Seven hundred families will now receive in-home and community-based services for individuals with development disabilities.
Through the Development Disabilities Services (DDS), developmentally disabled individuals can receive waivers for enhanced services. However, there are limited slots for waivers with approximately 3,500 individuals currently on the list.
However, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that 700 individuals would be moved off the waiting list and will be granted waivers.
“It has been a priority of mine to increase the services to those on the disability waiting list. It has been a priority, as well as with the legislature,” he said. “These are our most vulnerable Arkansans with disabilities that require special services and assistance.”
These additional slots are funded by $15 million raised by a premium tax on Provider-Led Arkansas Shared Savings Entity (PASSE) programs. This tax was enabled by Act 775 of 2017, sponsored by Rep. Aaron Pilkington.
Previously, the state government had created 500 additional slots through tobacco settlement funds in 2016. According to Hutchinson, there are approximately 4,800 individuals who have received waivers to date.
These waivers will enable developmentally disabled individuals to receive increased services. The goal, Hutchinson said, is to allow these individuals to live in a community rather than institutional settings.
“With access to the waiver, they can receive services that range to adaptive equipment to supporting living services and assistance in employment, and that is the goal to give them some level of independence in their life with the assistance that is needed,” he said.
In addition to the 700 who will receive waivers, 2,008 individuals will be evaluated and assigned to a PASSE program to receive Medicaid-funded services. Hutchinson said these services would not reach the same level of services as those provided by the waivers. However, the remaining 1,500 individuals on the waiting list are not eligible for Medicaid services.
DDS director Melissa Stone emphasized the challenges of providing services for developmentally disabled individuals, noting that it took three years to fill out the 500 slots provided by the tobacco settlement funds.
As a corrective, Stone and the DDS division has developed a new provider type to fill in the care gap and will be working to add more providers.
“We continue to need more providers to serve our clients, particularly those who have been duly diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and some behavioral health needs,” Stone said.
“Although we have a network of providers, we need more. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be having stakeholder meetings to talk about this new provider type and how we believe that we’ll be able to serve these 700 families quicker if we can get people enrolled and certified under this new provider type.”