5609818 Health Care Finance, Department of - Notice of Emergency and Proposed Rulemaking - Governing Shared Living Services for Participants in the Home and Community-Based Services Waiver for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental ...

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CARE FINANCE

NOTICE OF EMERGENCY AND PROPOSED RULEMAKING

 

The Director of the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), 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. & 2014 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 gives notice of the adoption, on an emergency basis, of an amendment to repeal Section 1917, entitled “Shared Living Services,” of Chapter 19 (Home and Community-Based Services Waiver for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) of Title 29 (Public Welfare) of the District of Columbia Municipal Register (DCMR). 

 

The repealed section established standards governing reimbursement of shared living services (formerly known as live-in caregiver services) provided to participants in the Home and Community-Based Services Waiver for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (ID/DD Waiver) and conditions of participation for providers. The ID/DD Waiver was approved by the Council of the District of Columbia (Council) and renewed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), for a five-year period beginning November 20, 2012.  The corresponding amendment to the ID/DD Waiver, which was approved by the Council through the Medicaid Assistance Program Amendment Act of 2014, effective February 26, 2015 (D.C. Law 20-155; 61 DCR 9990 (October 3, 2014)), no longer includes shared living services because these services were not utilized by participants in the ID/DD Waiver. The amendment must also be approved by CMS, which will affect the effective date for the emergency rulemaking.

 

Emergency action is necessary for the immediate preservation of the health, safety, and welfare of Waiver participants who need to know which ID/DD Waiver services are available to meet identified person-centered needs.  These emergency rules are needed so that, on or after May 1, 2015, or the effective date of the Waiver as modified and approved by CMS, rules are in place consistent with the new Waiver so participants and providers are able to identify the services available under the approved Waiver. 

 

The emergency rulemaking was adopted on August 6, 2015, but these rules shall become effective on or after September 1, 2015, if the corresponding amendment to the ID/DD Waiver has been approved by CMS with an effective date of September 1, 2015, or on the effective date established by CMS in its approval of the corresponding ID/DD Waiver amendment, whichever is later.  The emergency rules shall remain in effect for not longer than one hundred and twenty (120) days from the adoption date or until December 4, 2015, unless superseded by publication of a Notice of Final Rulemaking in the D.C. Register.  If approved, DHCF shall publish the effective date with the Notice of Final Rulemaking.  The Director of DHCF also gives notice of the intent to take final rulemaking action to adopt these proposed rules in not less than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register.

 

Chapter 19, HOME AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES WAIVER FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, of Title 29 DCMR, PUBLIC WELFARE, is amended as follows:

 

Section 1917, SHARED LIVING SERVICES, is deleted in its entirety and amended to read as follows:

 

1917                [REPEALED]

 

 

Comments on these emergency and proposed rules shall be submitted, in writing, to Claudia Schlosberg, J.D., Senior Deputy Director/State Medicaid Director, District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance, 441 Fourth Street, N.W., Suite 900 South, Washington, D.C. 20001, by telephone on [phone], by email at [e-mail], or online at www.dcregs.dc.gov, within thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register.  Copies of the emergency and proposed rules may be obtained from the above address.