Medicaid Section 1115 waiver will provide approximately $10 billion in federal funds for California to invest in our health delivery system and to prepare for national health care reform.  Changes to Medi-Cal  will impact many IHSS consumers; the elderly and persons with disabilities. 

Excerpted from CDCAN Report #211-2010

Waiver Approved Earlier This Week

As reported earlier this week, the Schwarzenegger Administration announced November 2^nd that the federal government approved the State’s Medicaid Section 1115 Waiver proposal, called the “Bridge to Reform” that will, when fully implemented over five years, make sweeping changes to the Medi-Cal program and impacting hundreds of thousands of children and adults with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind and seniors. 

David Maxwell-Jolly, director of the California Department of Health Care Services, the State agency that oversees the Medicaid program in California (called “Medi-Cal”)  said in his announcement with the federal government’s approval of the Medicaid Section 1115 waiver, “…California will receive approximately $10 billion in federal funds to invest in our health delivery system to prepare for national health care reform.  These investments are also designed to help slow the rate of growth in health care costs within the Medi-Cal program,” and that “…we are very excited about the approval of this waiver and the opportunities it presents.” 

He called approval of the waiver proposal “…a major milestone in the effort to improve California’s health system.”

Hundreds of Thousands of People with Disabilities & Seniors Impacted

The waiver proposal – when fully implemented – will impacts hundreds of thousands of Californians – including possibly over 400,000 children and adults with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind and seniors in the Medi-Cal “fee for service” program.  That number also includes thousands of children and adults with developmental disabilities who also have certain services coordinated by the 21 non-profit regional centers under the Department of Developmental Services. 

The federal government’s approval letter included some conditions that the State needs to make regarding the mandatory enrollment of people with disabilities and seniors into Medi-Cal managed care programs that include “…requirements for information and communication strategies that address the unique needs of” seniors and persons with disabilities,  and “…approaches to assignment and opportunities for changes in managed care plans, participant rights, safeguards and contractual provisions regarding care coordination and linkages to other service delivery systems, person-centered approaches to service planning and delivery, physical and geographic accessibility of service providers.”

CDCAN will issue a more comprehensive report and review of the approved waiver proposal in the next day or so.