Waiver Reimagine Advisory Committee Feb. 23, 2023 meeting summary

Committee members present: Kathryn Barton, Annie Braun, Tricia Brisbine, Jennifer Drganc, Rosalie Eisenreich, Lisa Evert, Mary Fenske, Kelly Friesen, Lisa Harvey, Arbdella Hudson, Zahnia Harut, Dr. Katrina Jirik, Susan Mackert, Meredith McKinnon, Julie Morrison, Polly Owens, Rijuta Pathre, Myrna Peterson, Phyllis Reller, Kathy Rogers, Bud Rosenfield, Saudade SammuelSon, Elizabeth Scheel-Keita, Chad Wilson, Pat Wright, Wa Xiong, Fartun Weli, Jeanne McGuire, Gina Winter

Committee members not present: Ali Kofiro, Danielle Otto, Don Barnes, Cathy Chavers, Sherri Pickthorn, Phyllis Reller, Lauren Thompson

DHS staff present: Meghan Lindblom, Colin Stemper, Curtis Buhman, Cindy Grebin, Sandy Zuhlsdorf, Andrew Johnson, Elliot Rankin, Arthur Worley, Andre Magadan, Matt Knutson, Maria Trueblood, Sarah Jones, Erin Huldeen

Agenda

· Welcome/New member introductions

· December meeting recap/DHS updates

· Support planning review

· Service rates overview

· Service mix deep dive

· Wrapup

Introductions

New members (Fartun Weli, Jeanne McGuire, Gina Winter) were provided time for introductions.

December meeting recap

Information review included:

· Services in a two-waiver system

· DHS described 14 services and the WRAC asked questions, discussed, and developed recommendations for which waiver each of the 14 services should be available under:

Waiver 1 (for people who live in their own home or family home)

Waiver 2 (for people who live in provider-managed residential settings) 

· Presentation and summary of feedback were sent to the members after the meeting and was also posted on the Waiver Reimagine website.

· WRAC will continue to develop uses for the two new waivers and that will be the topic of discussion in April’s meeting.

Budget fundamentals session

· DHS did outreach in January to look for members. We received minimal feedback.

· Looking for ideas and feedback from committee members on how to engage in outreach differently to bring more members into the planning and presentation of WRAC meetings.

· As requested, more DHS experts are involved in this meeting and will be providing information connected to the budget.

Overview of support planning and service authorization workflow

Andrew N. Johnson, support planning policy lead, and Cindy Grebin, CDCS policy lead, provided a walk-through of the support planning process for both traditional and self-directed planning. Andrew outlined the objectives:

· Provide a high-level understanding of the support planning process.

· Discuss unique aspects of self-direction in support planning.

Pat Wright, WRAC member, shared her experience in the support planning process. This was a collaboration between a member and DHS staff for a more robust understanding of the process.              

· A short time was allowed for questions.

Payment rate and individual budgets

Colin Stemper, fiscal policy supervisor, provided a high-level review of how rates work, with the aim to increase member understanding of a critical part of the budget-setting process. The presentation included information from DHS experts to give members a better understanding of rates. The presentation also outlined why rates and budgets connect. When rates are built into the budget structure, budgets are:

· Flexible: If a service rate changes, the budgets can easily be adjusted to accommodate that change — there will be no unfunded rate changes.

· Predictable: As the budgets change with rate and component changes, people will not “lose” or “gain” spending power. Their budgets will still be tied to their support ranges.

· Consistent: As we determine which services and corresponding rate inputs to enter into the service mixes, the budgets will fund the same amounts of supports consistently. 

We allowed a short time for questions

Service mixes: determining the amount of budgets

Sandy Zuhlsdorf, fiscal policy analyst, and Meghan Lindblom, program integrity supervisor, explained that members will be involved in budget-related policy work in the future. Understanding the service mix frameworks is important for that future work. Sandy outlined what service mixes are:

· A framework to determine the amount a budget should be for a setting and support need level.

· A mix that uses an estimate of the types and amounts of services needed by a person in each support range, for each living setting, and for adults and children.      

Meghan provided a brief review of the outcomes of the service mix decisions, and the impacts on proposed budgets. She also outlined some of the work ahead for the WRAC members related to upcoming budget exception determinations.

We allowed a short time for questions.

Member questions and information

· We answered some questions that came in via chat. We will capture others and respond to them individually and to the WRAC in summary (via email and FAQs).

· WRAC members can also submit questions via email to: waiver.reimagine@state.mn.us

· Reminder that there will be an evaluation survey sent out shortly after the meeting, which will have space to ask questions.

· If there are still many questions about how the methodology works, DHS might hold office hours to address the questions this spring.

Adjourn

The meeting closed with the following reminders:

· Reimbursement forms

· Future meetings (2023):

Thursday, April 27, 2023. Topic: Services in a two-waiver system continued. 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (with two breaks).

Thursday, June 29, 2023. Topic: Rate/budget exceptions.

Meeting details can be found on the Waiver Reimagine Advisory Committee website under the Meetings tab.