New report: SIS helps states design robust reimbursement levels and individual budgets

Email  |  Print

A comprehensive report from the Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) describes how the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) is the key starting point to help states design more rational and politically defensible reimbursement levels for people with developmental disabilities and individual budgets for recipients of the HCBS Comprehensive or Support Waiver services. The reports states, “…because of its foundation in individual support needs, the SIS implicitly drives the resource allocation decision toward greater quality, in that it reinforces the importance of participant-centered planning, participant safeguards, and other key components of service quality.” 

The report, titled Developing Individual Budgets and Reimbursement Levels Using the Supports Intensity Scale, describes how HSRI uses individual assessment information from the Supports Intensity Scale in conjunction with past funding awards to uncover the rationale a state has employed so far for resource allocation. With this understanding, states can move toward a system for allocating resources that is more equitable and more responsive to state programmatic and budgetary constraints.

With states facing unprecedented budget cuts and an increasing demand for a wider range of service options for people with developmental disabilities, policy makers are seeking efficiency and equity in service systems.  The report points out that equitable and effective developmental disability systems can only come from the collection of reliable and accurate information on individual support needs. The Supports Intensity Scale is seen as a foundation of this effort of the disability field towards focusing on the individual and his or her needs, given the unique focus of SIS on capturing information on the daily needs of a person in 86 life areas.

The report states, “A variety of assessment tools are already available….In recent years, the Supports Intensity Scale has come to be seen as an instrument with strong potential for providing the required assessments.” “With extensive information on individual support needs, generated by the systematic use of the SIS, a state agency is well positioned to create logical assessment groupings of its waiver participants and to assign each individual to an assessment level.”

Developing Individual Budgets and Reimbursement Levels Using the Supports Intensity Scale is prepared by Madeleine Kimmich, D.S.W., John Agosta, Ph.D., Jon Fortune, Ed. D., Drew Smith, B.A., Kerri Melda, M.S., Karen Auerbach, Ph.D., and Sara Taub, M.M.H.S. for the Independent Living Research Utililization.  Download the report here.