OPWDD Agrees to Jan. 18th Meeting with SKIP Families

December 23, 2011—Courtney Burke, the Deputy Commissioner of the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) and OPWDD Deputy Commissioner Jim Moran have agreed to come to SKIP for an evening session on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 to discuss concerns and questions SKIP parents/guardians and consumers have about the OPWDD 1115 "People First" Waiver.

This is your chance to ask about advocacy, service coordination, spending caps and your access to health care services and other protections that are not yet being discussed.

The meeting will start at 6 p.m. at SKIP’s New York City offices at 601 West 26^th Street. This meeting is for SKIP parents/guardians and the SKIP consumers they care. We will need the questions you would like the OPWDD to address ahead of time. Please send them to: skip.communication@skipofny.org. Please write “Questions for January Meeting” in the subject line. Alternatively, you may mail your questions to SKIP at 601 West 26^th Street, 5^th Floor, New York, NY 10001, attn: January Meeting. RSVP to pdey@skipofny.org.

As you know, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is planning significant changes to how individuals with developmental disabilities receive services. This is the 1115 Waiver. (It’s also referred to as the People First Waiver.) The State will go to the Federal government for approval to proceed with developing it this Spring.

Our biggest concern is the impact the Waiver will have on the protection and advocacy children who are developmentally disabled currently receive through service coordination and we dare not let it go forward until this is addressed.

Concerns we’ve heard from families include:

How will the giant DISCOs the Waiver is proposing accommodate individual problems? Will they be nimble enough to respond in a hurry to acute situations?
If services are denied, will there be an appeal process?
How will the DISCOs maintain their neutrality if they are both a service provider and managing the money?
What kind of impact will the Waiver have on relationships with existing providers, home care services, emergency services and future placements?
How will spending caps be set?

We can’t give you answers to any of these questions because with all the 1115 Waiver communication put out so far by OPWDD, nothing is clear. The 18th is a great opportunity to look behind all the words and get at what will truly happen.

So, please remember to send your 1115 Waiver questions to skip.communication@skipofny.org. by Jan. 3, 2012. Let’s help OPWDD understand what is most important to you. Thank you.

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OPWDD Agrees to Jan. 18th Meeting with SKIP Families