Minnesota Waiver Reimagine

Opportunity

HSRI worked with Minnesota’s Department of Human Services and project partners (National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services, Burns & Associates/HMA, and the University of Minnesota) in the ongoing development and implementation of its Waiver Reimagine program that seeks to simplify the service system for people with disabilities and create greater equity throughout the state. This work involved restructuring Minnesota’s disability waivers, developing individual budgets based on support needs, enhancing self-direction, moving to a consistent statewide funding model for services, and developing a comprehensive quality improvement strategy to assess progress. Waiver Reimagine is the culmination of many of Minnesota’s long-term goals for improving its service system.

Approach

Gauging impact and achieving project goals

Community input will be instrumental in helping the state achieve its goals for the project, which center around the development of individually responsive programs. The overarching goals are to:

• Provide equal access and benefits across disability waiver programs. The programs will be responsive to a person’s needs, circumstances and preferences.
• Align benefits across waiver programs for people with disabilities, including consistent limits and allowable services.
• Facilitate flexible and predictable benefit changes that recognize life changes and an increased use of technology.
• Simplify administration to make waivers easier to understand for people receiving services, county and tribal administrators, and service providers.

To engage constituents, we reached out to the University of Minnesota. UMN conducted focus groups to hear about people’s experiences with these waivers and to help us better understand needed changes. Through Waiver Reimagine Conversations held in a variety of locations and languages, UMN sought input from individuals served by Minnesota’s four disability waivers, family members, individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and members of tribal nations–as well as county staff and service providers.

Individual budgets

Members from our intellectual and developmental disabilities, aging and disabilities, and behavioral health research teams are also advising the state on how it can promote self-direction and flexibility of funds through an individual budgeting model.

Minnesotans with disabilities have the option to self-direct their funding or to choose traditional services and service delivery. In the Consumer Directed Community Supports (CDCS) option to self-direct services, individuals are provided with an individual budget. This project proposed changes to those budgets as well as proposed a methodology and implementation strategy for budgets for individuals who do not currently self-direct.

Impact

The Waiver Reimagine project helped DSD learn how it can provide services throughout the state in a way that is more equitable across individuals with brain injury, mental health needs, IDD, and physical disability using services—and that simplifies access for over 43,000 service recipients and streamlines service administration.