Guest guest Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 Hi Ellen, Are you using Glenkirk as your employer? Do you have to work with an agency? nne On Jan 7, 2008, at 8:32 AM, Ellen Bronfeld wrote: > Thanks for all your input. I will forward this to my husband! > This is truly helpful, personally for us and hopefully for many > others as well. > Great info! > Ellen > > Ellen Garber Bronfeld > egskb@... > Re: Home Based Funding > > Hi Ellen, > > It sounds like you are about 2 months behind us. We received our Home > Based Support award letter on Nov. 8th, 2007. We were approved back in > early April, and were told that it would be 4-6 months before we would > receive the funding. It was quite a long frustrating process, but > considering that my son will receive $1900(3 times the current amount > that SSI pays)each month, it was truly worth it. Now, we hear they are > telling people that it will take 12 months from the time they apply to > the time they will receive their award letter. > > I too am frustrated that we couldn't receive any of the funds until we > met with Acces$. We met with Acces$ in early December, with Brad(great > guy-he actually drove up from Springfield to help us fill out the > forms), and at the end of Dec., I hadn't heard anything, whether we > could start using the funding or not, so after calling Brad-he > indicated > that they were still waiting for the state to approve and assign an > employer id number to my husband. That would be my suggestion, is that > if anyone is in the process of waiting for the award of their funding, > that they decide who will be their child's personal support worker > (PSW), > and who will be that person's employer. Call Acces$ and ask them for > the paperwork to fill out for an employer identification number. > See if > you can get that paperwork filled out and approved by the state, even > before your funding is awarded. I think anyone can apply for an > employer identification number, it's just navigating the system to > do it > properly. It is quite involved to fill out forms to be a PSW > though, so > you may have to wait to meet with Acces$ on that one. I am one of my > son's PSW's-you can have as many as you need, although they will all > need to fill out lots of forms for Acces$. Then, we decided that my > husband will be my employer, as well as the employer for our other PSW > that we will have. All the employer has to do is sign off on the > timesheets. Seemed like the best idea to have my husband be the > employer, although, he could've also been another of Nick's PSW's, in > which case, we would've had to ask someone else to be our > employer-friend, neighbor, grandparent, etc... > > We can use his funding for day programs, special rec programs(although > we have to pay ourselves, then pay the SRA), anything we need to > for his > personal support. We can use it for mileage, and our time, if we take > him places. We can use it for a gym membership, anything. We are > hiring another PSW to spend 10 hours with him each week to take him to > the gym to work out, take him to lunch, take him on a train ride, > to the > library, just spend quality time with him. In most cases, unless the > provider is a medicaid provider, you have to pay yourself first, in > order to pay for that gym membership, you can't bill the state for it. > What I highly suggest, is that anyone needing more information, go to > the Family Support Network website and click on the link for the new > Adult Waiver program, which is Home Based Support. Also, if the ARC of > Illinois has any more training seminars on the Adult Waiver Program, > make it a priority to go to it! It is an all day seminar, and quite > overwhelming, but Charlotte Cronin(of FSN), who facilitated the > seminar, > was amazing and explained everything in detail, and in a language that > we all could understand! They also supply you with a copy of the power > point presentation at the beginning of the day, so as they go > along, you > can follow and make lots of notes! > > The whole process of applying for Home Based Support is quite involved > and lengthy, but it's important to learn as much as you can, and keep > going to the meetings, seminars, anything that will go over and over > what the process is about, and how to do it. I'll tell you, until I > went to the ARC training on the Adult Waiver, everything was a big > jumbled mess in my brain, and it truly all came together that day. > Even > the agencies are still just learning about the Waiver, so it's not a > well traveled highway yet. This was an excellent topic to bring up > Ellen. thank you! > > > > > > Hi all: > > I would like to get some dialogue going on Home Based funding. In my > > area, a number of my friends whose young adults exited the > > educational system this past June, applied for Home Based (Medicaid > > Waiver) funding just prior to leaving school and most of those > > individuals got their award letters this past month. Now the > > question is: how to implement it? > > I thought what I would do is journal on IPADDU about our experience > > in applying for, receiving, and using Home Based funds, and see how > > it goes. Anyone who has already been through the process can chime > > in at any time to share experiences and ideas. So here goes... > > > > I was at a meeting in the early part of 2007 and heard that Home > > Based funding could be applied for 6 weeks prior to exit from the > > educational system. During our annual meeting with our CAU > > caseworker to update Noah's PUNS, I mention that I wanted to be > > prepared to apply for Home > > Based funding 6 weeks prior to his June 12th exit from school. We > > emailed back and forth and finished the necessary paperwork. > > > > May 8th, 2007 > > Received an email from our CAU caseworker that our paperwork for > home > > based had been submitted. > > At that time, I was told it would take about 6 months and we might > > not hear until October. > > > > October 2007 > > I emailed our caseworker to see " where things were " . I was told the > > paperwork had been processed in Chicago and was in Springfield. It > > would likely be another month. > > > > November 2007 > > I was told it would likely be another month. > > > > December 30, 2007 > > Received our letter that as of January 1, 2008, Noah was eligible > for > > Home Based funding. My husband's question...how does one avoid > > losing a month of funding (at minimum) by the time you figure out > how > > to actually access the funding? I thought that was a VERY good > > question and would like others who have not yet applied for or > > received funding to think about the possibility of establishing a > > game plan well ahead of the funding letter. > > > > January 2, 2008 > > We had already identified that we wanted to work with a local > agency, > > Glenkirk, so I emailed my contact there and our casework at CAU to > > set up a meeting ASAP, making it clear we wanted to start using the > > funds sooner than later. We now have a meeting set up for Wednesday, > > January 9th with our CAU caseworker, the person at Glenkirk who > > specializes in Home Based funding, and a Representative from Aces$, > > the fiscal agent chosen by Illinois to process paychecks for work > > rendered using Home Based funding. > > > > To Be Continued... > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Hi all: I got a letter that was sent to me by someone in the Ray Graham catchment area. I have been made aware of this same initiative through our local PAS/ISC Agency. There has been some money released for additional capacity in home based medicaid waiver services. If you have completed a PUNS, you might want to call your PAS/ISC caseworker and check on your son or daughter's eligibility at this time. I will download the letter to IPADDU files under transition...since that is our timely topic of the week! Ellen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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