Blog & News
EVV Is Coming to Oregon: Here Is What You Need to Know
Electronic Visit Verification is coming to Oregon, and it will change the way that 10,000 Personal Support Workers and as many Direct Support Professionals start and end their work shifts for attendant-care services in a person’s home. What Is EVV? The 21st Century CURES Act was adopted by the federal government in 2016 to reduce Medicaid fraud. Because this is a federal bill, every state is now working to meet the January 2019 deadline to implement Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) for in-home attendant care services. In order...
read moreReduction List: Case Management Matters
The second half of June has arrived, and with it, the legislative session’s crunch time. Budget negotiations turn to budget deals, and our elected officials make hard decisions. As you will recall, Oregon’s Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs released a Targeted Reduction List at the end of April, which outlined a more detailed proposal for reducing costs to the 2017-2019 budget. Our legislative leaders have been warning us for months now that, without new sources of revenue, there will be cuts. The Targeted Reduction List...
read moreReduction List: Proposed Eligibility Changes Would Put Oregonians At Risk
As we discussed earlier this week, Oregon’s Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs released a Targeted Reduction List at the end of April, which outlined a more detailed proposal for reducing costs to the 2017-2019 budget. Our legislative leaders have been warning us for months now that, without new sources of revenue, there will be cuts. The Targeted Reduction List proposes to change Oregon’s IDD Service Eligibility criteria in two significant ways. Please note that no substantial changes to eligibility can be undertaken...
read moreCo-Chairs Release a Targeted Reduction List–What’s On It?
Oregon’s economy is healthy and growing, but so are its costs. In fact, the costs of current services and budgeted obligations have outpaced the amount of money coming into the state to pay for them. Our legislative leaders have been warning us for months now that, without new sources of revenue, there will be cuts. Now, for the first time, we are getting a clearer picture of what those cuts might look like, as the Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs, Senator Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Representative Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene)...
read moreThe State Budget Process: This Year’s Recommendations From the Governor
You may have seen headlines this month about the release of Governor Brown’s Recommended State Budget. As discussed in yesterday’s post, the Oregon state budget takes several months and three major steps from start to finish. We begin with data, reports, and recommendations from each governmental agency as to how services are currently operating, and what it would take to continue them (ARB). Next, the Governor synthesizes the disparate agency requests into a single budget, recommending it to the legislature, and to all Oregonians...
read moreThe State Budget Process: What Do I Need To Know?
For the IDD system, the budgeting process is often a roller-coaster of emotion and advocacy. Service levels, program funding, and provider rates are all determined by the biennial state budget. On December 1st, Governor Kate Brown released her Governor’s Recommended Budget (GRB), which is a detailed budget plan for the 2017-2019 biennium. To get a handle on where the GRB falls in the full budget process, let’s take a closer look at it from start to finish. First stop: The Agency Request Budget (ARB) An Agency Request Budget is a...
read more5 Myths About Brokerages Services
Information can be hard to come by sometimes in the IDD service system. We’ve heard these five myths thrown around like facts over the years, and we’re here to set the record straight. 1. MYTH: Brokerage services are only for people who don’t need much help. FACT: Brokerages serve people with all levels of support needs, from those who are more independent to people who need frequent assistance. Support Services are meant to keep people out of Medicaid-funded residential placements and in their own or their family homes for...
read moreWhy Vision Matters
We have talked a lot about the series of policy changes back in late 2013 that resulted in the statewide Community First Choice K Plan, in consolidating services and payment into the eXPRS Plan of Care, and the rise of the Adult Needs Assessment as a primary point of departure for service planning and funding. Today, we believe that more change is necessary if Oregon is to regain a functional, sustainable structure for IDD services. In our last post, we talked about the series of changes that reshaped the landscape for intellectual and...
read moreNothing Endures But Change
We have talked a lot about the series of policy changes back in late 2013 that resulted in the statewide Community First Choice K Plan, in consolidating services and payment into the eXPRS Plan of Care, and the rise of the Adult Needs Assessment as a primary point of departure for service planning and funding. The entire system still struggles to find equilibrium in the wake of such wholesale change. Equity in service allocations, rates of pay, and time spent on face-to-face services vs. paperwork has been disrupted due to choices made during...
read moreVision, January 2016: A Second Look at the Future of IDD Services in Oregon
Nearly one year ago, the Oregon Support Services Association shared our February 2015 Vision for the Future of Disability Services in Oregon. It was meant to be a comprehensive look at what we want for our service system, with ideas about how we might get there. While the ultimate vision hasn’t changed substantially, the ideas for how we get there have been refined to fit a January 2016 understanding of the world. Click here to view the OSSA Vision For the Future of Disability Services in Oregon, January 2016. As OSSA President Larry...
read more