The Supporting Our Youth & Adults Network (SOYAN) and Coalition for Self Direction (C4SD) have put out urgent calls to action regarding Self Direction and the lack of transparency over the community classes category.
They note that OPWDD has put out an Administrative Directive Memorandum for comment on community classes that delegate will delegate power to Fiscal Intermediaries (FIs) to “regulate” community classes following unwritten guidance and limit an individual’s right to choose their own supports and services and ignores person-centered planning.
You can read replies from the Supporting Our Youth & Adults Network (SOYAN) for background. The C4SD remarks came as an attachment and are not included, though bullet points from both SOYAN and C4SD are below.
What to do
The deadline is EOD Thursday, April 25. Please email your comments Wednesday, April 24 and/or Thursday, April 25 to two addresses: rau.unit@opwdd.ny.gov (OPWDD’s Regulatory Unit) and self.direction.redesign@
You do not need to write a formal cited reply. Instead, you can copy and paste the below.
The OPWDD must rescind the the Self Direction ADM and consider creating a collaborative working group composed of OPWDD leadership, Self-Direction participants, family members and representatives from FIs to review the current Self-Direction Guidance. The four main points are:
- The proposed ADM fails to safeguard the due process rights of Self-Direction participants seeking reimbursement for IDGS, OTPS and FRR that align with their Life Plan.
- The proposed ADM would relinquish OPWDD’s oversight of its vendors: the Fiscal Intermediaries. Its requirement that FIs become members of “communities of practice” does not ensure that their decisions are in alignment with OPWDD and CMS regulations and guidance documents. Further, it ignores the potential for FIs to have a conflict of interest by denying access to community based activities and rather, promoting their agency’s in-house day programs.
- This added authority is beyond the scope of FIs’ role within the confines of the HCBS 1915c Waiver.
- Community class (Community Classes & Publicly Available Training/Coaching) criteria need to be reevaluated. Subjective rules have been applied restricting choice, access to meaningful community-based experiences that are consistent with the individual’s Life Plan, goals, needs and preferences. This deliberate and finite authority to approve/disapprove an individual’s chosen IDGS community activity that aligns with their Life Plan is neglectful by OPWDD.
