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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 8, 2012

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

APD to Begin Provider Rankings

Tallahassee -The Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) will begin publishing on its website today scorecards on Medicaid waiver providers who serve Floridians with developmental disabilities. These rankings will be an initial baseline score. APD's scorecards will be adjusted over time as input is received from stakeholders.

All state agencies are developing provider scorecards to increase transparency and accountability to the public. The APD provider scorecards are intended to measure, evaluate, and improve performance on key measures that are important to Floridians with developmental disabilities. The long term goal is to improve the quality of state funded services.

The first phase of scorecards will include the following:

• Supported Employment providers
• Waiver Support Coordinators

These providers contract with the state of Florida under the Home and Community-Based Services waivers.

APD Director Michael Hansen said, "We worked with stakeholders to begin this process of scoring providers, however, we want to continue the dialogue to make this evaluation process better. We want to hear specific ideas from providers on how to measure the quality of the services they are providing to our customers."

Customers, families, and providers are encouraged to submit suggestions and ideas to their local area office on ways to improve the ranking process. The scorecards are posted on the agency’s website APDcares.org. Additional provider scorecards will be developed and posted to the agency’s website in the near future.

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).