iBudget Redesign Public Meeting
On July 17, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, in conjunction with the Agency for Health Care Administration, hosted a public meeting to gather suggestions to improve the iBudget Florida Medicaid waiver. The Legislature required a redesign of the iBudget waiver as an outcome of the 2019 session.
APD Director Barbara Palmer welcomed 61 people in the audience and 796 people on the webinar. The overall message repeated from attendees throughout the three-hour meeting was that the Legislature should fully fund the program to keep people in their homes and that the average cost per person of $33,600 was less than the cost of institutional care at $133,000 per person.
Another major theme repeated throughout the three-hour meeting was that Managed Care would not work for supporting people with developmental disabilities in living in the community because these individuals do not get better, and their costs go up over time as they age. With Managed Care, companies take roughly 10 to 20 percent for administrative costs; there would be no savings except if those companies did not deliver services, which hurts the individuals they are supposed to serve.
APD received hundreds of emails and is continuing to review the ideas for possible inclusion in the September 30 report that must be submitted to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. The Legislature will ultimately decide if any changes will be made to the iBudget waiver during its next session, which begins in January 2020.
APD and AHCA hosted a public meeting on July 17 to gather suggestions to improve the iBudget Florida Medicaid Waiver.
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