Real Choice Systems Change

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Grant Information


Name of Grantee

Department of Health, Medical Assistance Administration

Title of Grant

DC Coordinating Community Care Options for Individuals who are Disabled or Aging (DC C3ODA)

Type of Grant

Real Choice Systems Change

Amount of Grant

$1,385,000

Year Original Funding Received

2002

Expected Completion Date

September 2006

Contact Information


Robert Cosby, Project Director
Office on Disabilities and Aging
825 North Capitol Street NE
Suite 5135
Washington, DC 20002
202-442-5972
robert.cosby@dc.gov

Subcontractor(s)

To be determined by the RFP process.

Target Population(s)


Elderly and adults with physical disabilities, ages 18 to 64 years.

Goals


  • Create the infrastructure to build a cost-effective home and community based services (HCBS) system.
  • Create mechanisms to ensure full community participation in the project and to coordinate policy decision-making across district government agencies.
  • Improve the flow of HCBS information to consumers and streamline the eligibility determination process.
  • Build an accessible continuum of services.
  • Construct the infrastructure necessary to ensure appropriate use of services.
  • Provide a single point of entry for HCBS through development and implementation of a Resource Center that will provide options counseling, eligibility determination, and channel individuals to the most effective and medically appropriate setting.

Activities


  • Develop a Real Choice Systems Change Advisory Committee that is composed of consumers, providers, and various representatives of District government agencies.
  • Develop and implement a resource center or single point of entry for home and community based services that provides long-term care options counseling, self-determination, Medicaid and other publicly funded eligibility, channeling of individuals to the most effective and medically appropriate setting, and effective management of cost of services.
  • Expand services to include assisted living, targeted case management for particular populations, an independent provider/consumer-directed form of attendant care services, and expanded coverage of assistive technology.
  • Increase the number of new waiver providers and continue a current rate-setting analysis.
  • Develop a long-term care information systems software package to improve the quality of care and to ensure proper levels of service utilization.

Abstract


The DC C3ODA project will address strategies for responding to the desires of the elderly and individuals with physical disabilities to live in and receive services in appropriate home and community-based settings. The project will focus on the development of the infrastructure to build a cost-effective HCBS system and address issues related to establishment of an Advisory Committee to ensure community and government participation in the decision-making process, information dissemination to consumers, streamlining the eligibility determination process, access to services and other publicly funded programs, and building capacity for access, adequacy, availability, appropriateness, and quality of services along the continuum of care.

The DC C3ODA program will develop a Resource Center that will serve as a single point of entry for accessing the long-term care system and provide consumers with the tools and supports to manage their care. The system will maximize the ability of HCBS to target individuals at high risk for institutionalization, empower individuals to make informed choices about their long-term care options, and channel those in need of long-term care services to the most effective and medically appropriate settings of their choice. The project will also establish a care coordination system that incorporates financial incentives for providers in order to increase flexibility, improve quality of life and care, and control costs.

Significant and sustainable outcomes will include a system that fosters greater consumer control and choice, service provision that will enable the elderly and individuals with physical disabilities to be integrated into the social mainstream, and methods to allow individuals to be appropriately served in the settings of their choice and to have control over the delivery of those services.