ARRM's Daily Dispatch

Have lunch with the experts Monday, March 5

ARRM's first Lunch with the Experts will be help prior to the Service Design and Delivery meeting on Monday, March 5 from noon to 1:00 p.m. Anyone is welcome to join us, and no registration is necessary. This month Charles Johnson (he has position Jason Flint used to have) and Lori Dablow from DHS will discuss where the department is headed with the Residential Support Standards and Quality Outcome Standards. If you can't join us in person, you are welcome to call in:

Phone Number: 866.740.1260
Access Code: 2911086 #
You will be placed on hold until the audio conference begins.

If you have questions about these gatherings, feel free to contact Barb Turner at bturner@arrm.org or 651-291-1086 ext. 3.

--Barb Turner, COO

ARRM’s reform bill introduced today

As the 2012 Legislative Session passes the 30-day mark, ARRM continues to spend countless hours at the capitol, revising and advancing our bills and monitoring other bills that may affect ARRM members. In the past two weeks, we have had multiple meetings with a variety of stakeholders -- DHS Disability Services Division, DHS licensing, advocates and interested legislators -- regarding ARRM’s Blueprint for Reform as well as our rate setting methodology bill. As a result, we have revised our reform bill to reflect agreements reached during those meetings. ARRM’s reform bill (HF 1979) will have its first hearing in the House of Representatives today.

Other issues we’re working on:

• ARRM has worked with the provider coalition on changes to the bill regarding felony level abuse and neglect (HF 1945 and SF 1586). Again, this has required many meetings to negotiate language that would provide protection for providers and caregivers who do not intentionally harm people, while allowing prosecutors to deal with the truly egregious individuals and providers.

• We have been keeping tabs on various bills that affect ARRM members, and are working with those bill authors to voice our concerns or pledge our support. You can find bills we’re tracking, including our own, here. The user name is ARRM Advocates and the password is reforms.

• Finally, ARRM continues to work with legislators and Gov. Dayton’s office to address the 10 percent lower needs cut, bed de-licensing and the potential future 1.67 percent cut.

We will continue to provide regular updates as relevant legislation advances through the House and Senate. To better understand how the session works, download ARRM’s session primer, will give you a solid foundation on how Minnesota’s state government operates.

--Barb Turner, COO 

Redistricting maps released

On February 21, a judicial panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court released the legislative redistricting maps. The U.S. Constitution mandates that political districts be redrawn every 10 years following the Census, to ensure that all districts have roughly the same population.

We would like all members to know that the new districts do not affect who represents you now. New district numbers represent where legislators will run for re-election in November of 2012. For example, if you currently live in district 50B and your new district is now 41A, you are not represented by the legislator from 41A. You will still be represented by the legislator in 50B until his or her term ends in January, 2013.

There are many resources available to help you learn about your new district. The legislative redistricting map is easy to use: simply enter your address and you will see information about your new district number. There are also documents available that provide a district-by-district look at where incumbents from the Senate and House now reside. And finally, you can read the decision from the judicial panel that drew the new redistricting lines.

In the coming months, ARRM will be educating members about their new districts; meanwhile, if you have any questions, please contact Sara Grafstrom at sgrafstrom@arrm.org.

--Sara Grafstrom, Director of Advocacy and Community Relations

Payment methodology update: Shadow rates and data collection from members

In an effort to keep members as up-to-date as possible, ARRM is providing information on recent developments regarding DHS’s proposed payment methodology.

In early February, DHS provided the initial values for wages and other adjustments to use in rate frameworks. At that time they also opened the rate management system for counties to begin generating shadow payment rates. The various rate frameworks were made available via the DHS website so providers and other parties could begin to analyze the impact of the new system on their existing rates. If you haven’t done so already, we strongly encourage you to visit the DHS website, available here, and examine service rates under the new payment methodology.

When using these framework spreadsheets, the only item agencies can input is the hours of service you’ll provide, both shared and individual. When populating the frameworks, we encourage agencies to use the hours recently provided to counties.

ARRM is actively dealing with the myriad of issues the new rate setting methodology creates for providers. In response, we’ve developed our own legislation. At the same time, we have had meetings with other provider groups and DHS staff to share our proposal, get their feedback, and make any necessary changes. Our bill is drafted and we are waiting for it to be introduced.

In order to properly analyze and address DHS’s proposed rate setting system, we need to collect information from members. We have created a spreadsheet for members to complete that will give us an idea how the rates will impact agency’s finances. This spreadsheet will be sent directly to agencies with members that serve on ARRM’s Payment Methodology Task Force and Financial Resources Committees to get data quickly for use in upcoming hearings and negotiations.

We want to collect this information from other members as well. That same spreadsheet is available here. As you populate the DHS frameworks, use this spreadsheet to compare the rates, and return the spreadsheet to cwieber@arrm.org.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me via email at cwieber@arrm.org or by phone at (651) 291-1086 ext. 9.

--Craig Wieber, Chief Fiscal Analyst

Please make a donation to ARRM's Ever-Popular Auction

One of the highlights of ARRM's Annual Conference is our Ever-Popular Auction, which will take place on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 in the late afternoon/early evening. ARRM is currently accepting donations for the auction, which attracts 300+ enthusiastic attendees every year.

This popular event has always provided conference attendees a fun-filled opportunity to network, shop, and socialize during the conference. More importantly, as one of ARRM's biggest fundraising events of the year, it helps us fulfill our mission of supporting people with disabilities in their pursuit of meaningful lives.

A new feature at this year’s auction is a “wall of wine,” and there’s a rumor that our auctioneers, Glen Fladeboe and Frank Zallar (Capstone Services), have a few fun surprises in store. Please help us make the 2012 auction a success by donating an item. We'll recognize your generous support in the auction booklet given to all attendees.

Often the most sought after items are things that only you can provide because of a special talent or relationship. Examples of these might include (but are not limited to):

• Travel: Vacation homes, resorts, spas, or getaway packages.
• Dinners/Food: Catered dinner parties, special events, gourmet picnic baskets, custom-baked cake, cooking lessons, beer or wine tasting.
• Restaurants: Gift certificates to anything from pizza to five-star restaurants!
• Art by ARRM Members: Art, pottery, and jewelry.
• Lessons/Crafts: Works of art, custom needlecraft or lessons, floral arrangements for a year, music lessons, one-on-one soccer coaching, picture framing, portrait painting or sketches.
• Professional Services: Financial, architectural, landscape, design, medical, legal, massage, home repair, computer service/repair, babysitting, auto detailing, yard services, house painting, and window washing.
• Sports/Cultural Event Tickets: Tickets to cultural performances or sporting events.
• Children’s Items: Clothing, toys, DVD/CDs, books or birthday parties
• Personal Services: Spa days, massage, haircuts, facials, private chef.

If you have questions about the 2012 Ever-Popular Auction, please contact Nancy Peterson at (651) 291-1086, ext. 2 or npeterson@arrm.org.

--Nancy Peterson and Barb Brynstad

'Lunch With the Experts' series resumes

The Service Design and Delivery Committee has resumed its "Lunch With the Experts" brown bag lunch gatherings prior to some of its committee meetings. The committee expects to hold four of these lunches in 2012.

The first lunch will be held on March 5, 2012 from noon until 1 p.m. at the ARRM office. Charles Young and Lori Dablow from DHS Disabilities Division will be talking to the group about the Residential Services Standards and Quality Outcome Standards. They will provide an update on what has been done and what work they will be doing moving forward. All ARRM members are invited to join us for this event; no registration is needed -- just bring your lunch.

If you have questions about these gatherings, feel free to contact Barb Turner at bturner@arrm.org or 651-291-1086 ext. 3.

--Barb Turner, COO

Prepare for 1.67% reduction as ARRM works with governor, legislators and CMS

DHS announced that it submitted its waiver request to CMS yesterday for early implementation of changes in the nursing home level of care requirements. The requirement to submit this request was passed during the special legislative session last year. Without CMS’s approval, an additional one-time 1.67 percent provider rate cut will go into effect on July 1, 2012.

In initial conversations with DHS, there were strong indications that this approval would not be difficult to obtain. In discussions last week, however, DHS appeared less optimistic that this approval would be granted. Although they said their request is solid, they are not considering it a “done deal.”

This morning ARRM met with senior staff in Gov. Dayton’s office about this and other fiscal issues affecting ARRM members, and got a commitment to have the governor’s representative in Washington be in contact with CMS to expedite approval.

ARRM will continue to stay in close contact with DHS and the governor’s staff and will also use our contacts at CMS to advocate for early approval. This issue will also be discussed with legislators as we work on a number of issues related to the budget.

At this point ARRM is recommending that providers be prepared for an additional 1.67 percent rate cut effective July 1, 2012.

--Barb Turner, COO, and Bruce Nelson, CEO

ARRM members provide strong testimony on 10% cut and bed delicensing

Several ARRM members gave strong testimony at the legislature yesterday on the impacts of the ten percent lower need rate reduction and bed delicensing provisions adopted last summer. They spoke before the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee.

Repeal of these provisions – which would cost money to buy back – is among ARRM’s principal goals during this legislative session. Because it would take new spending to repeal them, the effort will be difficult. ARRM meets with Gov. Dayton’s senior staff next week on these and other critical issues.

ARRM member testifiers yesterday were Lee Lewis (Clare Housing), John Everett (Community Involvement Programs), Lisa Zaspel (Fraser), Kyle Mullen (Cardinal), Jon Nelson (Residential Services of NE Minnesota) and Tim Burkett (People, Inc.) All were absolutely terrific in personalizing the impact of the two measures on people as well as the impact on provider stability.

Jon tied the two issues to ARRM’s Blueprint for Reform legislation as a much better way to accomplish the goals of finding economies within corporate foster care and developing ways to allow people who to move into other community service options.

Here’s the shortened link to the page that contains the archived Feb. 9 hearing:

http://bit.ly/AoY1D3

People will need windows Media Player to view. They will have to look for this stuff, which is at the top of the page.

-- Bruce Nelson, CEO

Use direct links to access DHS rate methodology frameworks

In a blog post last week, we mentioned that DHS would be posting versions of the rate framework methodologies that could be accessed by providers, advocates, consumers and families. These frameworks will allow providers to calculate rates and compare to what is received now.

UPDATE: The page with all the rate frameworks is available here.

Here are direct links to all the various frameworks:

Residential Frameworks
24-hour Customized Living Services
Customized Living Services
Foster Care Services - Corporate
Foster Care Service - Family
Residential Care Services
Supported Living Services - Family
Supported Living Services - Corporate

Day Program Frameworks
Adult Day Services
Adult Day Bath
Day Training and Habilitative Services
Pre-Vocational Services
Structured Day Services

Hourly Services Frameworks
Behavior Programming Services
Companion Services
Housing Access Coordination
In-Home Family Support Services
Independent Living Skills
Night Supervision
Personal Support
Respite Services
Supported Employment Services
Supported Living Services

Other Frameworks
Transportation

Providers should use these frameworks to begin analyzing how payment rates would change for the services they currently provide. It is important to note that the system is not completed. The rates that are produced now are not final. They are intended to provide guidance in informing what will eventually become the new rates.  DHS specified that “providers will continue to receive payment at their MMIS authorized rates through 2012.” Counties should not be attempting to change existing rates to align with any rates produced with these frameworks. If that happens, please contact our office and let us know.

In the near future, ARRM will conduct a systematic collection of information on the impact of the rate changes. For now, agencies should begin to analyze the impact of the new rates, and expect further communication from ARRM on compiling that information. As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me via email at cwieber@arrm.org or by phone at (651) 291-1086 ext. 9.

--Craig Wieber, Chief Fiscal Analyst

Watch House Health and Human Services Finance Committee hearing on the Internet

Today's hearing on the unintended consequences of provisions passed during the 2011 special session will be streamed live on the Internet. You must have Windows Media Player installed on your computer to view it.

To watch, go to http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv/schedule.asp and locate: House Health and Human Services Finance Committee for Thursday, February 9 2012 12:30 PM. Click on either the "Live Event" or "Enhanced version" link. 

Hearing agenda:
• Personal care assistants relative care 20 percent reduction.
• Corporate foster care moratorium.
• Low needs reduction.

--Barb Brynstad, Communications Director