Initial Approval for 15 States’ HCBS State Transition Plans

CMS granted the following states initial approval of their Statewide Transition Plan (STP) to be in compliance with the federal home and community-based services (HCBS) regulations:

  1.  Tennessee (both initial and final approval) April 13, 2016
  2. Kentucky June 2, 2016
  3. Ohio June 2, 2016
  4. Delaware July 14, 2016
  5. Iowa August 9, 2016
  6. Pennsylvania August 30, 2016
  7. Idaho, September 23, 2016
  8. Connecticut, October 21, 2016
  9. West Virginia, October 26, 2016
  10. North Dakota, November 1, 2016
  11. Oregon, November 2, 2016
  12. South Carolina, November 3, 2016
  13. Washington State, November 3, 2016 
  14.  Arkansas, November 7, 2016
  15.  Indiana, November 8, 2016

Approval is granted because these states completed their systemic assessment, included the outcomes of this assessment in the STP, clearly outlined remediation strategies to rectify issues that the systemic assessment uncovered, such as legislative changes and changes to contracts, and is actively working on those remediation strategies. 

To date only 15 states have received initial approval of their state transition plan. CMS is requiring states to include a crosswalk between state standards (including state housing regulations) and the HCBS settings rule. They also want the state to write a narrative of provider types that are compliant, not compliant, partially compliant, as well as any regulations that are in the federal rule, but not in state statute. This process may involve multiple state agencies. 

In their state transition plans, CMS is seeing states develop a tiered set of standards to comply with the HCBS regulations. CMS requires the states to abide by the minimal standards within the rule; however, states have the right to have more stringent standards that they believe will improve HCBS in the state. The more stringent standards may include requirements for more integration in the community for Medicaid beneficiaries. 

CMS has already stated that “reverse integration” or bringing the community into the Assisted Living, Adult Day Center is not enough. There has to be a process in place that the beneficiary has the ability to travel into the community for the services/events that they choose. CMS has introduced another challenge by saying that a Medicaid beneficiary’s choice of an HCBS provider is not enough to have compliance with the HCBS rule. CMS has placed more emphasis on community integration than on consumer choice. The difficulty with the integration criteria in the rule, is that it is the most subjective criteria. 

It is important for LeadingAge members and State affiliates to work closely with their states in determining how to create a practical implementation of the HCBS rule, in order to avoid any unintentional negative consequences, such as a reduced choices of HCBS providers.