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.

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