Transitioning People with Disabilities from Crowded, Congregate Facilities to Protect Them from COVID-19
Currently hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities continue to be housed in state-run or state-contracted institutions, or nursing homes, making them very vulnerable to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Centers Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a 66-page toolkit to encourage and help states rebalance long-term care offerings for people with disabilities to favor home and community-based services over large institutions. We need federal and state authorities to act quickly on these guidelines to protect countless lives of people with disabilities
Community Options CEO Robert Stack sent a to letter calling on further action from CMS
He also sent a letter to states with the worst problems of warehousing people with disabilities in institutions or nursing homes, urging them to take action to quickly transition their residents out of these facilities. The letters went to NJ, NY, PA, SC, NC, TX and IL.