T-TAP: Medicaid Waiver Funding

Interviewer: Before we talk more about how you are using the waiver creatively, could you talk about the individuals in your program? We will then talk about the creative use of the waiver that you've done.

Danny Cowart: We currently serve 443 different individuals in 57 different counties in the state of Mississippi. Of those 443, we serve about 100 adults in our different day programs located in those seven cities that I mentioned earlier. The day programs really just serve as a staging area and that is how we get into our creative way of doing things. We serve individuals in some of the programs from birth to elderly. There is no age-in or age-out in the Waiver Services. In Mississippi, our waivers are on a fee-per-service. In other words, we get a reimbursement rate. What we do with that reimbursement rate has to meet minimum standards. Anything else is just really up to us [the program].

I think that we have 66 [individuals in] jobs at this time through our State of Mississippi Waiver. These are individuals who are not just exploring [work], but people who actually have jobs. We are really proud of that, because we think that supported employment fits in very well. The intended, stated purpose of the Mississippi Waiver is to delay or prevent institutionalization. One of the things that we have found as we're serving individuals is that we are also serving the families.

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