Medicaid program; mental retardation--definition of "persons with related conditions"--Health Care Financing Administration. Proposed rule.
We propose to amend the 1978 Medicaid regulations on intermediate care facility services for the mentally retarded and persons with related conditions to correct the definition of "persons with related conditions". This definition, because of an inadvertent error in 1978, is currently tied to the definition of developmental disability in the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DDABRA) as amended in 1978. The DDABRA, as amended, covers the mentally ill. The 1978 regulations intended to make "no substantive change" to prior Medicaid regulations which did not cover the mentally ill. The cross-reference to the DDABRA produced the unintended result of incorporating into Medicaid regulations the revision to the definition of the developmentally disabled created by the 1978 amendments to the DDABRA and may tend to cause confusion about the kind of care that is covered by the Medicaid program. Therefore, a correction of this drafting error is necessary. To avoid results of this kind in the future this proposal would establish a Medicaid definition of conditions related to mental retardation that would meet specific needs of the Medicaid program and would be independent of the definition of developmental disability in the DDABRA.
D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D007380:Intermediate Care Facilities / Q000191:economics*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States