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Committee Charge
Through House Joint Resolution 09-1026, the Colorado General Assembly created an interim committee. The charge of the committee was to understand why large waiting lists exist for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers for children with chronic, long-term disabilities and to discuss strategies and solutions for reducing the waiting lists for the 900 children in need.
The specific HCBS Waivers examined by this committee included: Children’s HCBS Waiver (C-HCBS), Children’s Extensive Support (CES), Children with Autism Waiver (CWA), and the Hospice or Hope Waiver.
The committee met a total of six times from August through October 2009 to solicit public testimony and accept input from the community. Interim committee members volunteered their time. No funds were provided for this committee; therefore, Legislative Council was unable to provide support. Instead, the committee was supported and staffed by two nonprofit organizations: Family Voices Colorado and the Autism Society of Colorado. A private grant from The Colorado Health Foundation was acquired to support an external project facilitator and to reimburse some of the costs of printing and support services to this committee.
Background
Currently, more than 900 children with chronic, long-term disabilities are waiting for services under four Children’s Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers. Along with their families, these kids are waiting years for vitally necessary health care services and benefits. The medications, therapies, formulas, diapers, durable medical equipment, and home health care that they need are not available through other funding streams.
Many of the kids and families waiting for services have private insurance (an estimated 80% based on testimony), yet coverage is often inadequate or lacks specific benefits for many of the high-cost services that children with special health care needs require, such as durable medical equipment, home health care, and mental health services.
While most of these children waiting for services qualify for “nursing home level of care,” providing services and allowing them to live at home is more desirable for families and more cost effective for the state.
More Information
Click on the meeting dates below to access an agenda or a complete audio recording (mp3) of that meeting:
Status of Proposed Legislation
Coming soon!
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