Indiana residents with disabilities and others who want to retire in the places they love may find it more difficult to get essential Medicaid waiver services.
The Department of Family and Social Services will implement a waiting list for elderly and disabled waivers as part of an effort to address the state’s Medicaid shortage.
In January, the FSSA included the possibility of waiting lists in its strategy to address the $1 billion shortfall. The FSSA recently announced that the waivers have reached maximum capacity for “slots,” meaning that people who want to receive services through the waivers will have to wait until new slots open up.
In July, the department will be given 5,000 additional slots that can be split between an elderly and disabled exemption and a separate home- and community-based services exemption.
Indiana ARC CEO Kim Dodson said wait times to receive services can already be as long as two years, and the number of people on the waiting list already exceeds the total number of slots that will be available in July.
“Not getting services every week, not getting services every day, it could be life threatening,” Dodson said.
The Aging and Disability Exemption provides services to help people with everyday tasks and independence. These services are crucial for people who want to age in place and for people with disabilities who prefer in-home services.
“It keeps families together. That’s what we really want and should strive for as the state of Indiana,” Dodson said. “We don’t want to lose any of that progress. We’re very concerned that this wait list is going to put a huge strain on a lot of families who want to keep their loved ones in their homes.”
Dodson said that while wait lists are common, the elderly and disabled waiver system hasn’t had a wait list for years. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the state had people wait more than 20 years to receive these services, but the state has made significant efforts to “rebalance” the waiver system and reduce wait times.
“Indiana has made decades of progress in home and community-based services, and we want to continue to be a model for other states, not be like them,” Dodson said.
However, the FSSA said the increase in home- and community-based exemptions was unsustainable, as demand for these services has increased in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dodson said he respects the FSSA’s efforts but wants the state to take care of “our most vulnerable Indianans” and avoid a shift to institutionalized care.
“They put forward all these proposals and changes to try to meet Medicaid revenue projections,” Dodson said. “I wish they would have looked at where the least impact on people would be.”
Dodson said waiting lists affect people’s access to vital services, but the future of exemptions for seniors and people with disabilities is unclear.
The addition of the elderly and disabled exemption would require an increase in Medicaid funding from the Indiana Legislature.
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Dodson said her organization is working to educate lawmakers about the importance of these services and programs, but she said the Legislature isn’t the only one concerned. She said the state is set to have a new administration in November, making it bad timing to try to address the wait list.
“This could mean that an entirely new group of employees are joining the agency who have completely different priorities than the current staff,” Dodson said. “And it takes time for those employees to get up to speed, get up to speed, and understand why things are the way they are.”
The FSSA has outlined a waiting process for people seeking services. Dodson said he expects the agency will check in with families who are on the waiting list to let families know their names are “not lost.” He said the goal is to give families some hope that their access to services has not been lost.
Abigail is our health reporter and can be reached at [email protected].
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