Understanding The Medicaid Waiver: A Practical Guide for Families & Individuals With Developmental Disabilities

The Georgia Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities, which provides guidance to state policymakers and to the public, issued this guide to help individuals and their families or caregivers understand how a Medicaid Waiver can be used by people with developmental disabilities. The Georgia Office of Developmental Disabilities has written two new waivers that will give eligible recipients more control over how they receive support services. This document describes covered services and application processes.

• The NOW waiver provides support services to people who do not need 24-hour care
   
• The Comprehensive waiver provides support services to people who need 24-hour care

Both waivers feature individual budgets so that persons with a developmental disability can purchase the support services from a variety of service providers. To determine the individual's budget, each will be evaluated using the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS). The SIS score will be used as a basis for an individual's budget. Once a budget is determined, families and individuals will be permitted to choose support service providers and families will be able to hire people to provide the support services to enable the individual to live in the community.