State of Ohio holds second of two public comment hearings on CMS Transition Plan

On January 15, the State of Ohio held its second of two public hearings on the state’s proposed CMS Transition Plan.  Representatives of the Ohio Department of DD, the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation, and the Ohio Department of Medicaid attended the hearing in their official capacity to receive the public comments.

All public comments were recorded and each person had between three and five minutes to talk. Approximately 50 people attended the hearing, with less than half of those actually offering public comments.  The majority of audience members appeared to be parents and family members, as were the majority of those offering public comment.

Major themes highlighted by speakers included:

• General agreement that expanded opportunities to live and work in the community are good, but that the changes can’t happen overnight.
• Concerns about the health and safety of people with developmental disabilities during and after the transition.
• A lack of necessary resources, funding, training, and staff members in the DD system to accommodate community integration on a fast pace.
• The steps of the proposed transition plan are not clearly defined, causing anxiety about what the future holds for many families.
• Concerns that the opinions of people served by Ohio’s DD system were not being taken into account and that their interests were not necessarily being kept as the most important factor to consider.

OACB attended the hearing in order to listen to public comments but will submit its formal comment in writing before the January 23 deadline.  Questions about the public comment hearing can be directed to Joe Russell (jrussell@oacbdd.org) at 614-431-0616.