Please do not do this. People struggle as it is with case manager quality. Search Facebook for groups on Virginia Medicaid Waivers. The difficulty families face in navigating DMAS' ID/DD waiver system is already obscene. Allowing people without even a minimum degree requirement to be the gatekeepers and coordinators for people's very lives may increase the quantity of staff available but will absolutely decrease their quality.

So, mental health case managers and targeted case managers and social workers all have educational requirements but DMAS wants to remove them for the ID/DD folks - people who very often have challenges advocating for themselves?

There is no functional human rights protection in the ID/DD waiver system. Virginia is allowed to claim that there are no qualified organizations to provide case management support to this population - even though there would be if they didn't eliminate competition by claiming that - thus denying Virginians the protections from conflict of interest that almost every other state in America abides by under CMS.

Providers pay lip service to human rights as it is, without consequences. There is no vigorous education, no ombudsmen. Individuals don't know their rights. HCBS Settings Rules violations abound. Kitchens are "closed", bedtimes are instituted, "choice" is orchestrated.

And DMAS thinks the answer is to lower/remove educational requirements for case managers who are already allowed to operate under conflicts of interest with minimal human rights oversight. DMAS never thinks the answer is an evaluation of their own system-centered organization. They never look to themselves. They are a user unfriendly agency with a neverending administrative burden that fails to accomplish its ultimate goal of providing person-centered supports to one of Virginia's most vulnerable population groups and their strained circles of support.

DMAS has created an inordinately complicated, even byzantine system of rules and paperwork. Please do not let them lower the educational requirements. If anything they should be tightening requirements and fostering competition.