The Department of Health and Welfare is seeking to retract the application for its current waiver authority, which allows for “legally responsible individuals” to provide personal care services to their spouse or child. The deadline to provide public comment on the impacts of this change is due Wednesday, December 4, 2024. If approved, Family Personal Care Services will be terminated effective January 31, 2025.
The ability for legally responsible individuals (spouses and parents) to provide personal care services to their family members was a regulatory relaxation permitted during the public health emergency and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare sought to extend it once the public health emergency ended through an 1115 Waiver Demonstration application with CMS (Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services). This waiver allowed parents and spouses (legally responsible individuals) to provide personal care services to their family member, while employed by an agency, using Medicaid funding. The department cites Fraud/Waste/Abuse allegations and significant utilization growth in the program as primary reasons for the retraction.
The information release regarding this change can also be found here as well as this article for more information.
The Department is required to allow for public comment as part of the application process with CMS. To share your comments and have them included in the information sent to CMS, please email them by Wednesday, December 4th at MCPT@dhw.idaho.gov.