HCBS Transition Plan

Georgia Statewide Transition Plan (HCBS)

Effective March 17, 2017, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) issued new regulations that require home and community-based waiver services to be provided in community-like settings commonly referred to as the Home and Community-Based Services Settings Rule (Rule). The new Rule defines settings that are and are not community-like. Service settings that do not have characteristics determined to be community-based cannot be reimbursed by Medicaid.

The purpose of the Rule is to ensure that people who receive home and community-based waiver services have opportunities to access their community and receive services in the most integrated settings. The Rule stresses the importance of ensuring that individuals who rely on home and community-based services are not isolated or segregated and are able to exercise rights, optimize independence and choose from an array of integrated service options and settings.

The Department of Community Health has established the HCBS Statewide Transition Plan mandated by CMS to ensure that all States come into full compliance with this Rule by March 2023. To demonstrate that the State of Georgia is in full compliance with this Rule, this plan describes how it will assess all settings subject to the Rule and apply a methodology whereby the state will fully comply by the end of the transition period.

Please see the HCBS Setting Rule and Transition Plan Documents Below for more information.

• HCBS Public Notice and Statewide Transition Plan - Posted 03/23/22
• Federal and State Licensure Regulations  - Updated 07/13/22
• Final submission March 2022  - Posted 03/15/22
• Landlord Tenant Handbook  - Posted 03/15/22
• Compliance Review of State Regulations and HCBS Program Policies  - Posted 03/15/22
• GA Remediation Strategy Flow  - Posted 03/15/22
• HCBS Final Rule Regulatory Recommendations  - Posted 03/15/22
• HCBS Policy Remediation Final  - Posted 03/15/22
• Lease Protection GHPC WR  - Posted 03/15/22

The Georgia Department of Community Health is required to give public notice related to the state’s plan to comply with new regulation(s) governing the settings in which services to Medicaid Home and Community-Based Service waiver recipients may be provided.

The Rule provides definitions and characteristics of HCBS (e.g. HCBS are community-integrated) and the state’s responsibility is to explain how it will assure and validate that HCBS waiver services are being provided in a manner that matches the definitions and characteristics.

The public may comment in writing starting March 24, 2022, by sending postal mail to the Department of Community Health, ATTN: HCBS Transition-37th Floor, 2 Peachtree Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303; or by submitting an email to [email protected]; or by fax to 404-656-8366.

An opportunity for public comment will be held on March 30,2022 at 11:30 a.m., via Zoom audio. There will be no in-person attendance at the Department of Community Health (DCH).

Please see the HCBS Settings Rule and Transition Plan Fact Sheet  (posted 03/15/22) for more information.

Summary

The goal of the Statewide Transition Plan is to establish the steps that will be required for all waiver services and supporting infrastructures and policies to come into compliance with the HCBS Settings Rule. The Statewide Transition Plan has four major sections:

1. Identification – describes how the state will identify all the HCBS settings, policies, standards, etc., that will need to be assessed
2. Assessment –  describes how the assessment will be performed
3. Remediation – if the assessment results in findings that indicate a setting, policy, standard, etc., that does not conform to the new HCBS rule, the remediation section will describe how that discrepancy will be corrected.