DDS issues policy on residential settings

DDS has released its policy on how it intends to implement the Medicaid ruling on what constitutes home and community based services. This spells out the residential settings in which DDS will permit DDS dollars to be spent.

In particular, please note:

“The Department, consistent with the CMS Community Rule, will not license, fund or support new residential development with characteristics that isolate individuals receiving HCBS services from the broader community. These characteristics include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Settings that have limited, if any, interaction with the broader community;
• Settings that use or authorize restrictions that are used in institutional settings;
• Farmsteads or disability-specific farm community;
• Gated or secured communities for people with disabilities;
• Settings that are part of or adjacent to a residential school;
• Multiple settings co-located and operationally-related that congregate a large number of people with disabilities for significant shared programming and staff;
• Multiple settings on a single site or in close proximity”

“DDS may license or fund new homes in the community that are duplexes, “triple-deckers”, or free standing homes that are either side by side or adjacent or on bordering lots only upon the review and approval of the regional director, the assistant commissioner for field operations and the assistant commissioner for quality management. The capacity in these settings may not exceed four (4) individuals on each side of a duplex, in each unit of a triple decker or in each free standing home located on adjacent lots.”

The complete policy may be found at: https://www.mass.gov/doc/ddshcbs-policy-2014-1/download