Case for Inclusion 2021 Special Report Outlines Policy Blueprint for More Sustainable Medicaid Disability Service System

by Sean Luechtefeld, Communications Director, ANCOR

This morning, the ANCOR Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) published The Case for Inclusion 2021: A Special Report on the Sustainability of Community Disability Services in America.

Published annually since 2006, the Case for Inclusion has traditionally served as a quantitative assessment of how well state programs are supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to be included in the community. But whereas previous reports have typically offered a comprehensive assessment of how all 50 States and the District of Columbia are faring across more than five dozen distinct measures, the best available data inevitably does not yet account for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on disability programs.

As a result, ANCOR and UCP decided on a different approach this year, opting to publish a special report examining the impact of the pandemic on community disability services and the policies that are needed in order to emerge from the pandemic in a way that ensures people with IDD have the options and resources needed to live, work and thrive in the community.

The Case for Inclusion 2021 Special Report examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated longstanding crises in the field of community disability supports. For example, our community of providers has long faced a crisis related to recruiting and retaining qualified direct support professionals to deliver essential services to people with IDD. However, the impact of the pandemic has exacerbated this crisis in a way that has had a significant fiscal and human impact on providers’ ability to deliver the critical services they offer.

In addition to reflecting on the challenges of the past, the report also takes stock of the federal and state policies that have been essential to providers’ ability to weather this storm. At the state level, for example, a range of regulatory flexibilities have been crucial to providers’ financial stability. At the federal level, programs like the Paycheck Protection Program and the Provider Relief Fund have given badly needed financial resources to providers at a time when they have needed them the most.

Against this backdrop, the Case for Inclusion 2021 lays out a policy blueprint for the future — one that both takes into consideration the immediate needs providers face given the pandemic, and looks ahead to a post-pandemic world that is more sustainable than the one that providers found themselves navigating prior to COVID-19. More than a dozen meaningful, manageable, movable policies that can be implemented by state Medicaid agencies, the Biden administration and the 117th Congress are outlined in the Case for Inclusion’s blueprint for a brighter future.

Although we know that providers still continue to face significant challenges, one theme made evident by this year’s report is that in light of intense challenges, providers rise to the occasion time and time again, meeting the moment head-on to ensure that the people they support stay safe and healthy.

The Case for Inclusion 2021 Special Report, as well as its accompanying stories of impact and other advocacy resources, can be found at caseforinclusion.org. We invite you to browse these materials and join us in our ongoing efforts to ensure that the transition away from pandemic era operations do not mark a return to the broken system that defined community IDD services prior to the pandemic.