Medicaid is a hot topic but also a tough one to understand; a workshop on May 7th will go over the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities waiver.
Alaska offers four Medicaid waivers which are options that provide long term Home and Community Based care.
Kathy Fitzgerald has helped to organize the IDD workshop for the Kenai Peninsula.
Fitzgerald: “We’ll go over the history of the waiver, what its purpose is, how you can get the waiver, there’s a whole selection process, a bunch of hoops that you need to jump through to make sure that you qualify, what are the qualifications for a medicaid waiver for the IDD waiver.”
She said the workshop will also discuss developing a plan of care to maximize independence for the individual in order for them to continue learning, growing, and being part of the community.
Fitzgerald is working to simplify the IDD waiver system.
Fitzgerald: “I’m a parent of a child with disabilities, worked in the field for 30 years and it’s one that I came up with to help families understand the process so they could make better choices and really have better outcomes for individuals.”
The workshop is free and open to parents, educational surrogates, health care workers, Care Coordinators, or anyone interested. Lunch will be provided for registered participants and the training usually runs from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
To register or learn more about that May 7th workshop in the Kenai/Soldotna area call Karen Tessandore at 1-800-478-1234.