Residential Options Waiver

The Residential Options Waiver initially approved by CMS October 1, 2009, began serving its first participants during the 2010 fiscal year. It was developed to assist people to transition from Intermediate Care Facilities for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ICD/IDD) to their own homes in the community.

This program provides supports and services in the home and the community to individuals of all ages, who are eligible to receive OCDD waiver services. It is a capped waiver where each person’s annual budget is based upon his/her assessed support needs.

Support needs are determined by an Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) assessment.

This program is not intended to provide 24 hours a day of one to one support.

An individual may be offered a ROW waiver opportunity who meets all of the following eligibility criteria:

• Meet Louisiana Medicaid eligibility
• Meet the Louisiana definition for a developmental disability which manifested before age 22 (Revised Statue 25:451.2, paragraph (11)
• Have an OCDD Statement of Approval
• Meet Intermediate Care Facility-Intellectual Disability (ICF-ID) Level of Care Criteria

ROW waiver opportunities may be offered based on the following priority groups Criteria:

• Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who have a statement of approval (SOA) through OCDD, and who currently receive services via the Office of Aging and Adult Services (OASS) Community Choices Waiver (CCW) or Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) Waiver programs, shall be a priority group to allow for a one time transition into the ROW
• Individuals living at Pinecrest Supports and Services Center or in a publicly operated ICF-ID when it was transitioned to a private ICF-ID through a cooperative endeavor agreement or their alternates
• Individuals on the OCDD registry who have the highest level of need and the earliest registry date
• Persons who reside in a Medicaid-enrolled ICF/ID and wish to transition to home and community-based residential services waiver through a voluntary ICF/ID bed conversion process
• Meet financial and non-financial Medicaid eligibility criteria for home and community-based waiver services: Income equals 300% of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Federal Benefit Rate (FBR)

All other non-financial requirements such as:

• Citizenship (U.S. citizen or qualified alien)
• Be a resident of Louisiana
  To remain eligible for waiver services, a recipient must receive Support Coordination and a Residential waiver service every thirty days

Individuals who require services should contact their local Human Services District/Authority to go through the eligibility determination process. Once a person is eligible for OCDD services, they may ask to be placed on the Developmental Disability Request for Services Registry (RFSR).

OCDD maintains a Developmental Disability Request for Services Registry (RFSR) of individuals who require waiver services along with the date the person initially requested waiver services.

As each individual is added to the RFSR, the individual is screened to determine their urgency of the need for services. An individual, who meets the eligibility criteria, is in the highest urgency priority category(s) being served based on funding, and has the earliest RFSR date, will be offered the next available OCDD waiver opportunity that meets their needs.

The application process does not begin until a waiver slot becomes available. At that time, medical and financial determinations will be completed simultaneously to verify that the person has a developmental disability and meets the financial and medical/psychological requirements for an Intermediate Care Facility for the Developmentally Disabled (ICF/DD). Learn More