(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) announced that in early October, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the District’s Statewide Transition Plan (STP) for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Settings. The District of Columbia is the fifth Medicaid program in the country to have its STP fully approved. The STP brings settings into compliance with federal HCBS regulations intended to ensure that individuals receiving long-term services and supports through HCBS programs have full access to benefits of community living and the opportunity to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate.
The District has two HCBS Waiver Programs- one operated by DHCF for people who are Elderly and/or have Physical Disabilities (EPD), and the other operated by the Department on Disability Services for people with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). The STP also includes the District’s Adult Day Health Program that is operated by DHCF under the Medicaid State Plan Option.
The CMS-approved plan facilitates community integration for 1,736 DC Medicaid beneficiaries receiving Residential HCBS at 585 sites under the I/DD and EPD Waiver Programs. In addition, 42 sites that deliver Day HCBS to 800 DC residents with I/DD are included. The District’s seven Adult Day Health Program sites operating under the State Plan Option were assessed for compliance with the regulation upon enrollment as Medicaid providers, and are only discussed relative to monitoring.
The STP is a joint plan of the District’s Department of Health Care Finance and Department on Disability Services. It was designed in partnership with the Departments of Health and Behavioral Health.
The plan strengthens the District’s commitment to community integration mandates set forth not only in the HCBS Settings regulation, but also under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead Decision. The agencies that developed the STP are all engaged in the citywide Olmstead community integration plan, One Community for All (https://odr.dc.gov/page/olmstead-community-integration-plan-dc-one-community-all), led by the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and Mayor’s Office of Disability Rights.
For more information on the District’s Statewide Transition Plan, visit dhcf.dc.gov. Statewide Transition Plans from across the country are available on the CMS Web site at https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/hcbs/transition-plan/index.html.
The Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) is the District of Columbia’s state Medicaid agency. Its mission is to improve health outcomes by providing access to comprehensive, cost-effective and quality healthcare services for residents of the District of Columbia. For more information on DHCF, please go to www.dhcf.dc.gov.