Transcript - slide 5

Interviewer:  Could you clarify for me what you consider to be minimum standards versus best practices?

Danny Cowart:  Minimum standards have to do with personnel. You [have to] have qualified personnel as far as educational benchmarks. They have requirements for training, your buildings that you are going to use, staffing ratios, and environmental issues. But they don't address whether the person has choice, dignity, [and] integration. More than integration into the community, it is inclusion in the community. They are addressed somewhat, but there is great a variance on how a provider can meet those standards. So there is some latitude on whether the person receiving the services has a typical day being fully included in the community.

Interviewer:  A program could basically opt to have a facility-based program using the same dollars that you use to have a community-based program. Is that correct?

Danny Cowart:  Yes, that is basically it. There are some things written into the standard that say you have to have a community employment option if you are in a pre-vocational work activity-type of service. It is just whether the provider is going to make that his primary goal. Or whether he is going to meet minimum standards by having the minimal amount of community and employment integration.

Interviewer:  As a person who would be eligible for the waiver [with] a payment slot, how would I go about receiving services from Mill Creek’s centers?

Danny Cowart:  You would be offered the option of Mill Creek as one of your providers of choice by a Support Coordinator. Mill Creek would receive that referral from the Support Coordinator. Mill Creek would then state whether they could deliver the service in that geographical area [and] whether the service [is] available. We are certified in 11 of the 13 services, and we are pretty much statewide. The chances are [that] you are going to be able to use us a provider.

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