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

Announcements:

• 2023 Room and Board and Personal Needs Allowance (PNA) Changes

• Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Provider Training Grants Available

Friday Feature:

• The OCL Acronym Glossary Webpage

Announcements

2023 Room and Board and Personal Needs Allowance (PNA) Changes

Effective Jan. 1, 2023, there will be an 8.7% cost of living increase to both Social Security and Old Age Pension (OAP) beneficiaries. The maximum Social Security Income monthly payment an individual may receive will increase to $914.69 per month, and the maximum OAP amount will increase to $952.00 per month.

In response to the Cost-of-Living-Adjustment (COLA) increases, the Department is adjusting the PNA and Room and Board payment amounts for members utilizing the following residential services: Group Residential Support Services (GRSS), Individual Residential Services and Supports (IRSS), Alternative Care Facilities (ACF), Supported Living Programs (SLP) and Transitional Living Programs (TLP). The minimum amount members may receive for PNA will increase to $159. The maximum amount a residential provider may charge a participant in a GRSS, IRSS, ACF, SLP, or TLP setting for Room and Board will increase to $755.00.



For more information regarding this change please review Informational Memo 22-036.

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HCBS Provider Training Grants Available

Through the American Recue Plan Act (ARPA Project) 1.05, the Department is offering short-term grant funding to incentivize and expand training opportunities for the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) workforce. The goal of this project is increasing HCBS workforce recruitment and retention.

For more information, see the Provider Training Grant Flyer.

For information on how to apply, see the AARPA 1.05 Grant Opportunities webpage.

Friday Feature

The OCL Acronym Glossary Webpage

This week OCL is featuring the OCL Acronym Glossary webpage.

About the OCL Acronym Glossary

Have you ever needed to find out what an acronym used in OCL stakeholder engagement means? While we strive to explain every acronym we use in our meetings, memos and newsletters, sometimes stakeholders aren't aware of the explanations. And - truth be told - we can do a better job of repeating these definitions more frequently.

About the OCL Acronym Glossary Webpage

Through this webpage, we provide a searchable list of all the acronyms we (and our stakeholders) use. Search categories on the page include:

• Search by acronym

• Search by the full spelling of an acronym

• Search by descriptive notes for key words

• Search by website link

We hope you'll bookmark the OCL Acronym Glossary webpage and use it as a handy reference.

Signing up for OCL and Department Communications

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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