FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 2, 2012

CONTACT: Melanie Mowry Etters Communications Director (850) 488-4257

Customers Begin Using iBudget

Tallahassee -The Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) today announced that 7,755 customers in Northeast Florida are now using the iBudget Florida Medicaid waiver. Customers living in Baker, Clay, Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Flagler, Volusia, Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion, and Sumter counties are beginning to use the more flexible waiver system to request and pay for services.

iBudget Florida is a new way to deliver Medicaid waiver services that has been approved by both the Florida Legislature and the federal government. iBudget provides greater ability to choose services that matter to customers given their unique situations. It gives greater flexibility for customers to respond to their changing needs. It also reduces the required bureaucracy and “red tape” in the tier waiver system.

The Home and Community-Based Services Developmental Disabilities Medicaid waiver financially supports about 30,000 Floridians with developmental disabilities so they may live and participate in their local communities. The remaining 22,000 waiver recipients will transition to the iBudget Florida system over the next year.

Customers in the northwest part of the state have been using iBudget to manage their services for several months.

A third group of customers will begin using iBudget on October 1. Those customers living in Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Putnam, Suwannee, Union, Hardee, Highlands, Polk, Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties will begin the transition process very soon so they are prepared for the fall start date.

The fourth group of customers to begin using iBudget on January 1, 2013, will be in Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, De Soto, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties.

The next group of customers will be in Palm Beach and Broward counties who will begin using the iBudget Florida system on April 1, 2013.

The final group of customers, in Dade and Monroe counties, will begin using iBudget on July 1, 2013. In addition, Consumer-Directed Care Plus (CDC+) participants will start using iBudget on July 1, 2013.

iBudget Florida is designed to make the funding process fair and equitable for all Medicaid waiver customers. It will provide increased opportunities for customers to direct their own care. The new system will also allow the agency to have more financial predictability in the future.

Some other customer benefits of iBudget Florida are:

• Support coordinators freed from paperwork to focus on providing help that makes a real difference
• Confidence that funding is fair compared to other customers who are similarly situated
• Reduced likelihood of policy changes that cause significant disruption due to budget deficits
• Security of a financially stable system that will be there to serve customers down the road
• Greater control over their lives
• Ability to use accrued funds within the fiscal year for new or different services, and
• Greater opportunity for APD to use new funds to serve people on the Medicaid waiver waiting list rather than resolve past waiver deficits.

APD annually serves more than 50,000 Floridians with the developmental disabilities of autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intellectual disabilities, spina bifida, and Prader-Willi syndrome. For more information on the agency, visit APDcares.org or call toll-free 1-866-APD-CARES (1-866-273-2273).