April 12, 2023
The Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) and the Department of Health (DOH) are in the process of making changes to the agreement that OPWDD has with the federal government called the OPWDD 1915 (c) Comprehensive Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Waiver.
OPWDD is proposing an amendment to the Waiver that permanently adopts flexibilities that were temporarily authorized under the authority of the Appendix K to address the COVID-19 public health emergency. These temporary flexibilities are scheduled to sunset on November 11, 2023; however, the proposed amendment would have approval on October 1, 2023, thereby adopting the flexibilities into the permanent waiver. These changes, and other programmatic, fiscal and administrative changes, are intended to build on lessons learned during the pandemic and improve the effectiveness of Waiver services moving forward.
The amendment changes are outlined in a Plain Language summary, which will be available in 12 languages on the OPWDD website.
If you do not have Internet access, you can visit any county social services office to access the proposed changes online. Hard copies of the proposed changes are also available at the OPWDD Developmental Disabilities Regional Offices (DDROs).
Copies will be available at the following local OPWDD Offices: Finger Lakes 620 Westfall Rd./Suite 326 Rochester, NY 14620
Western NY 1200 East and West Rd., Building 16, West Seneca, NY 14224
Western NY OPWDD Satellite Office
1021 Broadway, Buffalo NY 14212
Broome 249 Glenwood Rd. Binghamton, NY 13905
Central NY 187 Northern Concourse North Syracuse, NY 13212
Sunmount 2445 State Route 30 Tupper Lake, NY 12986
Capital District 500 Balltown Rd. Schenectady, NY 12304
Hudson Valley 9 Wilbur Rd. Thiells, NY 10984
Taconic 38 Firemens Way Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Bernard Fineson 80-45 Winchester Blvd, Building 80, 2nd Floor Administrative Suite Queens Village, NY 11427
Metro NY/Bronx 2400 Halsey St. Bronx, NY 10461
Brooklyn 750 Vandalia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11239
Metro NY/Manhattan 25 Beaver St., 3rd Floor New York, NY 10004
Staten Island 930 Willowbrook Rd. Staten Island, NY 10314
Long Island 415-A Oser Ave. Hauppauge, NY 11788
You can send OPWDD your written comments by email at [email protected] or by regular mail at: NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, Division of Policy and Program Development, 44 Holland Avenue, Albany, NY 12229.
All comments must be postmarked or emailed by May 12, 2023. Please indicate “OPWDD 1915(c) October 1, 2023 Waiver Amendment Comments” in the subject line.