The Office of Community Living (OCL) within the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) has the following information to share below:

Announcements:

• Application Announcement: ARPA 7.02 Member Emergency Preparedness Surviving In Place - Battery Backup Power Supply Systems

• Wellness Education Benefit (WEB): Stakeholder Input Requested

• World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

• The Ombudsman and Legal Assistance Developer Programs are Transitioning to the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS)

• CDHS Hosting Stakeholder Listening Sessions for SB 23-040

Memo:

• Children's Habilitation Residential Program (CHRP) Waiver Expansion of Respite Limit and Provider Capacity Limit

OCL Stakeholder Meeting Recordings:

• Have You Missed a Meeting of Interest to You?

Announcements

Application Announcement:

ARPA 7.02 Member Emergency Preparedness 

Surviving In Place - Battery Backup Power Supply Systems

HCPF has recognized the importance of being prepared for a power outage emergency for individuals utilizing life-sustaining medical devices. With funding made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and in collaboration with The Center for Inclusive Design and Engineering (CIDE), we will be distributing Battery Backup Power Supply Systems to eligible Health First Colorado members, assisting them in having the necessary equipment to be better prepared and in maintaining their health, safety and independence.

If you are interested in getting a Backup Power Supply System, please complete the application. Once received, the application will be reviewed, information verified, and a determination made if the applicant qualifies. There is a limited supply and a final decision will be made on eligibility and the availability of devices. All applicants will be notified of their results within two months of receipt of the application. All questions should be directed to Julia Beems at 303-315-1284 or julia.beems@ucdenver.edu

For more information about the project visit the Surviving in Place webpage.

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Wellness Education Benefit (WEB): Stakeholder Input Requested

The Community First Choice (CFC) team is seeking stakeholder input about information being considered for publication through the upcoming Wellness Education Benefit (WEB).

About the Wellness Education Benefit (WEB)

The WEB will be a monthly waiver service that mails individualized educational materials to home and community-based services (HCBS) waiver members. The WEB is designed to assist with promoting and managing health, achieving service plan goals, preventing hospitalization or health care facility placement, and promoting community living for waiver members. The launch of WEB services will occur for Children’s HCBS (CHCBS) waiver members in March 2024, and for all HCBS waiver members in March 2025.

About the Survey

The WEB team has drafted eight articles for CHCBS waiver members. Survey responses will be anonymous. We ask all interested stakeholders to review them and give us feedback in these areas:

• Information readability and ease of understanding

• Relevance of topic and content

• Benefit and usefulness of the information

• Thoughts and special considerations

Please Take the Survey by Thursday, June 22, 2023

Take the WEB Article Survey

Survey responses will be anonymous.

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World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

The Colorado Coalition for Elder Rights & Abuse Prevention (CCERAP) and the State Unit on Aging have asked us to share their invitation to a Colorado in-person event of the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

For more than 20 years, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and AARP have partnered on the ElderWatch program to help educate and empower older Coloradans to recognize, refuse and report fraud, scams and financial exploitation.

Please join us for a special World Elder Abuse Awareness Day event as we celebrate the past 20 years of ElderWatch and look toward the future of protecting older adults in Colorado.

Agenda

• 9 a.m. Breakfast

• 9:30 a.m. Opening Remarks - Yolanda Webb

• 9:40 a.m. Attorney General Phil Weiser

• 10 a.m. Celebrating 20 years of ElderWatch

• 10:30 a.m. Paul Greenwood

• 11:30 a.m. Federal Enforcement on Scams

• 12 p.m. Lunch

• 1 p.m. Changing the Narrative

The event will be held:

Thursday, June 15, 2023

History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203



Register Here for This Event

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Colorado State Long-Term Care (LTC) Ombudsman Office, the State Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Ombudsman Program and the Legal Assistance Developer (LAD) Program are transitioning to the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS)

Mindy Gates, Deputy Director of the Office of Adult, Aging and Disability Services, CDHS, has announced that in the coming weeks the Colorado State LTC Ombudsman Office, the State PACE Ombudsman Program and the LAD Program will move from their current operation under the current contractor, Disability Law Colorado, to operations under CDHS.

Through the Older Americans Act, the State LTC Ombudsman Office promotes and protects the rights of long-term care residents by advocating for residents of skilled nursing homes and licensed assisted living centers across the state. Also part of the Older Americans Act, the LAD Program provides leadership in securing and maintaining the rights of older adults in Colorado by providing them legal aid and advocacy. Finally, the State PACE Ombudsman Program provides critical and independent advocacy to help Colorado PACE participants and their families navigate the complex service delivery system within PACE and ensure quality care.

The decision to move the ombudsman and legal assistance programs to CDHS was a collaborative decision in conjunction with Disability Law Colorado (DLC). For more than 30 years, DLC has hosted these programs, providing incredible service and support to Coloradans. CDHS appreciates the dedication and hard work of those involved in these programs for so many years and remains steadfast in our future support of the programs. This transition has been underway for many months and has been designed to create as little disruption to the programs as possible.

The transition will occur in two phases:

• Phase 1 will take place on June 12, 2023, and includes the move of the State LTC Ombudsman, Deputy State LTC Ombudsman, and State PACE Ombudsman positions to CDHS. As required by state regulations, these positions were established within CDHS, posted to the public and the hiring process was followed. The individuals hired for these positions are:

• Leah McMahon will be the State LTC Ombudsman
• Saori Kimura will be the Deputy State LTC Ombudsman
• Michelle Jaramillo will be the State PACE Ombudsman

• Phase 2 will take place on July 1, 2023. It will include the transition of the LAD Program from DLC to CDHS. Candise Johnnie within the State Unit on Aging will assume the LAD Program duties. In addition, two more positions will be created within CDHS over the summer to serve under the State LTC Ombudsman Office - a Quality Assurance Manager and a Volunteer Coordinator. These positions will be posted when they have been established.

The website for the programs will not change.

For More Information

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Mindy Gates or call her at 720-626-9627. Mindy will be out of the office from June 12 to 23. During this period please email Kara Harvey or call her at 720-415-8160 if you need assistance.

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CDHS Hosting Stakeholder Listening Sessions for SB 23-040

The CDHS Adult Protective Services program welcomes your participation in stakeholder listening sessions on June 28 and 29, 2023, to review draft rule changes for the Colorado Adult Protective Service (CAPS) Check process. This draft rulemaking process is underway to implement the recently passed Senate Bill 23-040 ("Staffing Agency CAPS Checks").

About Senate Bill (SB) 23-040

SB 23-040 created role clarity for CAPS Checks when employers obtain staffing resources through a third-party agency meeting the definition of "staffing agency" as defined in the bill. The bill also authorizes previously prohibited information sharing between agencies supplying staff to employers and the employers receiving staff to ensure efficiency and reduction of duplicated efforts. These changes are set to go into effect in January 2024. Rulemaking will proceed over the coming months. CDHS would appreciate your feedback!

Stakeholder Listening Sessions

CDHS will hold two virtual listening sessions for interested stakeholders. If you are unable to attend these sessions, they will be recorded and posted to the APS website and the CAPS Check Unit (CCU) website within one week of the meetings. The websites will be maintained with current information throughout the rulemaking process, including additional opportunities for public comment. Listening sessions will include a very brief overview of the draft rule changes, with the remainder of the time open for public questions and comments.

Listening Session #1

June 28, 9 to 10 a.m. MT

Join via Google Meet

Join via Phone:

225-629-1220, PIN: 520 367 795#

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Listening Session #2

June 29, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. MT

Join via Google Meet

Join via Phone:

224-420-9573, PIN: ‪513 161 967#

For Questions and Feedback

For additional questions related to this rulemaking, you can also provide feedback in the following ways:

• Feedback Form: You are welcome to complete the CDHS feedback form to send us any thoughts, questions or concerns about the rule draft. We will collect and monitor this form periodically throughout the rulemaking process. 

• Contact CDHS directly:
• Stefanie Woodard, APS Program Director: stefanie.woodard@state.co.us
• Kara Harvey, Aging and Adult Services Division Director: kara.harvey@state.co.us

Memo

This memo and other memos of interest are on HCPF's 2023 Memo Series Communication webpage.

• Informational Memo - Children's Habilitation Residential Program (CHRP) Waiver Expansion of Respite Limit and Provider Capacity Limit (June 9, 2023): The purpose of this Operational Memo (OM) is to inform Case Management Agencies (CMAs), Home and Community-Based Services - Children’s Habilitation Residential Program (CHRP) providers, parents/legally responsible parties, families, and stakeholders of changes to the CHRP regulations expanding the Respite unit limit and the Group Home and Foster Care Home provider capacity limits. This memo also corrects an error in the HCPF Operational Memo O23-031 regarding the CHRP Respite benefit limit.

OCL Stakeholder Meeting Recordings

Have You Missed a Meeting of Interest to You?

These recordings are posted on the OCL Stakeholder Engagement YouTube channel as well on HCPF program-related webpages. There may be other recordings of interest to you on the channel, so please go to the channel and explore. The most recent meeting recordings are at the bottom of the page.

Below are links to recently uploaded OCL meeting recordings:

• Creating Equitable Access within Colorado’s Medicaid HCBS - Summit #2 - June 6, 2023

Need to Make an Accommodation Request for one of our General OCL or ARPA-Related Stakeholder Meetings?

Reasonable accommodations for all OCL and ARPA-related stakeholder meetings will be provided upon request for persons with disabilities. Auxiliary aids and services for individuals with disabilities and language services for individuals whose first language is not English may be provided upon request. Please notify John Barry at 303-866-3173 or John.R.Barry@state.co.usor the 504/ADA Coordinator at hcpf504ada@state.co.us at least one week prior to the meeting to make arrangements.

📅 General OCL Meetings are on the OCL Stakeholder Engagement and Calendar webpage.

📅 ARPA-Related Meetings are on the ARPA Stakeholder Engagement and Calendar webpage.

Signing up for OCL and HCPF Communications

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you can sign up here.

See a list of all HCPF newsletters you can subscribe to.

Looking for Prior OCL Communications?

Do you know about the OCL LTSS newsletter archive? On this page, you can:

• Search OCL newsletters back to January 2021

• Subscribe to the newsletter

• Keep track of OCL announcements, meeting reminders, and memos