Free Advocacy Trainings

Do you want to learn how to do a Medicaid appeal? Do you want to be a better advocate for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities?

Free trainings are coming up in Coeur d'Alene and Nampa. The trainings cover how to handle appeals in the Idaho Medicaid program for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

The free trainings are part of the Settlement Agreement in the K.W. v. Armstrong class action lawsuit. You can learn more about the Settlement Agreement on this website.

If you are a Service Coordinator or Support Broker and you complete this training, you will be able to get reimbursed from Medicaid for your work helping Medicaid DD program participants in budget appeals.

Read on for more details, and to pre-register for the trainings!

Four people sitting around a table with a notepad, looking at photos and smiling

Click here to pre-register for one of these trainings.

Coeur d'Alene training
Friday, December 1, 2017
10:30 am to about 3:30 pm
City of Coeur d'Alene Fire Department
Station 3 Training Room
1500 N 15th St.
Coeur d'Alene, ID  83814

Nampa training
Friday, January 19, 2018
10:30 am to about 3:30 pm
Nampa Public Library
Multipurpose Room A
215 12th Avenue S
Nampa, ID 83651

And click here for even more information about the trainings.
 

The Jack Hansen Show episode 3: Jack interviews Art Evans!

The new Jack Hansen Show episode is out! In this episode, Jack interviews Art Evans, Bureau Chief for Developmental Disability Services for Idaho Medicaid.

Jack asks Art about the K.W. versus Armstrong settlement, how adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities can get involved, and how all people with disabilities should be treated.

Watch it today and share with your friends and family:

The Jack Hansen Show, episode 3

The latest news about Community NOW!

Community NOW! is a program to hear directly from adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. It is a program to hear what they want and need and how the Medicaid program in Idaho should change. It started earlier this year. We wrote about it when it started. Then we wrote about the first Community NOW! report when it came out in July 2017.

Community NOW! is still going. Here is what's happening:

• Presentation to Health & Welfare: A month ago, on August 18, 2017, some adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities and family members made a presentation. They presented the Community NOW! recommendations to top leaders at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, including the Director of the Department, Russ Barron. You can see a video about the presentation that the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities made.

• Medicaid's response: Earlier this month, the head of Medicaid for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare responded to the first Community NOW! report. He wrote a letter. It says that Health & Welfare leaders and their lawyers will be meeting this month--September 2017--to talk about the report. Then they want to meet again with the Community NOW! group to get feedback on what they talked about. They promise to keep the Community NOW! group up to date. You can read the Health & Welfare letter by clicking this link. Medicaid says it is already doing some things to bring the Community NOW! recommendations to life. Here is a chart Medicaid made to show what it is already doing or going to do soon.

• New Community NOW! meetings about Person Centered Planning: This week, a new round of Community NOW! meetings started. These meetings are about Person Centered Planning. There will be a Work Group and an Advisory Group. The Advisory Group will be just adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities and family members. They will lead what happens with Person Centered Planning. The Work Group will follow the lead of the advisory group.

Do you have questions? Do you have something to say?

You can contact us or you can contact Medicaid. We are the ACLU of Idaho, and we represent all adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities who are affected by these changes to Medicaid. You can contact us using this website. Just click here!

You can contact Medicaid about Community NOW! and these changes by calling 1-844-793-1286 or emailing KW@dhw.idaho.gov. If you have trouble reaching Medicaid that way, please let us know.

Do you want to stay up to date? Join our email lists. If you don't use email or need an accommodation, just let us know.

The Jack Hansen Show - Episode 2!

Jack Hansen is one of the thousands of Idahoans affected by the changes that are coming to the Idaho Medicaid program for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The Jack Hansen Show is Jack's online series explaining the changes and how adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities need to get involved. We hope that these videos will help everyone in this Medicaid program has a voice in how the program works.

As promised in the first episode, Jack interviews Ritchie Eppink, Legal Director of the ACLU of Idaho, again in the second episode. This time, Jack asks Ritchie about the Settlement Agreement in the K.W. v. Armstrong class action lawsuit and what happens next:

To learn more, watch the video and read more on the Our Health and Welfare website.

On the next episode of The Jack Hansen Show, coming soon, Jack interviews Art Evans, Bureau Chief of Developmental Disability Services at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

The first Community NOW! report is out

Community NOW! is a new program. It is a program to hear directly from adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. It is a program to hear what they want and need and how the Medicaid program in Idaho should change. It started earlier this year. We wrote about it when it started.

The first final report from the Community NOW! program is ready. You can read it here:

Cover of the first Community NOW! report: image of two people sitting closely together, above the title--"Service and Support Recommendations from Community NOW!"

We want to hear your feedback about it! Please contact us to let us know what you think about the report.

National ACLU Story about the K.W. Lawsuit

Last week, the ACLU gave national spotlight to the K.W. lawsuit about Idaho adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In a national blog post, the ACLU explained how the case challenged they Idaho Medicaid was using complicated, computer-based formulas to come up with individual budgets.

Learn more about the case and read quotes from Ritchie Eppink, one of the lawyers involved in the case. The article is on the ACLU's national Free Future blog, about technology and civil liberties.

The First Report is Almost Ready!

Your opinion is more important than ever.

The Department of Health and Welfare is still at work hearing from people with developmental and intellectual disabilities across the state. A group called "Community NOW!" has been meeting since January. This group is centered around adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. They are giving their opinion about what services and supports they need and how the Medicaid program should change.

In April and May, the Department of Health and Welfare traveled around the state to hearing from people who are not part of the Community NOW! group. The ACLU went along to monitor the meetings and to hear from people who attended, too.

Now the helping organization that the Department is working with, called Human Services Research Institute, is working on a report about what we heard from people. That report will have recommendations for what the Department should change. The report will be finished by the end of June.

Soon, you should have a chance to look at the report and give your opinion. Stay tuned for the next update.

Whenever you have questions, just let us know!

We are making a book!

There are a lot of changes coming for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities in Idaho. This website it about how we can all be a part of making those changes.

Drawing of an open book

We want to tell the story about how these changes happen. We want adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities to be the ones who tell the story.

We are going to make a book to tell the story. If you know someone with a developmental or intellectual disability who might want to be a part of the book, please let us know!

Many speech bubbles in different colors

We are going to start working on the book next month--in May 2017. We will tell the story of each step along the way. Each part of the process will be a new chapter. Just contact us if you or someone you know would like to tell their story in the book.

IDHW Listening Sessions have started!

ACLU of Idaho Legal Director Ritchie Eppink traveled to eastern Idaho this week. He was there to monitor the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's "Listening Sessions." The Listening Sessions are meetings across Idaho for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The Department wants to hear from you. We let you know about this statewide tour a few weeks ago.

The tour started this week. The Department had meetings with adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, and Twin Falls.

Shoshone Falls (April 5, 2017). Photo by Ritchie Eppink, ACLU of Idaho Legal Director.

The next meetings will be in Boise on April 14, 2017. If you are an adult with developmental or intellectual disabilities in the Medicaid program and you live in the Boise area, you should have gotten a letter this week about how to sign up. You have to call ahead to sign up.

After that, there will be meetings in:

• Caldwell on April 24
• Emmett on April 24
• Lewiston on May 2
• Grangeville on May 2
• Coeur d'Alene on May 3
• Sandpoint on May 4

If you live in those areas, you should get a letter soon about how to sign up.

As always, if you have any questions, just let us know!

Find us on Facebook, finally!

Many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities have asked us to share updates and information on Facebook. We heard you, and we've created a new Our Health and Welfare Facebook page.

On that page, we'll post updates like the ones we post on this website, plus other things we like and find around the Internet. Go to https://Facebook.com/OurHealthandWelfare and like us today! You can also find us at our primary ACLU of Idaho Facebook page as well.