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Work & Benefits Navigator Trainings
Trainings are now available for any professionals working through the waiver programs. The Work and Benefit Navigator Training through MaineHealth is funded by OADS. The training content is required in several positions where staff are supporting waiver members to learn about employment as required by the Home and Community Based Global Rule. April Session - Virtual This session is for employment support providers only such as Employment Specialists, VR Counselors, and Clubhouse Staff. April 10 and 17, 2025, from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Trainees must attend both sessions in the same month June Session - Augusta This session is for non-employment providers only such as case managers, residential staff, and educators. June 3, 2025, from 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM Location: Maine Department of Labor, 45 Commerce Drive, Augusta Space is limited. Registration is required. Confirmation will be sent two weeks before session. Cost is $25; no cost for DHHS employees or VR Counselors. Contact hours available. Must attend entire session and actively participate to receive credit. Click here to register! Take Action: Urgent Vote on Thursday!
Restore COLAs and Reject Changes to the MaineCare Rate Setting System (Part UU) in the Biennial Budget - Support the Direct Care Workforce and Protect Vital Services! WHAT’S HAPPENING? The Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee is scheduled to vote this Thursday (3/6/25) on whether to restore COLA funding in the FY26-FY27 biennial budget. The Governor’s proposed budgets suspend cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for MaineCare direct care services—not just for six months, but for the next two fiscal years. It also pauses funding for much of the required five-year rate determination cycle and labor adjustments meant to support wages at 125% of the minimum wage by making these provisions “subject to available appropriations.” WHY THIS MATTERS • COLAs have been a lifeline for helping community-based agencies retain dedicated and skilled staff by allowing modest but meaningful wage increases. • Direct care workers are already in short supply, and with Maine’s minimum wage rising 3.5% this year alone (from $14.15 to $14.65), annual COLAs are a necessity, not a luxury for keeping up with wage increases and increased costs of delivering services. • MaineCare law (22 M.R.S.A §3173-J and §7402) currently require annual COLAs and adjustments to labor components of MaineCare direct care service rates as well as adjustments to rates that have been assessed through a rate determination process, ensuring stable wages for essential care workers and adequate reimbursement rates for the delivery of services to thousands of Maine’s most vulnerable adults and children. Suspending COLAs and making rate adjustments “subject to available” funding violates this commitment and threatens the stability of direct care services. WHAT YOU CAN DO? The Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee is voting this Thursday on whether to restore COLA funding in the FY26-FY27 biennial budget. Make your voice heard! 📢 Contact HHS Committee members today and tell them: • COLAs are key to retaining the direct care workforce and keeping individuals with intellectual disabilities, autism, and brain injuries supported in the community. • Share your perspective—whether you are a direct support worker, provider, parent, guardian, individual receiving services, or ally. A personal message makes a difference! Click on the link for a sample email message template and list of email addresses: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pHm_-BdFCnMldaaRV-cDX66jbWWAb6HEjGxqSZ6LoeA/edit?usp=sharing on the link for a template: Innovation Summit Registration is Now OPEN!DHHS and the Office of Aging and Disability Services presents Innovation Summit: A Path for Maine.
The Innovation Summit: A Path for ME will be held in Portland, Maine, from May 19 to May 20, 2025, bringing together individuals, families, service providers, advocates, vendors, and professionals committed to enhancing the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, brain injuries, or other similar conditions. This dynamic event promises two days of learning, networking, and community building, focused on improving access, services, and opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Conference Highlights Included in your Registration:
Summit Details:
For questions about the Innovation Summit, please visit www.InnovationSummitME.com for more information. Statewide Marketing of Adult Day Services The Office of Aging and Disability Services is excited to announce a statewide marketing effort to increase awareness of Adult Day Services. The marketing plan includes digital, broadcast and cable television, and streaming segments as well as a refresh to the OADS Adult Day Services webpage. OADS previously notified Adult Day Services providers in September about the marketing campaign. To help evaluate the impact of this campaign, OADS requested that providers ask the following question to families who call to inquire about services between October 1 and January 31, 2025. How did you hear about Adult Day Services? (Check all that apply.)
 Please send the cumulative results to Thom Snyder ([email protected]) by March 14, 2025.
For questions, email [email protected]. MaineCare Notice of Agency Waiver Renewal, MaineCare Benefits Manual, Section 21, Home and Community Benefits for Members with Intellectual Disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder
Feb 06, 2025 The Division of Policy posts all proposed and recently adopted rules on MaineCare’s Policy and Rules webpage. This website keeps the proposed rules on file until they are finalized and until the Secretary of State website is updated to reflect the changes. The MaineCare Benefits Manual is available on-line at the Secretary of State’s website. Below, please find a MaineCare Notice of Agency Waiver Renewal. You can access the complete details at http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/oms/rules/index.shtml. Home and Community-Based Services Access Rule Feedback RequestAs part of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) preparations for the Access Rule, there is a survey where you can provide feedback on planning for the new rule. When you have a few moments, please consider filling out the survey here. It will be open through February 14th, 2025.
As a reminder, you may also provide written feedback on planning for the Access Rule requirements and current processes by emailing [email protected] by February 14th, 2025. Please indicate your relationship with Maine’s Office of Aging and Disability Services (OADS) programs in the email. To better understand how OADS is striving to make Medicaid services easier to access and better for everyone, find out more here. Individual-Directed Goods and Services (IDGS): An Overview Video
The Office of Aging and Disability Services (“OADS”) in partnership with Applied Self-Direction has created a new training video to support the Self-Directed Services of Individual-Directed Goods and Services. In this video, we explain the concept of Individual-Directed Goods and Services (IDGS) in the Maine Self-Direction Program. IDGS offers flexibility for members to purchase items or services to manage disabilities that work towards goals. Learn how IDGS accrual works, the process of requesting purchases, and the importance of aligning purchases with the member's needs and goals. Viewers are reminded to include all IDGS items in the spending plan and to follow guidelines to ensure purchases are allowable. The link to access this training video can be found here. The OADS Self-Direction website offers a comprehensive collection of employer resources, budgeting tools, and educational materials, including handbooks, video guides, and workflow documentation to help individuals throughout their self-direction journey. From practical tools like the updated Individual-Directed Goods and Services Request Form to essential guidance through the Employer Handbook and its video series, the site ensures users have everything they need to successfully manage supports and services. Brain Injury Community Listening Sessions: We Want to Hear from You!
The Brain Injury Association of Maine has given Maine Parent Federation $10,000 dollars from their State Partnership Program Grant which is part of the Administrative for Community Living Grant. We plan to hold three Listening Sessions for families navigating Acquired or Traumatic Brain Injury. We invite youth and adults with lived experiences, along with their families and caregivers, to share insights on how we can better support them. Feedback may guide the development of training modules, written materials, or resources to enhance skills in legislative and policy advocacy. We want to hear your ideas and invite you to the table! Please note, these sessions will not be recorded, but members from the team supporting the project will be taking notes. Please register below to join us for a Listening Session to be held on the following dates: February 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM Meeting Registration - Zoom March 3, 2025 at 12:30 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/SI-T96cXTsqNeju46agk2g#/registration March 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM Meeting Registration - Zoom Please contact Anne Bourque at Maine Parent Federation with any questions: [email protected] or 207-588-1933 Home and Community-Based Services
Quality Assurance Project Town Hall Follow-Up Thank You to Those Who Participated in the Town Hall! On Tuesday, January 21st, DHHS hosted a town hall meeting with a group called Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) to share information about its Home and Community Based Service (HCBS) Quality Assurance project and to ask for your feedback. DHHS is grateful to everyone who joined and shared ideas about how DHHS can improve the way it handles problems to make services safer and better. Your input is helping to make a difference in how problems like injuries or medication mistakes are handled! If you couldn’t join the live session, the recording is available on the DHHS website. You can watch the recording here. We Want to Hear More from You! In addition to hearing initial feedback and questions during the town hall, DHHS wants to hear more about your experiences in other settings that may be more comfortable for sharing feedback. DHHS is offering focused listening sessions with small groups and a survey as opportunities to hear more from you. Focused Listening Sessions for Members and Families DHHS and A&M are hosting a few focused listening sessions with small groups of members and families to continue hearing about your experiences and your ideas for making the system that handles problems better. These focused listening sessions are useful if you did not get a chance to share your feedback during the town hall or wanted to share more information. These focused listening sessions are each limited to 15 attendees to keep the group small. Registration is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you would like to be added to the waitlist when we've reached capacity, please email [email protected]. Your participation can help DHHS understand what’s working and what needs improvement! Session #1 Important Details:
DHHS also wants to collect your feedback through a survey. All members, families, advocates, and support groups are encouraged to complete the survey. This survey will not collect any identifying information, such as name or email address, from respondents. This survey will ask questions related to how DHHS handles problems to make services safer and better. Your answers could help DHHS make the system that handles problems better! Click here to take our SURVEY We hope you'll join us and share your feedback! Together, we can make home and community services better for everyone. Please note there are other ongoing town halls related to the Access Rule that may touch on incident management topics. This session will focus on how OADS manages reportable events in certain waiver programs, specifically:
We are excited to share that after dying in Appropriations last session An Act to Establish a Grant Program to Increase Postsecondary Educational Opportunities for Students with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder will be reintroduced this legislative session as LD 46.
If passed this bill will establish a grant program available to Institutions of Higher Education (accredited colleges and universities) in Maine to create post-secondary programming and offer scholarships to students with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We do not yet have a date for a public hearing, but we wanted to educate all of you on this bill now in order to prepare for possibly submitting testimony. Hearing from educators, administrators, and professionals is wonderful. However, we know the Committee would love to hear from students themselves. The public hearing will be an opportunity for your legislators on the Educational and Cultural Affairs Committee to hear from you before they vote whether or not to move the bill forward to the full Maine Congress. You are welcome to provide testimony in support of, against, or neither for nor against the bill. Talking points for this specific bill can include:
When it is time to testify the bill will be posted on the webpage for the Joint Standing Committee for Education and Public Affairs. If you choose to testify virtually or to submit written testimony you will need to register by clicking on the Testimony Submission link at the top of the page. You can testify in-person in Room 208 in the Cross Building located at 111 Sewall St. in Augusta. Be sure to bring 20 copies of your testimony for members of the Committee. You do not need to register for this option, just show up. Please feel free to disseminate this information to anybody and everybody you think would be interested. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Carrie Woodcock, [email protected]. Kind Regards, Carrie Woodcock - Maine Parent Federation |
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