Advisory Task Force on Waiver Reimagine meeting summary

Date: April 20, 2026

Attendees

Support staff

Calla Oftedahl, Adrienne Hannert, Anna Yesberger, Frances Van Houten, Katie Pratt, Elian Sorensen, Jami Petner-Arrey and Stephen Pawlowski

Advisory Task Force on Waiver Reimagine members

Rev. Katrin Bachmeier, Jennifer Ballinger, Tricia Brisbane, Kris Erickson, Linda Fairchild, Lisa Harrison-Hadler, Dr. Katrina Jirik, Julie Johnson, Meredith McKinnon, Gretchen Spier, Mike Tessneer, Mor Vue, Chad Wilson and Linda Wolford

Meeting objectives

· Understand the logic and methods behind the development of individual budgets.

· Finalize cochair selection for the task force.

· Share DHS updates.

· Share updates on legislative initiatives.

· Share updates on adjacent Waiver Reimagine (WR) efforts.

Agenda

Welcome

· The regular April meeting of the Advisory Task Force on Waiver Reimagine was held virtually via Cisco Webex. Frances Van Houten, the meeting facilitator, provided a general overview of the meeting agenda and attendee expectations.

DHS updates

· DHS continues to reassess the timeline and scope of WR. A new go-live date has not yet been determined. DHS will share information about the public comment period, waiver submission date and anticipated go-live date as soon as it is available.

· DHS has not yet executed a contract for updating the MnCHOICES assessment tool to reflect the WR Phase II changes.

· Once the draft legislative report on WR Phase II is ready, DHS will share it with the task force Policy and Practice Workgroup.

· The new WR website announced last month will be launched in the near future.

· DHS is exploring whether environmental accessibility adaptations (EAA) can be provided on both the Residential Support Waiver and the Individual Support Waiver. Feedback from stakeholders indicated that EAA should not only be available to Minnesotans on the Individual Support Waiver.

· At the last task force meeting, members asked DHS to conduct a fiscal impact analysis of the MnCHOICES assessment tool and compare it to other assessment tools. They also asked DHS to consider the costs of pausing WR. DHS has not completed this analysis as it does not fall within the scope of WR.

HSRI individual budget methodology

· DHS recommends reviewing meeting materials to learn more about this topic.

Access the livestream recording of the Human Services Research Institute’s (HSRI’s) presentation on budget methodology. Download the published slide deck and use the associated timestamps to follow along with the recording. Both the recording and slides can be found on the meetings tab of the task force webpage.