Family Voices Indiana

Family Voices shares the following info from the DDRS quarterly report. The report is embedded below in its entirety.

Medicaid Waiver Wait List Update
Over the last eight months, the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) has been working to  make some positive changes in its service delivery to consumers, including its effort to ensure its Medicaid  Waiver Wait List is as up to date as possible. As of March 2012, the Wait List was over 19,000 names long.   Through its efforts to update these individuals’ contact information and desire to remain on the Waiver Wait  List, the Division has had a very positive response.  As of October 1, 2012, staff has updated 17,031 records.   There have been names removed from the Waiver Wait List due to: An indicated desire to be removed An individual was already on the Waiver for which he/she was on the Wait List An individual was no longer living at the address DDRS had on file, and/or there was no other address  in our system A…

By Emily McKinley, Health Information Specialist
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, was signed into law in March 2010. Since then, Americans have enjoyed greater health care coverage and options rolled out in a stepwise approach. Provisions of the law will continue to unfold through 2014. The legislation immediately increased protections for the most vulnerable populations, namely children and individuals with special health care needs.
When the ACA was signed into law, children under the age of 19 years were immediately protected from pre-existing condition exclusions, which was a huge step for children and youth with special health care needs. Traditionally families of these children struggled to find and maintain health care coverage for their entire families. If they were able to find adequate coverage for their children with special health care needs worries of maintaining that coverage into adulthood plagued many. Now, however, children are able to remain insured on …