UPDATE on APD Med Waiver Tier Hearing

[Guest guest]

FYI - Forwarding from the Family Care Council

Subject: Tier Hearing

On Wednesday, The Advocacy Center presented their case. One of the parents, Ms. Moreland was a very strong witness. (By the way, she is also an employee of APD!) The Advocacy Center called five witnesses. There were two parents, two Support Coordinators and a provider. I felt that Southern Legal did a good job of laying out “vague, arbitrary and capricious” issues in the rule.

Yesterday, the State presented their case. They called three witness. Jim DeBeaugerine, Mabile and J.B. Black. The hearing spent a great deal of time on issues surrounding the Individual Cost Guidelines, (ICG). Remember that document? The way the law is written, you have to have a valid and reliable assessment instrument for Tier implementation. Obviously, the new assessment has not be ran on everyone that would have to have a Tier assignment. So, the State is stating that they ran the ICG on everyone in 2006 and this meets the guidelines of having to run an assessment within a three year window. Stick with me now…the State however, stopped Support Coordinators from running the ICG in January of this year. However, the new assessment, QSI, has not yet been validated so a question remains as to how people are being assessed at this time.

The State did a good job of presenting their case. They continually tried to return to the budget issues. The Advocacy Center tried to make their case that this wasn’t about the APD budget, it was about a rule that was vague, arbitrary and capricious.

The opposing attorneys have until the 8th of July to file their arguments and the Judge then has a timeline in which to rule. The Administrative Law Judge that was hearing the case has a reputation for fairness. Tier implementation cannot proceed until there is a ruling.

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