Indiana Family to Family

To: Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services Providers and Stakeholders  From: Nicole Norvell, Director, Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services  Re: State Wide Transition Plans for Public Comment  Date: October 31, 2014 The Family and Social Services Administration’s (FSSA) Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) and the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning (OMPP) have developed two comprehensive transition documents outlining Indiana’s plans to meet the Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) rules for both the Family Supports (FSW) and the Community Integration and Habilitation (CIH) Waivers. The transition plans include information about Indiana’s assessment process to date; plans for continuing assessments; how compliance will be identified; and the strategies to be utilized to come into compliance with the HCBS rules.  The plans for both waivers will be submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) no

NDNRC ANNOUNCES LOCATIONS OF 11 COMMUNITY OUTREACH COLLABORATIVES (COCS) The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is pleased to announce that it will be funding eleven Community Outreach Collaboratives (COCs) through the National Disability Navigator Resource Collaborative (NDNRC) project.  The COCs will increase collaborations in the community, dissemination and outreach efforts and enrollment of people with disabilities in the ACA. The COCs will have two primary tasks: 1) build cross-disability collaborations with other disability organizations; and 2) have the cross-disability collaboration work as a dissemination and outreach resource with their local and/or state navigators and assisters. The COCs represent organizations with geographic diversity as well as varying constituencies within the disability community. AAHD is proud to say that the 11 COCs represent 11 different states and are located in 9 of the 10 HHS regions. The 11 COCs are (by HHS regions) a

Families will soon have the opportunity to enroll in health care plans, renew their plan, or change to a new plan in the Marketplace.   Open enrollment is from November 15, 2014 through February 15, 2015.  Please note that families can enroll anytime if there have been “life changes” (e.g. lost employment and insurance) or if they are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. Enrolling for the first time There are 4 ways for families to apply.  Families can enroll online, by phone, with a paper application, or with in-person help in your community. Enroll online Go to  https://www.healthcare.gov/get-coverage/ ,  enter your state, and click “apply.”  Fill out an application, find out if you are eligible for subsidies, Medicaid or CHIP, pick a plan and enroll. Enroll by phone Call the 24 hour Marketplace hotline at (800)318-2596 or TTY: (855)889-4325. Enroll using a paper application Applications are found at  http://marketplace.cms.gov/applications-and-forms/marketplace-application-fo

As an advocacy organization, Family Voices Indiana, together with Indiana American Academy of Pediatrics and Covering Kids and Families, authored a letter to Governor Pence asking for his support of CHIP funding. We are pleased that 28 organizations have signed on to the letter. We urge you to contact your legislators as well. October 27, 2014 The Honorable Mike Pence Office of the Governor Statehouse Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2797 Dear Governor Pence: As advocates, professionals, and families concerned about the health and well-being of Indiana’s  children, we are writing to urge you to take action to ensure continued federal funding for  Indiana’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  The CHIP program was enacted in 1997 with strong bipartisan support. Since its inception, it  has helped the children of working families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too  little to afford private health insurance by providing coverage and access

The Early Childhood Meeting Place was originally developed and launched in 1998 as an online training events calendar for First Steps and early childhood special education providers. In 2005, the site experienced significant growth and expansion with generous support from the Indiana State Department of Health and its Sunny Start Initiative. The Early Childhood Meeting Place will be shutting down on October 31, 2014.  As the home of the Sunny Start Fact sheets, an alternate home was sought for this valuable resource for families and professionals. Family Voices Indiana is proud to be the new home for the fact sheets. You can find the English fact sheets  here  and the Spanish ones  here . You can also use these overview sheets as a resource to the families you serve: http://fvindiana.org/Files/SS/ FS_ResourceFactSheet.pdf  for English http://fvindiana.org/Files/SS/ FS_ResourceFactSheet_SP.pdf   for Spanish If you are an organization, you are welcome to lin