This petition is about fixing all the structural and systemic problems, that are keeping MDHHS services from reaching families. Please help us help these families. There is a lot of work to do and your signature helps.

To the Michigan Legislature, MDHHS, PIHPs and all applicable officials, staff and directors

Contact:

Chris Dardzinski: 313.550.8922 [email protected]

Agenda items are the input of Michigan parents dealing with the current system. I'm working on getting this in to legislation and law on their behalf.:

Item 1:

No agency that controls Medicaid Dollars can benefit from unused funding. Restrict all funding agency employees from receiving any bonuses from unused funds.

Item 2:

Create system change for a separate entity that has no relation with the agency to handle all recipient rights complaints, grievances, and appeals. All complaints must be handled by a neutral unbiased 3rd party.

Item 3:

Provide advocate departments that aid individuals to properly submit ALL complaints and appeals.

Item 4:

Provide Self-Directed Handbook to all recipients on Self-Directed options and how the Self-Directed services are to be conducted with Budget Authority and in detailed explanation on what a Person Center Planning is and how the individual budget supports the Individual Plan of Service. All Self-Directed Recipients must be provided with a service Rate Sheet to understand and know how much the Recipient can pay a Direct Caregiver to prevent wrongful capping of Direct Caregiver pay wages.

Item 5:

Audit performed at the end of fiscal year on Financial Management Service (FMS) agencies in contract with the PIHP on how much budgets were utilized by recipients and how much budgets are sent back to PIHP.

Item 6:

PIHP must take all retracted budgets and put Community Mental Health Medicaid Dollars back to the community with providing Mental Health and Disability Resources and Mental Health and Disability Resource Centers to provide workshops on Independent Living Skills, Communication workshops, Sensory Regulation workshops. What Medicaid Dollars that are being dissolved from the current systemic administration layers needs to be moved to provide Mental Health and Disability Resource Centers that provide services to allow a Disabled or Mentally ill person to be stabilized in their home and communities. This budget line allocation will help prevent institutionalization and create jobs in the communities through the entire State. This push for contracted agencies to do their job by providing the resources will protect and support our communities and our police/ first responders by prevention of crises with the mentally ill or disabled receiving the behavioral and disability services.

Item 7:

Audit on how much Self-Directed budgets are retracted from the Disabled person’s Self-Directed Budget account that the PIHP receives and compare with the budget number that is sent back to the PIHP's general fund.

Item 8:

Audit what amount in retracted Self-Directed budgets MDHHS receive from the PIHP’s and compare with the budget number that is sent to MDHHS general fund.

Item 9:

Remove the systemic multiple administrative layers that are charging fees from the Medicaid funding that should be going directly to Mental Health and Disability services. This systemic issue is causing the Direct Caregiver pay wage that starts at $39 an hour oA of the MDHHS “consideration rate sheet” layer to go through the 10 Prepaid Inpatient Health Plan Networks, then through the 46 Community Mental Health Departments, then through the contracted Direct Caregiver StaAing Agencies, to finally make it to the Direct Caregiver being paid $11-$15.50 an hour after the Medicaid dollars make it down the Systemic Chain of Command. Cut out the middleman (layers of contracts) and streamline service funding from the State to the Support Coordination agency to get the services in the homes and communities. This solution will create many jobs and fill Direct Caregiver positions in all communities across the state and provide the most disabled the support they need to survive. We need Mental Health and Disability Resource Centers more than ever right now. Centers that will provide families with parent training on how to use communication devices and how to help regulate sensory disorders to stabilize our homes and communities as much as possible. Training parents and families would relieve Mental Health Medicaid Dollars because all parents would want this training that would provide stability and prevention of putting children in State Ran Hospitals that cost even more. No child should be ripped from their homes when MDHHS is in contract to protect the family unit. Parents and families would provide this crises prevention and medical proven prevention treatments to all caregivers that support their loved one.

Item 10:

The following MDHHS contracted services must be registered, certified and fully licensed through LARA:

Category 1: Legal Guardian services, when the service is provided by a business. This does not apply to individuals who are legal guardians for their kids, parents, siblings.

The business will need to have an EIN and follow all state regulations.

Category 2: Facilities being used for housing and medical services of state wards through APS and CPS. No 'ghost' LLCs.

Category 3: Conservator services, meeting the same requiremnets of category 1.

Category 4: General legal counsel services, meeting the same requiremnets of category 1.