Resource on Medically Complex Children in HCBS Programs

For our members’ convenience, we are listing a new issue brief on Medicaid-funded supports for children with complex medical needs, which finds that a majority of waivers include intellectual / developmental disability supports (I/DD).

Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health Issue Brief on HCBS 1915(c) Medicaid Waivers for Children with Medical Complexity:  “142 waivers across 45 states were included in this analysis. […] The most common waiver types include those targeting autism/ID/DD (60.6%) followed by disabled sub-groups including medical fragility, technology dependence, HIV/AIDS, brain injury (24.6%), disabled (physical) (9.9%) and mental illness/serious emotional disturbance (4.9%) (see Figure 1). A total of 91 waivers (64.7%) include both child and adult age ranges in the waiver eligibility. Specific services that waivers covered varied widely with 81% of waivers covering respite care and only 7.7% of waivers covering any form of education services offered to family or school about care of the child. The mean dollars spent per person per year were also highest for autism/ID/DD waivers.”