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Passage of Eligibility Bill Crucial to Disability Community
Disability Stakeholders are closely monitoring the status of House Bill 3715, commonly known as the DDS Eligibility Bill.
If enacted, the bill, which is the number one priority of the State's Autism Commission, will expand the definition of developmental disability moving towards the federal definition of developmental disability by including service to individuals with autism and Prader-Willi Syndrome.
The current Massachusetts definition of developmental disability is considered one of the most restrictive in the nation, thus hundreds upon hundreds of individuals with developmental disabilities currently excluded from service would become eligible.
Massachusetts has long prided itself on not having an extensive waiting list for services, compared to other states. This is not a sign of serving all people, Rather it's a sign of the limited scope of our current eligibility standard.
The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) expansion bill, House Bill 3715, is sponsored by the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities (a committee redraft of Rep. Garrett Bradley's HB 78 and Senator Jennifer Flanagan's SB 908) and will broaden the eligibility criteria so that individuals who have autism and Prader-Willi Syndrome, but have higher IQ's than is currently allowed in order to be eligible for services from DDS, to receive DDS services when it is manifested before the individual is twenty-two years old, and is due to substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following major life activities: self-care, receptive and expressive language, learning, mobility, self-direction, capacity for independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.  The expansion of eligibility for DDS services provided in HB 3715 to include autism and Prader-Willi Syndrome is a significant step toward moving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts forward with the national trend that allows the for use of the broad federal definition of developmental disability. The federal definition of developmental disability is "a severe, chronic disability of an individual that: (i) is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments." (Public Law 106-402, § 102, (8)).  HB 3715 is currently in the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, and needs to be released from this committee before it can be passed by the full legislature. The DDS eligibility bill has more than 75 co-sponsors who support this bill in the legislature, and these co-sponsors have the ability to be advocates in persuading the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing to let HB 3715 out of committee. The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing includes House Vice-Chair Jennifer Benson, Senate Chair James Welch, Senate Vice-Chair Brian Joyce, and sixteen other members of the legislature. Among these nineteen legislators, the following nine legislators are also co-sponsors of the DDS eligibility bill: Rep. Ruth Balser, Rep. Paul Brodeur, Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Rep. Sean Garballey, Rep. Jason Lewis, Sen. Michael Barrett, Senate Vice-Chairman Brian Joyce, Sen. Anthony Petruccelli, and Sen. Bruce Tarr. The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing can be found in Room 236 at the State House and can be reached at 617-722-2430. ADDP's lead on this bill is Tara Hopper Zeltner. |
Health and Human Services, Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) announced that the state has been awarded an additional $110 million in federal funding for support of Long Term Supports and Services provided to elders and individuals with disabilities that work to reduce or divert individuals from being served in institutional settings.
Under the agreement with EOHHS and Mass Health, the state will receive an increase of 2% reimbursement over current FFP Medicaid reimbursement rates. 
Disability stakeholders are looking to the leadership of EOHHS and Mass Health for direction on how these dollars will be allocated. Other states that have received similar BIP awards have established special Reserve Trust Funds to assure federal funders of the success in using these dollars to meet CMS objectives.
