This checklist provides key components found, in whole or part, in
legislation that is in compliance with the Olmstead Decision of the
US Supreme Court. As you prepare or review draft legislation, ask
yourself:
Does this legislation:
-
Move Iowa toward a
system of community-based services? Does it increase
community capacity to provide supports and services that older
Iowans and people with disabilities can use to remain in their
homes and local communities?
-
Ensure choice?
Does it avoid forcing older Iowans and Iowans with
disabilities to live in an institution or a nursing home in
order to get essential care or services?
-
Protect human rights
by supporting self-direction? Does it respect the
rights of older Iowans and people with disabilities to choose
where they will live, what services they will use, and from whom
they will get these services?
-
Avoid inappropriate
institutionalization?
Does it call for screening immediately before and regularly
after placement of all people entering or living in nursing
homes and other institutions, to determine their level of need
and identify strategies to overcome barriers that keep them from
living in the community?
-
Help people return
to their communities?
Does it move people off waiting lists and into community-based
services at a reasonable pace, one that is not set by a desire
to keep institutions full?
-
Make optimal use of
available funding?
Does it seek out and tap federal and other funding opportunities
for home and community-based services?
-
Fight institutional
bias? Does it fund community-based and
institution-based services equally, and support implementation
of the US Department of Justice settlement with the State
Resource Centers?
-
Fund existing
programs that support community-based services?
Does it call for adequate funding of existing programs that
encourage integrated, community-based services?
-
Avoid caps that
compel institutional bias?
Does it avoid arbitrary expenditure caps on covered home and
community services, so that caps can neither force
institutionalization nor lead to the denial of community care?
-
Simplify
eligibility? Does it create a single, consistent set
of eligibility requirements for Iowa Medicaid waiver programs?
-
Eliminate
discrimination? Does it use program, activity, and
service eligibility criteria that do not discriminate against
older people or people with disabilities?
-
Reinforce natural
support systems?
Does it permit funding to pay for natural supports as well as
agency-based services?
-
Fund people, not
programs? Does it provide flexible funding that
allows individuals practicing self-direction to purchase the
services and supports they need to accomplish their own goals,
and to spend funds in their own communities so that local market
forces shape more efficient, effective services?
To learn more about the
Olmstead
Decision and its implementation in Iowa, please contact:
Alice Holdiman, Chair, Olmstead Real
Choices Consumer Taskforce
405 E. Water Street, Decorah, IA 52101
563-382-3600,
holdimal@yahoo.com
