The Directors of the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) and Department on Disability Services (DDS), pursuant to the authority set forth in an Act to enable the District of Columbia to receive federal financial assistance under Title XIX of the Social Security Act for a medical assistance program, and for other purposes, approved December 27, 1967 (81 Stat. 774; D.C. Official Code § 1-307.02) (2012 Repl. & 2013 Supp.)), and Section 6(6) of the Department of Health Care Finance Establishment Act of 2007, effective February 27, 2008 (D.C. Law 17-109; D.C. Official Code § 7-771.05(6) (2012 Repl.)) hereby give notice of their intent to submit revisions to the Statewide Transition Plan (STP) for the District of Columbia Medicaid program’s Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Waivers to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for review and final approval.
CMS regulations, effective March 17, 2014, and published in 79 Fed. Reg. 2948-3039 (Jan. 16, 2014), changed the definition of home and community-based services settings for HCBS Waiver services and required that DHCF and DDS develop and submit to CMS a transition plan identifying how the HCBS Waivers will be brought into compliance with the new outcome-oriented definition of HCBS settings. DHCF and DDS submitted a STP to CMS on March 17, 2015. That plan is available online on the DHCF website at: https://dhcf.dc.gov/release/announcement-submitted-cms-district-columbia-plan-comply-new-federal-home-and-community and the DDS website at: http://dds.dc.gov/publication/dc-statewide-transition-plan-3-17-2015.
In August 2015, DC received a letter from CMS with comments on the March 2015 STP. That letter is on-line at: https://dds.dc.gov/publication/cms-letter-dc-statewide-transition-plan-8-13-2015 and included items required in any subsequent update to the STP. A June 2016 update was submitted to CMS on July 8, 2016 for review ahead of approval in accordance with CMS guidelines for the STP approval process.
A draft of the June 2016 update was initially noticed for public comment in the D.C. Register and DDS and DHCF websites on February 12, 2016. The entire plan, including all attachments, was posted on the DHCF and DDS websites for public comment on February 19, 2016, with a thirty day public comment period opening on February 20, 2016. Public comments received on the February draft are included in the latest update of the STP as an attachment, and will be available to the public with the updated documents. The June 2016 STP update responded to the public comments received, as well as continuing guidance from CMS.
In August and October 2016, DC received letters from CMS with comments on the June 2016 STP. The letters will be posted as outlined below on the DHCF and DDS websites.
In response to the letters, and as agreed with CMS, the District intends to file this latest update of the STP with CMS by April 28, 2017, after a public comment period. This resubmission will be for final approval by CMS.
Copies of the proposed revisions to the Statewide Transition Plan and the CMS letters that the revisions respond to may be obtained no later than March 13, 2017 on the DHCF website at http://dhcf.dc.gov, the DDS website at http://dds.dc.gov, or upon request from Ieisha Gray, Director, Long Term Care Administration, D.C. Department of Healthcare Finance, 441 4th St, NW, 10th Floor, Washington D.C. 20001.
DHCF and DDS will hold two public forums during which written and oral comments on the proposed revisions to the Statewide Transition Plan will be accepted. The first public forum will be held at the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center at 2730 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., SE Washington, D.C. 20032 (St. Elizabeths East Campus) on March 30, 2017 from 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. in the Conference Room. The second public forum will be held at the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance at 441 4th St, NW, Washington D.C., 20001 on April 3, 2017 from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. in the Old Council Chambers (South Building).
Written comments on this transition plan may be submitted to Claudia Schlosberg, Medicaid Director, D.C. Department of Health Care Finance, 441 4th St, NW, 9th Floor, Washington D.C. 20001, or by e-mail at [email protected], during the thirty (30) day public comment period closing Tuesday, April 11, 2017, at 5 pm EST.
Copies of this notice will be published on the DHCF website at https://dhcf.dc.gov.
For further information, contact Ieisha Gray, Director, Long Term Care Administration, D.C. Department of Health Care Finance, at (202) 442-5818, [email protected] or Erin Leveton, Program Manager, DDS State Office of Disability Administration, at (202) 730-1754, [email protected].
