Florida Developmental Disabilities Archives - Page 2 of 5

SPECIAL NEEDS HOUSING FUNDING

See Announcement below:

From: Special_Needs_Housing Listmanager

[mailto:Special_Needs_Housing.listmanager@www.floridahousing.org] Sent: Friday, August 02, 2013 2:57 PM
Subject: Funding Opportunties for Housing for Homeless Persons and Persons with Developmental Disabilities

From: “Elaine Roberts” <elaine.roberts@floridahousing.org>

Florida Housing Finance Corporation was appropriated non-recurring grant funds by the 2013 Legislature as follows: $10 million for housing for persons with developmental disabilities, and $10 million for housing for homeless persons and families. Florida Housing has announced two public workshops, both on August 8, 2013, to discuss how we expect to offer this funding and receive comments on our proposed approaches from interested stakeholders. We expect to offer the funding through three “Requests for Applications” (RFAs) as follows:
• An RFA for small developments to provide permanent supportive housing for persons with developmental disabilities;
• An RFA for larger developments to provide permanent supportive housing for persons with developmental disabilities; and
• An RFA for to provide permanent supportive housing for homeless persons and families.
Go tohttp://apps.floridahousing.org/StandAlone/FHFC_ECM/ContentPage.aspx?PAGE=0400 for information on where and when the public meetings will be held. In addition, you will find discussion documents for each RFA that describe Florida Housing’s proposed funding approaches.

Elaine Roberts – Florida Housing Finance Corporation

To login:http://www.floridahousing.org/webboard/
To (un)subscribe: mailto: Special_Needs_Housing.list-request@www.floridahousing.org

By Barry Pollack|2016-11-03T10:01:48+00:00August 5th, 2013|Categories: General|Tags: Agency for Persons with Disabilities, APD, Database software systems, Disability Software, EHR Systems, EMR Systems, EMR Systems for Developmental Disabilities, Florida, Florida Developmental Disabilities, Group Homes, Health Record Tracking, I-DD, Supported Living, Therap, web based documentation systems|0 Comments

Florida Regional Conference – A Success!

For two days, December 4th & 5th, over 100 attendees and a Therap Team of 6 came together in West Palm Beach Florida to share a common Thread: THERAP!

The opening Plenary on Day 1 welcomed all that came from across Florida and even a couple of folks from Georgia!

Therap’s new Training and Support Specialist for Florida, Chelsea Newby was introduced as well as Brie Nihan, Billing Specialist who just started last week and is working with Mr. Jim Kelley, Therap Vice Chairman to support our Billing customers. Seasoned trainers, Stacey Kernisan and Leah Marshall, were also present to support and provide training sessions throughout the two day conference.

The feedback was as excellent as our weather and the hotel staff at the West Palm Beach Airport Holiday Inn did a stellar job in supporting our conference. Not to mention our appetites as the food was quite delicious!

We really enjoyed seeing our Therap Customers as well as new ones and those who came to learn more.

Thank you all who participated in making this an excellent experience for all of us!

I hope to see many of you in East Hanover, New Jersey at the Theraps National Conference January 29th-31st!

Florida Medicaid Seeks Feeedback for Training

Health Care Alerts & Provider Alerts Messages
July 2012

Provider Type(s): All

Survey
Florida Medicaid Provider Training Needs

The Florida Medicaid program continues its efforts to provide training opportunities to providers to clarify Florida Medicaid policy and avoid overpayments. We are planning the training calendar for 2012-2013 and we would like your comments on how we can make the most effective use of your time and participation.

We have created a very short survey to help us identify your critical training needs. This survey can be completed online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZV26J3Q.

Please complete the survey by July 27, 2012.

Thank you for your assistance.

By Barry Pollack|2012-07-03T10:55:14+00:00July 3rd, 2012|Categories: General|Tags: Agency for Persons with Disabilities, APD, Billing systems, Developmental Disabilities, Documentation and Billing System, EHR Solution, EHR Systems, Electronic Documentation, Electronic Documentation for Developmental Disabilities, Florida APD, Florida Developmental Disabilities, Health Record Tracking, Therap Services, web based documentation systems|0 Comments

DDNA Annual National Conference

DDNA 2012
Are We There Yet

The 2012 Conference began with the Pre-Conference on May 4^th, with the Conference held May 5^th – 7^th. The Conference was held at the beautiful Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, FL. There was good attendance and it was an inspiring Conference which was opened by 10 year old girl who had a voice of a powerful angel. This young girl was diagnosed with Autism and did not speak until she was 3 years old. She thanked all the Nurses for the difference they make in the lives of children like her. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room, including mine!

It was great having so many Nurses and others who are Therap Customers come over to our exhibit and say “Hello”! I met so many wonderful, dedicated professionals and enjoyed sharing Therap Services with many interested folks across the Country!

I look forward to working with many new providers on reviewing and implementing Therap in their organizations and as always, supporting our faithful existing Therap Users to enhance their use, benefit and the further development of Therap Services for everyone!

More Cuts to Rates in Florida’s APD Budget

APD Continues Cost Containment Efforts

Tallahassee — On April 1, Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) will reduce the rates it pays for therapy assessments and all nursing services to the standard rate paid by the Medicaid State Plan. Currently, the APD Home and Community-Based Services Medicaid waiver pays higher rates for most of these services.

This rate change is the latest cost containment effort by APD to work toward bringing waiver expenses closer to the agency’s Legislative appropriation for the waiver.

The Legislature approved $810 million for APD’s Home and Community-Based Services Medicaid waiver for the 2011-12 state fiscal year that began on July 1. APD customers received $930 million worth of services last year.

While the agency is working to reduce Medicaid waiver expenditures, it is also looking for opportunities to increase waiver flexibility and equity for customers with the new iBudget Florida waiver. More than 3,000 APD customers in North Florida have transitioned to the new iBudget waiver which allows families to shift funding around to meet their current priorities.

APD annually serves more than 50,000 Floridians with developmental disabilities of autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intellectual disabilities, spina bifida, and Prader-Willi syndrome. The agency’s Medicaid waiver helps to support about 30,000 individuals with developmental disabilities so they may live and participate in their local communities. Those 30,000 people will all be transitioned to the new iBudget Florida waiver by July 2013.

For more information on iBudget, visit the website iBudgetFlorida.org.

For more information on the agency, call 1-866-APD-CARES or visit APDcares.org.

IPad Kiosks for Therap in Residential & Day Programs

Carolina Autism Supported Living Services in Charleston South Carolina has found a great way to use IPads in their group homes for documenting in Therap! Here is a description and pictures from Phil Blevins, Executive Director:

“We used iPadWallBracket.com for the enclosure. There are many other sites with similar products but this seemed best for our purposes. We chose the enclosure that covers the “home” button. Then we installed a Kiosk program on the iPad. We chose Kiosk Pro from the Apple store. It’s free but there is a paid version with more features. We set the Therap login page as the start page and limited the kiosks browsing range to the therap domain. There are a few things I could note about setting it up if you ever want details.

We mounted the enclosure to a rolling laptop stand from Office Depot. Since it is plastic we chose not to drill holes in it but used a metal/plastic polymer adhesive to attach the enclosure.

We used iPads with WiFi instead of 3g so we have to make sure there is a working wireless router in the houses. And I’ve noticed that the iPad can’t handle the pop-up body image when entering skin/wound notes. But the staff person can still choose body parts from the drop-down menu. There may be other iPad quirks but we haven’t run into them yet.”

IPad Kiosks for Therap in Residential & Day Programs1

IPad Kiosks for Therap in Residential & Day Programs3

IPad Kiosks for Therap in Residential & Day Programs2

By Barry Pollack|2016-11-03T10:01:52+00:00February 17th, 2012|Categories: General|Tags: Agency for Persons with Disabilities, AHCA, Alabama, APD, APD Budget, attendance, Billing systems, central florida, CMS, Database software systems, DDSN, Developmental Disabilities, Disability Software, Documentation and Billing System, EHR, EHR Solution, EHR Systems, Electronic Billing Systems, Electronic Documentation, Electronic Documentation for Developmental Disabilities, EMR Systems, EMR Systems for Developmental Disabilities, Florida, Florida APD, Florida Developmental Disabilities, Health Record Tracking, Health Tracking, Mobile documentation, North Carolina Division of Mental Health Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, North Carolina LME, South Carolina, South Carolina DDS, Therap Florida, Therap Services, United Cerebral Palsy, web based documentation systems|0 Comments

Therap National Conference – A Big Success!

In preparation for Therap Services pre-conference meetings on Monday, some of us came in early on Sunday to catch the Superbowl at a local Sports Bar-Redds, right across the street from the Met-Life Stadium where the Giants and Jets play! It was sweet victory for New York and very exciting to be in the middle of it all!

We had a great conference with around 350 attendees, 3 days of over 35 sessions including: Basic to Advanced User sessions, Provider Organizations Special Topic sessions and Brainstorming with Therap Programmers!

Of course, being New York, we always take a trip to “The City” and what a great time of eating pizza, walking around Manhattan to look at the sites!

If you missed it, you can still get to one of our Regional Conferences this year. Check out when we are coming to a town near you!

https://www.therapservices.net/conferences/

Florida APD: IBudgets To Roll-Out in Areas 1 & 2

For Immediate Release: Contact:

January 31, 2012 Melanie Mowry Etters
Communication Director
850‐488‐4257
APD to Implement iBudget Formula
TALLAHASSEE — The Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) is announcing that it will
implement the final component of the iBudget Florida program for its customers in Northwest Florida
and the Big Bend area by April 1.
iBudget Florida is a new way to deliver Medicaid waiver services that has been approved by both
the Florida Legislature and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It provides
Floridians with developmental disabilities in the Medicaid waiver program more flexibility in choosing
their services.
The April 1 transition will include APD customers living in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton,
Bay, Gulf, Calhoun, Jackson, Washington, Holmes, Franklin, Leon, Wakulla, Gadsden, Liberty, Madison,
Taylor, and Jefferson counties, which comprise APD's areas 1 and 2.
APD customers in areas 1 and 2 have been using the iBudget Florida program since October 2011.
Customers in other areas of the state will be enrolled into the program later this year. An enrollment
schedule will be announced soon.
iBudget Florida is designed to make the funding process fair and equitable for all Medicaid waiver
customers. Waiver support coordinators will assist customers and their families in managing service
approvals and other aspects of the program using an online Web‐based system.
APD annually serves more than 50,000 Floridians with the developmental disabilities of autism,
cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intellectual disabilities, spina bifida, and Prader‐Willi syndrome. For
more information on this program and the agency, visit iBudgetFlorida.org and APDcares.org or call tollfree
1‐866‐APD‐CARES (1‐866‐273‐2273).

Community Services At Risk In Florida: Senate Bill 1516

Are you concerned about loosing community services for individuals with disabilities?

Senate Bill 1516 will have a hearing that will be held today at 3:30 p.m. by Senator Storms’ Committee. This bill amends the DD Act. For more information, you may go to the Florida ARF website, www.floridaarf.org, grassroots page and click on the grassroots summary document on Saving DD Services.

http://www.floridaarf.org/vendorimages/farf/saveddservices.pdf

Therap 2012.0 Released: Lots of New Features!

Therap 2012.0 Released!

We are now on version 2012.0 of the Therap Applications. We have worked relentlessly on getting the system up and running with lots of new and exciting features and updates. We hope to receive your valuable feedback on the new features.

Release Notes | Documentation | Blogs