Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children 

Meeting with DFCS on 5-22-07 

Question:  Do you have any idea what the rates will be when we apply for and exceptional rate waiver? 

No, that will be based on what services and supports you list that you will be providing as well as disability of child skill needed for Foster Parents and other things. 

An example of what we are thinking would be $10.00 extra a day for a foster parent who has a child that limits their lives some what from community activities. 

Question:  Can we ask for additional funding for just the foster Parent, or Foster Parent and Watchful Oversight, or services that will need to be purchased for the foster Parent and child?  Remember Rehab Option will not pay for any services given to a child that does not have a MH diagnosis. 

Yes: If you can justify the increased need for money to any of these categories.  If you have a child who needs a certain services such as an aid to come into the home to help with lifting, bathing, relieving the Foster Parent to do errands, getting a special program (Judi vine) for a child who has Autism, give us the cost of the services and we will have to pay for it.  Other Examples:

      In home person to modify behaviors and implement a plan with the foster parent.

      Behavior plan to address child’s behaviors

      Specialized summer camps

      Specialized tutoring

      Depends

      Special equipment

      In home respite services

      Specialized training for foster parent. 

It is all in how you word the request.  Please make sure it is in the ISP’s 

Question: Can you take a child that is listed as Traditional and request a higher rate because the foster parent has to out of pocket expenses? 

Yes, also if a foster parent has to transport a child regularly from say Albany to Atlanta mileage can be an added expense that you request funds for.  Also on the other hand we need to lower the rates when the services are no longer needed that we are paying to deliver. 

Question:  How often will the will the exceptional rates be reviewed? 

We think every 6 months maybe only once a year we still need to talk about it. 

Question:  Will the exceptional rates be requested from the DFCS office the child is coming from or from the state level say from Linda Ladd. 

All exceptional waiver rates will come through Linda’s office; we feel she knows these children and we can not depend on the local offices to understand the needs of children with MR/DD/Autism/Dual or medical issues. 

Question:  What about children just coming into care how will those children be accessed for the need of an exceptional rate? 

Most children who are basic, traditional children should be going to DFCS homes.  Those are the children that our homes can care for.  Unless they are part of a sibling group that can be placed together. 

Question:  there are some services we can get for our children at the Marcus Institute, and Tender Health Care.  They can bill Medicaid for the needed supports but that is only in the Metro area and there is an 8 month wait at the Marcus Institute. 

We understand that both Tender Health Care and Marcus Institute are opening offices in other areas like Columbus and Macon and Albany.  We will have to see how that works.  Until then you will need to supply the additional services for the Foster Parents and bill us or find some one who can deliver the additional services if a child needs and they bill us.  

Question:  What about the Foster Parents who put their lives on hold because of the child’s needs, such as not going to church, shopping, doctors appointments, out to eat, because of the child’s fragility or behaviors;  How do we compensate those foster parents? 

If you look at the traditional or basic foster Care Parent does with their child any thing above or different that those care requirements has value and needs to be communicated so the perdiem allocated to the foster parent reflect the additional supports and changes in the lives of the foster parent.  

Question:  As providers it would help if we had a standard set of check off sheets that are consistent across the state and provider agencies.  Something that would be helpful to DFCS in making the determination for exceptional rates.  This form would be easy for foster parents and case managers to fill out and speed up the process.   It would have all the information you need to get the first time we apply. 

DFCS would be willing to develop such a tool but at this moment we are struggling to meet the July one Dead line.

Can we assist with the process with Linda’s guidance?  YES that would be helpful. 

Question:  The children who are just coming into care and need immediate placement, the DFCS worker does not have the information needed to know if this child requires an exceptional rate or not how will that process work? 

We are not sure, we have found that those children will need to be accessed quickly and we are sticking by the activating of the new rate the 1^st of the next month after approval.  That goes both ways though.  The children that get lowered will also not see the decrease until the following month as well.  We need to talk to work that out. 

When can we expect to have answers to the questions ya’ll are still working on? 

No answer. 

Can we as providers set up another meeting for next week to discuss the decisions that are made around the questions we need to discuss? 

Yes, we can meet before the children’s task force meeting on the 30^th around 1PM. 

Some things ya’ll need to know as providers.   

      We will be looking at all moves with in or out of your programs so we need for the matching process to be done well.

      We will need homes that can be assessment home for the children coming in that we do not have good information for.

      We do not want any children currently in placement to loose their home, we will do what ever it takes (within reason) to keep those children in their placement.

      We do not have enough DFCS homes to come close to caring for all the children in care we need your agencies to assist us, but we also have a limited budget and need to keep that in mind as well.

      If two providers have what looks like the same type child, example a child who needs say a behavior aid 3 time a week and one provider tells us they need $60.00 a day and another provider tells us $100.00 a day for the child, we will be asking what the $100.00 dollar a day provider is doing for the added expense.  We may opt to go with the $60.00 a day because we fill the other provider is not delivering enough of an additional service to warrant the additional money.  That is where the program different and the programs that deliver the most, and best, services at a reasonable cost will make out better that the other provider. 

Some additional Questions we have as providers DFCS is working on answers to.

      How are children coming from one agency to another agency going to be handled with the exceptional waiver process? 

      Will we know before we take a child if the request for exceptional rate has been approved? 

      What happens with the children we need to place on the same day as the referral is made? 

      When DFCS makes a referral and waiting for the placement to happen do we wait to hear from Linda to make the placement even if this is a child who has been in care a while?

      If we can serve the child for less than the other agency what do we fill out for that request? 

      As providers who do things differently and have different value pieces.  How are we going to support our current infrastructure? 

As things unfold I will keep you updated. 

Vicky Nipper McClention