While I agree with most of what is being proposed I have to voice the opinion that OWD should be removed. It is a huge burden on families and EORs to jump through all the hoops that are required. Being an attendant is a difficult and challenging job and the pay rate is not commensurate. It is almost impossible to find people and who can blame them when they can make more money with benefits at Target. DMAS has to know what is going, they have to know that there is a serious shortage of providers. Yet nothing is ever put in place to address that.

We are propping up the system and yet DMAS and DBHDS continue to act like the families are trying to con them or steal from them. Nobody wants this for themselves, most of us are just in survival mode.

There is no validity to the waivers if there are no providers for the services it offers, it is a house of cards.