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Ken Bence

ARRM

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Posted By Ken Bence 01-26-2024 13:14
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
ARRM’s members have undoubtedly been frustrated with the apparent delay in obtaining federal approval, and the lack of information regarding the rate increases in the Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) that were expected to go into effect on January 1. We know this is true because we heard from many ...
Posted By Ken Bence 10-17-2023 14:11
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
You may have seen the bulletin from DHS, dated October 17, that announced the release of the DWRS component values that go into effect on January 1, 2024. DHS will include the new component values in the December updates of the MnCHOICES Support Plan and revised MnCHOICES applications. These systems ...
Posted By Ken Bence 07-07-2023 12:20
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
As you are hopefully aware at this point, the 2023 legislative session outcomes included some pretty significant changes to the Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) component values and the schedule of updates, which will result in rate increases beginning in 2024. That's good news! Following is a digest ...
Posted By Ken Bence 06-20-2023 21:26
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
As you may be aware, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking early last month that broadly seeks to improve access to care and better address health equity issues in the Medicaid program. Entitled Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services , many provisions ...
Posted By Ken Bence 05-09-2023 20:33
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
You may recall that DHS issued proposed amendments to the Developmental Disabilities (DD) waiver in January, with a 30-day public comment period that closed on February 16. ARRM submitted written comments with input from many of you, as did several provider organizations. DHS issued a bulletin on May ...
Posted By Ken Bence 03-23-2023 18:47
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
As you are undoubtedly aware, early in the pandemic, the federal government declared a public health emergency (PHE) and passed laws that provided increased Medicaid funding to states, in return for which they were prohibited from disenrolling people off their Medicaid rolls. Late last year, the federal ...
Posted By Ken Bence 06-29-2022 17:12
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
As I posted in this blog on May 24 , the Regional Variance Factor (RVF) in the Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) will be updated as of July 1, and will have an impact on rates calculated in the DWRS. The DHS bulletin on this change included a list of the new factors. As I described previously, ...
Posted By Ken Bence 05-24-2022 13:49
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
There have been a lot of moving parts to the Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) this year. As you may recall, changes made to the Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waiver rate setting statute ( 256B.4914 ) in 2019 established a schedule for updating the wage values and inflationary adjustments ...
Posted By Ken Bence 01-07-2022 15:33
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
Some of you may remember this tale of DHS acting to change the rules around random number extrapolation in recovering overpayments to providers. Believe it or not, it began over a year ago and I previously wrote posts to this blog here , here and here . While it may not be a terribly exciting topic, ...
Posted By Ken Bence 09-27-2021 13:46
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
This is my third update to the original post about the 2022 DWRS rate increase. I think you'll like this one! To recap, we know that the Legislature passed a schedule of bi-annual rate increases in 2019, beginning in 2022, that will affect wage values and inflationary increases for a few other component ...
Posted By Ken Bence 09-01-2021 11:56
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
Questions continue to come in regarding the COVID Emergency Temporary Standard and whether it applies to settings that support people with disabilities. According to our contact from MN-OSHA, the rule is based on the services delivered at a particular setting. They offer free consultations to help you ...
Posted By Ken Bence 08-04-2021 16:05
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
Today, DHS released their guidance for the 2022 rate increase encumbrance report. We have been eagerly waiting for this bulletin to give providers clarity about how they can reward care staff in the last half of 2021 and whether those investments could count towards the encumbrance. The news is good! ...
Posted By Ken Bence 08-02-2021 16:31
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
On June 21, I posted to this blog to describe what we knew about the 2022 DWRS rate increases that were passed by the Legislature, as well as the 80% encumbrance requirement. DHS hasn't officially released any new information since then, but we understand they are getting close to sending out guidance ...
Posted By Ken Bence 08-01-2021 19:00
Found In Contact: Ken Bence's Blog
On June 25, I posted to this blog about the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for healthcare around COVID-19 released by OSHA. We just learned a few days ago that the Minnesota OSHA adopted the standard in full on July 19, as posted in the State Register . Unfortunately, there is no information ...