Status of Filling Wavier Slots

9,000 and Counting…..

As of November 3, 2009, there are more than 9,000 people with developmental disabilities in Louisiana waiting up to nine years to get the waiver services they need NOW. 

The New Opportunities Waiver (NOW) program provides support many individuals need to live in their own homes and communities.  LaCAN was successful in advocating for 1,500 NOW slots in 2007 and an additional 2,025 NOW slots in 2008.  However, during the 2009 Legislative Session, it was discovered that none of the funds that had been appropriated for the 2,025 NOW slots had been used due to the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities’ (OCDD) slow pace in filling slots. 

OCDD reported that the delay was due to implementation of a new and improved planning process that would bring the cost of the NOW down, but assured legislators and advocates that all slots would be filled in the first few months of the new fiscal year (October/November 2009). In fact, as of September 15, 2009 only 835 of the 2,025 slots have been filled/are in process and of those, only 269 people are actually receiving services. (Click here to read Unfilled Waiver Slots Action Alert )

Waiver Slots – the pace goes from slow to slower!

OCDD has even slowed down how many offers are being made to people to accept a waiver slot.  Due to expected budget shortfalls, OCDD Assistant Secretary Kathy Kliebert has been instructed to reduce the number of slots she is offering every month.  Last year 300 offers were being made per month.  In the fall of 2009 only 100 slots per month are being made thereby making it impossible for OCDD to fill the targeted number of 2,025 slots by the end of the current fiscal year – June 30, 2010!

The graph above shows the lack of slots filled from 2008 to 2009 (bottom light pink bars).  And the bar at 8,100 shows the maximum possible number of slots that could be filled at the current pace of offering 100 per month – leaving all the slots above that line unfilled.

SCR 116 (passed in the 2009 legislative session) directs DHH to report the number of waiver slots for people with developmental disabilities offered, filled, and served to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget on a quarterly basis.

LaCAN members are encouraged to contact members of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget to express their feelings about this situation and attend a Joint Legislative Budget Committee meeting (in your yellow rally T-shirt) when DHH presents their report in accordance to SCR 116.  Click here to watch video of the latest updates to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget on the Status of Filling Waiver Slots on 11/20/09 – DHH report starts at 2:23:00.