Relates to the administration of services offered by the office for people with developmental disabilities

6 Co-sponsors

• Tony Avella
• Patrick M. Gallivan
• George D. Maziarz
• Michael H. Ranzenhofer
• Cecilia Tkaczyk
• David J. Valesky

BILL NUMBER:S6641C

Title of bill

An act relating to the administration of services to people with developmental disabilities

Summary of provisions

This bill amends the Mental Hygiene Law to require the Commissioner of the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) to develop a plan to overhaul and improve the front door process. The Commissioner would be required to develop the plan in collaboration with the Developmental Disabilities Advisory Council and must submit the plan to the Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Majority Leader no later than January 1, 2015 with implementation beginning no later than April 1, 2015. The plan shall address issues raised by the front door, including timeliness of decision making, the need to expedite the delivery of services to individuals in critical need, development of a wait list and clear and consistent guidelines for the front door process.

Justification

The "Front Door" process was implemented by OPWDD to provide a rational means of allocating resources to meet the needs of people with developmental disabilities and their families. However, allocation decisions have often been time consuming and inefficient without clear and transparent guidelines or sufficient administrative resources to act expeditiously and in the best interests of people who depend on critical services. Persons seeking placements, including persons in critical need, have been denied or have been significantly delayed in their receipt of services which are nonetheless available. Therefore, the Front Door cannot evaluate the level of additional resources necessary to care for individuals in need of services. While rational allocation of resources is a critical means of efficiently using resources, it cannot compensate for resources which are inadequate in the first place.

This bill seeks to address these issues by:

-Ensuring that critical needs are met in a timely fashion;

-Providing an expedited appeals process to review and approve of requests for critical services when the State has not responded to such requests in a timely manner;

-Creating permanent independent consumer support program to assist persons seeking services to understand the process, their rights to due process and to assist in the resolution of problems regarding services, coverage, access and due process rights.

-Providing linguistically and culturally appropriate information on services and access to services in a universally clear and transparent manner.

-Ensuring families the services of a Medicaid Service Coordinator without having to go through the front door process and providing a process to ensure that people in crisis are not subject to the front door process and receive immediate services.

-Report on the extent to which the front door policy, as it has been implemented, is consistent with applicable requirements for the home

and community based waiver regarding timeliness of decisions, comprehensiveness of necessary services, choice, persons centered planning and other matters affecting the appropriateness and adequacy of services for people with developmental disabilities.

-Provide guidelines to facilitate and support the evaluation of postsecondary options for individuals with developmental disabilities consistent with subparagraph 5 of paragraph b of subdivision 1 of section 4402 of the education law.

Legislative history

New Bill

Fiscal implications

None

Effective date

Immediately