Waiver Reimagine is a project that aims to improve and simplify services for people in Minnesota who use disability waivers. For more background information on Waiver Reimagine, go to:
Input from people with disabilities who access waivers and their families, as well as counties, tribal nations, providers and advocates has and will continue to inform Waiver Reimagine’s goals and the project’s course. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) hosted a series of online events between August and November 2020 to gather feedback about specific parts of the project. The following November event summary is the fourth in a series of topic briefs that explore key Waiver Reimagine improvements. This page:
During the November event, DHS shared plans for the future of people’s budgets in Minnesota: Support ranges, which will allow people to use their own budget to choose what services and supports are important to them and for them. Participants provided feedback about support ranges and ideas for how DHS should communicate the changes.
Event participants shared excitement about support ranges’ potential to increase equity, transparency and self-direction. They stressed that the changes should be carried out consistently, and that support ranges must adequately meet people’s needs. Participants also requested more information about many aspects of support ranges and asked DHS to communicate frequently.
DHS will use this feedback to create communications and resources to help people understand support ranges and their impacts. The input also will inform future opportunities for people to learn and provide feedback about support ranges.
During the next couple years, Minnesota plans to transition people who use waiver services to a budgeting system called support ranges. The new support ranges will:
DHS plans to seek state and federal authority in 2021 to transition to support ranges during the next few years. This would create one new, individual budgeting methodology for all waiver services and supports. Under this model, each person would be assigned a support range (and associated budget) based on their assessed needs.
Waiver Reimagine also would expand access to self-direction to all people who use waiver services. Support ranges would bolster self-direction by allowing people to use their own budget to choose their service/support mix. People who want to try self-direction would have more options to self-direct some services to determine if it is right for them.
Support ranges only would be one part of a person’s support plan. The person's unique goals and needs still would be part of the planning process. A person’s support range would not be based on one or a handful of assessment questions. Instead, a combined score across each of the following assessment areas would be used to determine their support range:
DHS has researched, developed and gathered feedback about support ranges for several years. This work shows adults and children have very different needs, services, supports and spending. For that reason, adults and children across several age cohorts would have different support ranges:
In November, we asked participants to share their thoughts about support ranges and how DHS should communicate the changes. Participants gave input by filling out a pre-event input form and/or joining the online feedback event.
To recruit participants, we posted information about the input form and event on the Waiver Reimagine page and notified potential participants through a DHS Disability Services Division eList announcement. DHS, along with our communication partner, The Improve Group, also conducted direct outreach from Oct. 26-Nov. 6, 2020, to those who had previously expressed interest in joining Waiver Reimagine feedback events.
In addition to general outreach efforts, tailored outreach strategies focused on reaching populations that are underserved by and underrepresented in the waiver system (such as people of color who access waiver services, people with culturally specific needs, and parents of school-age children with disabilities). Strategies included outreach through culturally specific groups and organizations, as well as through trusted community liaisons. The Improve Group also met with an advocacy organization to gather recommendations for engagement with these communities.
The pre-event input form received 104 responses from Oct. 26-Nov. 6, 2020. About 60 percent of respondents were representatives of service providers, lead agencies and advocacy organizations, while 40 percent were people and their family members.
Those interested also had the option to register for one of two online feedback sessions held on Nov. 17, 2020. There were 62 participants between the two events: 27 attended the daytime session and 35 joined the evening session. At both events, most participants were family members and people who access services.
During each session, DHS staff shared more information about and examples of support ranges and answered participants’ questions about the changes. Participants also joined small groups to:
A recording of the event presentation and question-and-answer sessions is available to view until March 31, 2021.
Event participants shared excitement about support ranges’ potential to increase equity, transparency and self-direction. They stressed that the changes should be carried out consistently and that support ranges must adequately meet people’s needs. Participants also requested more information about many aspects of support ranges and asked DHS to communicate frequently. More specifically, participants shared that they:
This feedback fits with findings from the pre-event input form and prior stakeholder engagement efforts. People and families shared that they care about spending and think it is important to understand. Lead agency representatives noted that those they serve continue to have concerns about budgeting and spending.
DHS will use the information participants shared to:
Continued feedback will influence how we carry out and communicate about Waiver Reimagine. To learn more about the project and the events:
