Home and Community Based Services

HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES

Home and Community Based Services provide opportunities for people with disabilities to live in the most integrated setting possible. In January 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced new rules for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). The final rules, which took effect in March 2014, reiterate long-standing federal law that institutions cannot be funded as Home and Community-Based Services settings.  The new rules require that all Home and Community-Based Services must:

• Be integrated in, and facilitate full access to, the greater community;
• Optimize autonomy and independence in making life choices;
• Be chosen by the individual from among residential and day options, including non-disability specific settings;
• Ensure the right to privacy, dignity, respect and freedom from coercion and restraint;
• Provide an opportunity to seek competitive employment;
• Provide individuals an option to choose a private unit in a residential setting; and
• Facilitate choice of services and who provides them.

Resources

For more information and to view how Nebraska plans on complying, take a look at these resources:

• Nebraska's Statewide Transition Plan
• HCBS Waiver Information Sheet
• Disability Rights Nebraska Comments on Statewide Transition Plan
• HCBS Advocacy Coalition Website
• "The Medicaid HCBS Settings Rules: What You Should Know" 

Technical Assistance Webinars

In late 2018 and early 2019, the federal Administration for Community Living, in partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other national partners, provided the public with a series of webinars highlighting states' approaches to the implementation of the federal settings criteria for Home and Community Based Services:

• Webinar 1 -- Innovative State Approaches to Promoting Compliance with the Federal Home and Community Based Services Settings Criteria
• Webinar 2 -- Promising State Strategies for Working with Providers to Meet the Home ad Community Based Services Settings Criteria & Promote Optimal Community Integration
• Webinar 3 -- Ongoing Home and Community Based Systems Change Before & After State Transition Plan Approval

Cover Photo (altered): https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/background-scene-with-many-houses-village_2175844.htm