TAKE AWAYS FROM THE OCDD END OF THE PHE WEBINAR FOR SELF-DIRECTION EMPLOYERS 9/11/23

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Monitored-In Home Caregiving program and the Companion Care program within some waivers were discussed as options for non-family and family members working for a participant with a disability.  They are working on having Day Habilitation services included for Monitored In-Home Caregiving participants.

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Shared supports can only be implemented when both participants have the same Employer if they are in Self-Directed services. Shared supports can be done if the participants have different waivers.

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Lengthy discussion and information was provided regarding Legally Responsible Individual, Family as Paid Caregivers and Extraordinary Care. It will be more beneficial for Self-Direction Employers to join this discussion during the webinars than to try to go through all the questions here. There were a significant number of questions that they were unable to answer due to time constraints. They will be publishing a Q&A most likely after all the webinars are completed.

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PROGRESS NOTES: This was huge news… Apparently there were self-direction employers that were audited and it turned up that several had no progress notes whatsoever to provide the inspectors. OCDD reminded everyone that progress notes are required. OCDD also said that any time an audit is done if the documentation is not there, what that tells the auditor is that the work that was paid for was never done. OCDD indicated that there are a number of entities that could audit any part of the waiver program, including self-direction, waivers in general, employers, support coordination or the OCDD and LGE offices themselves. Audits can be initiated and conducted by any one of various departments in any of the following: The Inspector General’s Office, the State Attorney General’s office, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office or Federal representatives or contractors for Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

Progress Notes should related back to and show that the goals and objectives in the plan are being provided and worked on. They should also document behavioral incidents and any other extraordinary things that come up in the day so that the Employer can manage and review for trends and, if/when necessary, request additional or different services and supports that may be needed. It is also IMPERATIVE that we keep these progress notes up and review our DSWs efforts (and, even add our own even if we aren't being paid if we experience something that needs to be documented) so that when or if we ever do have to request more help, PROGRESS NOTES ARE OUR JUSTIFICATION. The first thing an LGE/Human Service District is going to do if you ask for help, more hours, different services is let us see the last “X” number of days of progress notes.

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16 and 17 year Olds as DSWs – OCDD had to pull the change to legislation because the Attorney General’s office commented that it would not be legal because there is one code requiring background checks and another code (Louisiana Children’s Code) which code which prohibits background checks on children under 18. This would create an issue with 2 rules in conflict.

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Restraint and Critical Incident Reports were discussed. For more information on when something is a critical incident, check out my videos on @SNAPSSLa on Facebook. Just go to the page, click on “MORE” and the “VIDEOS.” Scroll down until you see the Critical Incident titles archived there.

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Self Direction Employers are required to monitor the sites listed in the handbook to determine if your worker(s) have been barred from working in this field. See the Self-Direction Handbook for more information. There’s an updated Handbook(last updated March 2023). Be sure you have the latest information.  You will find a link to the updated Handbook at the top of this page . Click on Self-Direction News at the navigation bar at the top of the page.

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Many questions were answered.

 

Today’s presentation was recorded and will be posted along with recordings of the other presentations once those are done.