NY has been following this issue closely and will review the plan and provide the State with comments.  For background on the federal rule, click here to view LeadingAge NY information, and here for CMS documents.

DOH has created a website for the HCBS Settings Rule and subsequent activity, which can be accessed here.

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828