Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held a webinar to review the processes undergone thus far to promote compliance with the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Settings Rule, including the processes of Statewide Transition Plans and applications for Corrective Action Plans.

From site visits that have occurred thus far, CMS noted a few trends of non-compliance:

• access to visitors;
• community integration;
• staff training on HCBS; and
• lease/residency agreements.

Extensive time and descriptions were offered on the slides relating to lease/residency agreements. Egregious examples were shared citing providers found to be non-compliant with the provisions of staff training and community integration; these providers appeared unaware that the Settings Rule exists. The sentiment on the webinar was one of collaboration, though we know that some states have taken a different approach. Promising practices for remediating settings to overcome institutional presumption were also included in the slides.

Georgia Goodman of LeadingAge National (ggoodman@leadingage.org) continues to collect stories from providers of why the Settings Rule does not make sense for aging services providers. LeadingAge NY and the Adult Day Health Care Council have provided LeadingAge National with a thorough overview of concerns regarding the rule and its potential negative impact on providers who are serving individuals in the community.

Interested providers can view the webinar slides here.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871