Rules on services to assist 500 more disabled advance

Rules that would provide services to an additional 500 people with developmental disabilities cleared a state legislative committee Tuesday.

The rules approved by the Legislative Council’s Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee would implement Act 50, passed by the Legislature this year, which allocates $8.5 million a year in tobacco settlement proceeds toward reducing the number of developmentally disabled Arkansans on a waiting list for such services as getting help with daily living tasks.

The money will be matched with about $20 million in federal funds, allowing the state to increase the cap on the number of people who can be served from 4,303 to 4,803.

About 3,000 people are on a waiting list for the services.

The rules also detail the state’s plans to hire a company to assess applicants’ needs and eligibility for services.

The state Department of Human Services has tentatively hired Optum Government Solutions, a division of Minnetonka, Minn.-based United Health Group, to conduct the assessments for Medicaid recipients with developmental disabilities as well as those who are elderly or mentally ill.

The Legislative Council’s Review Subcommittee is to review the Optum contract today. The contract calls for the company to be paid $25.5 million over two years.

Currently, providers assess the needs of applicants for services for the developmentally disabled and submit plans for the applicants’ care to the Human Services Department’s Division of Developmental Disabilities for approval, Human Services Department spokesman Brandi Hinkle said.

Starting Jan. 1, Hinkle said, the Optum assessments will replace the ArPath tool for assessing the needs of elderly and disabled people served by the ARChoices program.

The ArPath tool has been the subject of lawsuits, filed on behalf of Medicaid recipients by Legal Aid of Arkansas, contending that it has resulted in arbitrary reductions in services.

Hinkle said the Optum tool is better suited to assess the needs of different groups of Medicaid recipients, such as those who are elderly, as

well as the developmentally disabled.

“We have found that these particular populations have similarities,” Hinkle said.

The new tool, she said, will allow the department to “make sure that we’re doing

things in a much more objective way.”

With no members objecting, Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, chairman of the Rules and Regulations Subcommittee, declared the rules “reviewed and approved.”

The rules will go to the full Legislative Council for final approval consideration Friday.