CMS Pressures States to Adhere to Upcoming HCBS Rule Deadline

McKnight’s Home Care | By Liza Berger

[Last] Thursday [was] the cut-off for states to submit corrective action plans (CAPs) for their home- and community-based services (HCBS) programs in advance of the March 17 HCBS regulatory deadline. But the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is concerned that states are dragging their heels on the CAPs.

“Today’s conversation is in the name of information sharing, technical assistance, reiterating expectations that we are a partner in adhering to the settings regulation, and yet we’re quite serious that it needs to have meaning and beneficiaries need to be able to see their lives reflected in the in the words in the regulation,” Melissa Harris, deputy director for the Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group, said earlier this month, according to the Inside Health Policy news outlet.

The warning comes as HCBS stakeholders have voiced concerns that a majority of providers are turning away referrals because of limited staff capacity, and the workforce crisis is putting a severe strain on resources. CMS officials have been adamant that workforce shortages are not a justification for not meeting basic civil right requirements such as access to food and freedom to have visitors.

If states anticipate they will be unable to come into compliance with the final rule by March 17, they have until Dec. 1 to submit CAPs, CMS has said. States’ CAPs should include details on which criteria they need more time to complete — excluding criteria that protect basic civil and constitutional rights.

In May, CMS issued a recalibrated strategy to help states comply with the HCBS final rule and the March 17 deadline.

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