Staley Implementation Group Meeting                 Previous Meeting Next Meeting
Official Minutes
March 26, 2002

Representatives:  Tom Giles, Fred Renter, Mike Maley, Cindy Helvington, Kristin Ahrens, Diane Drummond, Marsha Clark, Kathryn Weit, Diane Deurschiedt, Cynthia Owens, JoAnn Fuhrman, Tim Kral, Jessica Leitner, Jean Tuller, Bill Lynch (facilitator)

Alternates and Observers: Nancy Milligan-Mock, Sandy Stewart, Joe Carroll, Nancy Hazelett, Dayna Davis, Bev Herrin, Janna Starr, Tara Asai, Judy Cunio

Agenda:
Announcements and Updates
Frequently Asked Questions
Role of Case Managers/Personal Agents: What should parents and families expect?
Voc Implications
Report from Communications Committee
Customer Satisfaction Survey Results - Judy
Budget Update from DHS

Announcements:

Cynthia read the inscription on the plaque given to this group by Community Partnerships /OTAC. The Governor presented it last week at a ceremony at the Capitol. The plague will hang at OTAC in the conference room where we meet.

Tom announced that SORB has hired an executive director. Scott Pelham from Washington started with SORB Monday.

Tim shared photos from his trip to New Zealand.

Dayna announced SAL has a new office here in Salem. 161 High St.Suite 243 SE  (503) 589-1614.

Updates:

Brokerages and Enrollments: March 1 the five brokerage remaining opened! As of that date 973 people were enrolled in Support Services. About 800 of those enrollments were people who had SDS plans. SPD continues to work on the budgets and are modifying the enrollment schedules based on the new enrollment information. Fewer adults than expected with SDS plans actually transferred. That means more individuals will be served from the general waitlist.

Dual Waiver: We have been calling this the Dual Enrollment issue but there is really more of an issue with folks that have a DD case manager only (no waiver services) and are getting some kind of SDSD funded services in home (relative foster care, in home support etc.). There are meetings being set up regarding this in several Counties. The Regional Coordinators will facilitate these. The focus will be on adults ages 18-65. We will need to work these cases on a case-by-case basis to assure the best possible outcome for each eligible family .We will need to assess if the change from one waiver to another will cause a negative impact on the family or result in a loss of services.
We don't yet know how big this population is on a statewide basis. There may need to be consideration of the order of enrollment to postpone referral of SDSD Waiver recipients to the Brokerage until we are prepared to address this issue.

Comprehensive Services for 300 families: The first person will be served this month! Counties are in the process of prioritizing eligible families and arranging for person centered planning if the person is not already referred to the brokerage. The group would like to Marsha Woods and Sue Stoner to come to a future meeting and present information on the data that is being collected about this group. We will also ask Sue to forward the minutes from the planning meetings to Cynthia so they can be posted to the website and sent over the list serve.

Family Support Update:$2.3 million in base GF for next fiscal year (former SDS money) and $2.8 million (beginning 4/1) will be available in new money under Staley for services next year (7/1/02 through 6/30/03). SPD is in processed of getting this money out to Counties. This means different things in different Counties depending on the local plan priorities, which remain in effect until a new family support rule is filed. Some Counties have more commitments to
children and so the new funds may already be obligated. The Rule Committee
meets again on May 2. There is some discussion about the need to develop a statewide group that would focus on kid's issues broadly.

One proposal the Committee had would be to look at ways to give some money to local groups for capacity building that would not be tied to individual plans - for example - one community might need a lift for the local pool - rather then funding something for a specific person.
Things are still in the discussion phase.

There is a rumor that Counties are not responsive when family members are calling about family support. Apparently these complaints from community members involve repeated calls to a County case manager with no calls back. These kinds of complaints should be routed back to the
DD Program Managers. There is still a lot of confusion about family support and the roll out. There was a suggestion that we develop a FACT SHEET or FAQ about the status of family support.

RUMOR SQUASH: The CIIS program is not rolling in to family support and to the Counties (some individual kids might!).

Frequently Asked Questions: Mike has been putting together a list of FAQ's. This seemed like a good opportunity to review those and add to them. These can then be posted to the ARC website. See handouts.

Mike will be meeting with the DD Program Managers in April to talk about the brokerage enrollment. He has also developed a list serve for the brokerage directors where information can be exchanged and shared. Good information, forms that can be shared etc. will then be posted
to the State web page under Self Directed Supports. Hopefully this will help get consistent information out to people.

There will be a draft circulated of this document after some "wordsmithing" for interested persons to review.

Role of Case Managers/Personal Agents: There had been confusion in the past about the "direct service" that some case managers provided in some Counties (attending Dr. appointments etc.). Functionally, and from a systems or billing perspective, this responsibility has transferred to the Brokerage, but how that actually plays out is on a case-by-case basis depending on the person, the County and the relationship with the family or individual. These take time. Terminology is important because words mean different things. Counties shared how things are going.

When there is a crisis it is very important that everyone see this as members of a team. It doesn't matter who does it, just that it gets done and then you go back and sort out what should have happened so that it doesn't repeat itself.

Providers also expressed a need for clarification. This is beginning to resolve and communication is opening as the Boards are being formed at the Brokerage. There is a need to continue to define and clarify the roles so that the message to families is clear as to what they can expect. We need to balance this with flexibility so that we can respond to the needs for the individual families and maintaining that relationship between the County and family if that has been important.

In some areas of the State, it is the Case Manager who provides a lot of direct services and the areas of responsibility and role clarification are gray. We do not want to promote the role confusion and so a review may be warranted at some scheduled interval after the transfer to the Brokerage. What we don't want to see happen is the personal agent or case manager telling the family "that isn't my responsibility you need to call your.."

Communication is KEY! Mistakes will be made and that is ok - what is important is that we keep the lines open so that everyone is learning from each other. This may be accomplished through the FAQ process and the web site. We may need to develop materials that can be sent out to
families that tells them who to call and describes the role of both the case manager, Title XIX administrator and personal agent.

There was a recommendation that we refer this to the communication committee to develop the materials for use at a variety of levels, consumers, families, policy makers, government, etc.

Voc transfer implications:  The provider community has asked how they might relate to the whole roll out and in ramping up to deliver services to individuals enrolled in the brokerage. There are implications for individuals who are already enrolled in employment services and are now eligible for the brokerage. We call this the"voc only: group. Staley defines this group very specifically because anyone who is not in residential services or who has a combination of
supports over 20K annually, is on the comprehensive waiver. Everyone else falls in to what is now defined as Support Services.

There are a number of budget and policy decisions. One question is when someone moves to the brokerage, what is their employment rate? (Over the years contracts for employment have become complex mixtures of average rates and individual rates. The history is not always
clear.) A second question is if the person exits the services, but wants to continue with the same provider, how do we set a rate? The third question is what will be the impact on the provider with the change in determining rates?  Will there be a loss in revenue that will force them out of business?

Mike shared a list of the agencies that contract statewide for voc services. SPD will form a work group to address the rate structure questions. This group will begin meeting in April.   Molly put this together including 69 organizations that have funding.  The list includes who they are currently serving who will eventually be entering into service, the total slots, and the percentage.  This is in rank order of numbers of people that will be effected.  The right columns include the minimum and maximum rates.  Tim requested the average be calculated.  JoAnn said the CPMS data would give this information.  The workgroup in April will begin to address the
issues.

Mike said the new way to look at things is "Do more very differently". 

Judy asked if it would be competitive?  Once enrolled in the brokerage, the individual has the choice to take their funding where they want to be.  JoAnn pointed out the concern of personal agent influence - will the personal agent influence an individual to go with particular provider or have a bias. 

Report from Communications Committee: The group will meet with Lydia Lissman about the possibility of funding a 1 - 800 number. There was also discussion about the web site during this morning's meeting.

The communication committee will meet with the brokerages during the monthly meeting to talk about use of a common logo, common brochure and common information when preparing information for consumers.

Janet Straw has been hired into the vacant position at SPD to support Staley. Janet will be invited to attend these planning meetings.There are other SPD staff who work on Staley but also have other responsibilities. Janet will be focused on communications and transition issues.

The communications committee meets from 8:30 to 9:30 before each UA meeting. Role of the planning committee: Questions for the group to consider include 1) what are we? Decision makers? Advisory? Oversight? 2) What was our original mission/vision? 3) What about our role as rule advisory committee? We need to pull out the original material developed behind this group and make sure it still reflects what we want. This will be distributed before the next meeting 4) do we have the right people at the table still? 5) Are group members honoring
the commitments we made as representatives of our constituencies?

WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY! 

IT IS MARCH 2002 AND WE NOW HAVE BROKERAGES OPEN ACROSS THE STATE OF OREGON! REASON TO CELEBRATE!

Our next meeting will be on May 15th from 9:30 to 3:00. Future meeting dates include July 10 9:30 to 3:00.

 
Agenda for 5/15:
Order of Enrollment Review - dual waiver and portability across Counties
Report from providers on business/competition issues and the marketplace.
Staley reporting requirements
Role of the planning committee - see notes from above
Continue work on FAQ's
Updated from Rule advisory committee's
Family Support Rule review

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