The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Executive Office of Health and Human Services

One Ashburton Place, Room 1109

Boston MA 02108

DEVAL L. PATRICK Governor   TIMOTHY P. MURRAY Lieutenant Governor   JUDYANN BIGBY, M.D. Secretary

Tel.:  617-573-1600 Fax:  617-573-1890 www.mass.gov/eohhs

October 12, 2010

This communication is seeking your interest in being a member of the Standing Olmstead Advisory Committee, established by Secretary Bigby at the close of the Systems Transformation Grant this summer to provide ongoing monitoring of the state's progress in meeting the goals of the Community First Olmstead Plan. The Executive Offices of Health and Human Services and Elder Affairs anticipate convening the Committee two-four times a year. The first role of the Committee will be to convene during the period in which the state will be planning its participation in the Money Follows the Person (MFP) Rebalancing Demonstration grant, and evaluating other opportunities regarding long-term services and supports made available through the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (PPACA).

The first meeting for the Standing Olmstead Advisory Committee will be October 22nd, 2010 from 1:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M. at One Ashburton Place, 21st Floor, Boston, MA.

Additionally, we are seeking a smaller group of individuals who will be prepared to be part of a smaller MFP Working Group. The MFP Demonstration was designed to provide assistance to states to balance their long-term care systems and help Medicaid enrollees transition from institutions to the community. The MFP Working Group may need to meet as frequently as every other week for the period up to the grant submission (in January 2011), and will be expected to do substantial reading and preparation in order to guide the state's efforts. Only individuals who can anticipate making that commitment are asked to submit their names for the MFP Working Group. We intend to assure a representative mix of member and provider interests and content expertise (nursing facility transition, psychiatric hospital and chronic/rehabilitation hospital transition, housing, care financing, case management, etc) on the MFP Working Group so, to the extent that there are multiple individuals from your organization seeking to join that process, please prioritize their membership.  

We will be using the Community First website to provide all interested individuals with ongoing access to information on MFP development and a mechanism for responding to questions as they emerge.

Please indicate your interest in participating in the Standing Olmstead Advisory Committee and/or the MFP Working Group by e-mailing Geri Smith-Hibbert at geralyn.smith-hibbert@state.ma.us 

We will have CART services available for the Standing Olmstead Advisory Committee on October 22nd; please let us know if you require other accommodations in order to participate in the meeting.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to transforming long-term services and supports in the Commonwealth. We look forward to hearing from you.

Jean McGuire, Assistant Secretary EOHHS

Ann Hartstein, Secretary Elder Affairs

Terence G. Dougherty, Medicaid Director