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Physical Disabilities & Aging

The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has announced that they will be hosting a second Transportation Summit webinar on Wednesday, February 7, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. This is an open forum for anyone interested in discussing transportation in the Community HealthChoices (CHC) Program. There will be staff from various programs on the call, including the managed care organizations (MCOs) and transportation brokers, Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP), Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), etc. They will be on the call to listen to your feedback and answer questions as they are able.

During the webinar, there will be three ways for individuals to ask questions. You can either submit your questions (to be read during the meeting) to OLTL in advance by emailing Cortney Alvord; use the “raise hand” feature during the webinar and you will be unmuted so you can ask your question; or you can type your question into the “chat” box located on the right side of your screen.

Please register here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Questions about the webinar should be directed to Cortney Alvord.

The Department of Health’s (DOH) Bureau of Family Health issued a flyer about planned events across the state related to Pennsylvania’s Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant. This grant serves to improve the health and well-being of the nation’s mothers, infants, children, and youth, including children and youth with special health care needs and their families.

Parents and caregivers, families with special needs, birthing people and their partners, and youth are all welcome and invited to participate in these events. Maternal and child health care, and other professionals and organizations serving this population in Pennsylvania, are also welcome to share their thoughts! Attendees are invited to help identify the seven to ten priorities that will drive Pennsylvania’s Title V programs.

Please refer to the flyer for additional information, including the dates, times, and locations of the upcoming events.

On January 8, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) announced the availability of $2.8M in reemployment funds for the Direct Care Worker Job Quality (DCWJQ) Grant. The grant funding is to be used to boost PA’s direct care workforce by improving job quality and increasing career advancement opportunities. Applicants may request awards of up to $600,000 each.

Additional information about this funding is posted on the L&I grant opportunity web page. This information includes the grant itself, the application form, project summary, budget form, and the Worker Protection and Investment Certificate form.

The application deadline for the DCWJQ Grant is February 29, 2024, at 4:00 pm ET.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires the governor of each state to submit a four-year unified or combined state plan outlining the state’s workforce development strategy. The plan can be viewed on the Department of Labor and Industry’s website, and the draft for the 2024–2028 plan is available here.

Pennsylvania’s Combined State Plan includes the six WIOA Core programs: Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth, Wagner-Peyser, Adult Basic Education, and Vocational Rehabilitation. It also includes the following optional programs:

  • Career and Technical Education Programs-Perkins Act
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program
  • Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers Programs
  • Jobs for Veterans State Grants Program
  • Senior Community Service Employment Program
  • Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Program
  • Community Services Block Grant
  • Unemployment Insurance

Some specific areas of interest to our members include the following goals:

  • Empowering individuals paid subminimum wages through 14(c) waivers to obtain CIE;
  • Expediting the Integrated Vocational Engagement & Support Team (InVEST) Project to assist individuals with disabilities, families, and community businesses with CIE engagement, supports, and services/resource coordination;
  • Increasing competitive integrated employment (CIE) opportunities for individuals with disabilities;
  • Increasing transition services for students with disabilities; and
  • Increasing statewide collaboration with the Bureau of Special Education (BSE) and the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) to expand Pre-ETS across Departments.

Public comments will be accepted on Pennsylvania’s WIOA Combined State Plan until 5:00 pm on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. Please submit your comments electronically. Written comments may also be submitted by mail to:

PA Workforce Development Board
651 Boas Street | Room 514
Harrisburg, PA 17121

A Special Session of the State Board of Vocational Rehabilitation has been announced and will be held on January 10, 2024, from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm via Zoom. The purpose of the session is to discuss and seek approval of the VR portion of the State Plan as well as approval of the letter to Governor Shapiro. You can view both the agenda notice and information on connecting to the meeting.

The meeting documents from the January 3, 2024, Managed Long-Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) Subcommittee meeting are now available below and include the agenda and PowerPoint presentations.

Today’s MLTSS Subcommittee meeting was the final meeting. The MLTSS Subcommittee will merge with the Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Subcommittee beginning in February. The first merged meeting is scheduled for February 1, 2024. Additional information about that meeting will be forthcoming.

On December 29, 2023, the Department of Human Services (DHS) issued to the CHC-MCOs a revised edition of “Operations Memo (#2019-05): Circumstances When Community Health Choices (CHC)-Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) Must Transmit the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Eligibility/Ineligibility/Change Form (PA 1768).” The PA 1768 (included in the Operations Memo) is used to notify the County Assistance Office (CAO) when a CHC participant is determined clinically eligible for CHC HCBS or when a CHC participant, who is receiving HCBS, experiences a change affecting his or her eligibility for HCBS.

This revised operations memo describes situations where the CHC-MCO sends the PA 1768 to the CAO. The memo has also been revised to include Money Follows the Person (MFP) information to communicate on the PA 1768 (Attachment 8), and to update a participant letter (Attachment 4: CHC HCBS Termination Letter (No Response).

If you have any questions, please contact Melissa Dehoff.