Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities

The Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities

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Position Statement-Support of the Early Intervention 2000 Proposal

The Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities supports the Illinois Inter-Agency Council on Early Intervention's El Funding 2000 Consortium and Finance Committee's proposal on reforms to ensure viable and accountable services for babies with special needs with the following emphasis.

The Illinois Department of Human Services Administration must work with service providers and families receiving early intervention services in the development of fair and ethical protocol in using a families private insurance as a payor of first resort for services. Early Intervention Services must be available for all infants and families without prejudice to insurance issues, sliding scale fee issues, and/or the parent's determination of a payment for service method. Parental choice in services, including payment methodology is imperative in assuring appropriate services are both available and accessed.

The Illinois Department of Human Services Administration must work with service providers to assure appropriate and needed increases occur in all service rates. Either through an across the board increase or an individual review of each service to determine appropriate rates needs to occur in order to assure those organizations/individuals who provide specific early intervention services receive appropriate rate compensation.

It must be a participatory and inclusive process between the Illinois Department of Human Services Administration, service providers, and families receiving early intervention services in discussing, developing, and implementing these rules and regulations. In order for complete support to be received by all parties effected by this new proposal, the mandate that this participatory and inclusive process in reviewing the areas surrounding private insurance payment, co-payment fee structures for families, rate reviews and adjustments for providers, and fee collection structures is vital.