EXPEDITED RULES
SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
(Medical Assistance Administration)
Title of Rule: Repealing WAC 388-515-1530 Coordinated community AIDS services alternatives (CASA) program.
Purpose: MAA is repealing this rule per RCW 34.05.353 (2)(c) because circumstances have changed and the CASA program is no longer needed. The same services are available through the community options program entry system (COPES). This proposed action has been coordinated with the Department of Health (DOH). The home and community-based Medicaid waiver, CASA, was written in 1989 for a hospital level of care for terminally ill persons with AIDS. This waiver addressed the realities of available treatments at that time. Advancements in treatment of AIDS have significantly changed those original conditions and rendered the CASA waiver obsolete.
Over the past decade, persons with AIDS have stopped using the waiver. Instead, they use an array of more appropriate services for outpatient and chronic care needs. These include home health nursing services, Medicaid personal care, adult day health services, nursing services, special adult family homes and COPES, which is a home and community-based Medicaid waiver similar to CASA. All of these patients have a longer life expectancy than when the CASA waiver was implemented.
In the past several years, the CASA waiver has not been used by any DSHS client. At the same time, the number of persons and number of hospitalizations for persons living with the AIDS virus have continued to decrease. DSHS and DOH are acting to discontinue the waiver and repeal this rule, but we continue our ongoing collaborative efforts toward appropriate and community-based program options for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 74.08.090.
Statute Being Implemented: RCW 74.08.090, 34.05.353 (2)(c).
Summary: See Purpose above.
Reasons Supporting Proposal: Rule is no longer necessary because of changed circumstances. Other rules of the agency or of another agency accomplish the same objective, making this rule redundant.
Name of Agency Personnel Responsible for Drafting, Implementation and Enforcement: Kevin Sullivan, P.O. Box 45533, Olympia, WA 98504-5533, (360) 725-1344.
Name of Proponent: Department of Social and Health Services, governmental.
Rule is not necessitated by federal law, federal or state court decision.
Explanation of Rule, its Purpose, and Anticipated Effects: See Purpose above.
Proposal Changes the Following Existing Rules: Proposal
repeals the rule for the CASA program. See Purpose above.
THIS RULE IS BEING PROPOSED UNDER AN EXPEDITED RULE-MAKING PROCESS THAT WILL ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR THE AGENCY TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARINGS, PREPARE A SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMIC IMPACT STATEMENT, OR PROVIDE RESPONSES TO THE CRITERIA FOR A SIGNIFICANT LEGISLATIVE RULE. IF YOU OBJECT TO THE USE OF THE EXPEDITED RULE-MAKING PROCESS, YOU MUST EXPRESS YOUR OBJECTIONS IN WRITING AND THEY MUST BE SENT TO Andy Fernando, Rules Coordinator, Rules and Policies Assistance Unit, Department of Social and Health Services, P.O. Box 45850, Olympia, WA 98504-5850, fax (360) 664-6185 , AND RECEIVED BY 5:00 p.m., March 4, 2003.
December 20, 2002
Brian H. Lindgren, Manager
Rules and Policies Assistance Unit
3198.1 The following section of the Washington Administrative Code is repealed:
| WAC 388-515-1530 | Coordinated community AIDS services alternatives (CASA) program. |