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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Community-Based Housing Issue

Previous posts have dealt with community-based housing. Michelle Diament writes at Disability Scoop:
Months after the end of a public comment period, dozens of disability advocacy groups are pressuring Medicaid to make a final decision on new rules that would define what qualifies as community-based housing.

In a joint letter sent last week to officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, nearly 100 advocacy groups asked the government agency to “move swiftly” on a proposed regulation that would limit the types of qualifying residences under Medicaid home and community-based services waivers.

The proposal, issued in April, called for the exclusion of homes designed exclusively for those with disabilities as well as residences with “regimented meal and sleep times, limitations on visitors, lack of privacy and other attributes that limit individual’s ability to engage freely in the community.”

...

“Any delay is really unfortunate,” says Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and one of the organizers behind the letter. “We’ve got 95 organizations from across the country on board here and it seems pretty clear that the disability community stands solidly behind a strong definition of home and community-based services.”