Featuring – Service & Support Administration

The SSA department has been diligently working on ways to cut expenses to help with budgeting issues occurring throughout the County Board. Since waiver costs are established by DODD and in Ohio Administrative Code, the SSA Department’s only control over these costs is to ensure the waiver services that are authorized in an individual’s Service Plan are those services which are necessary to meet Health and Safety concerns and address an assessed need. We are looking for more “creative ways” to cut costs.

Roommates are being explored for those who are appropriate candidates to live under the same roof and who will get along well with potential roommates. There have been several new “homes” for consumers created over the past few months.

There are several new waiver services that if appropriate for an individual will be utilized and will result in a cost reduction to their waiver costs. Remote Monitoring is a new service now covered under the IO Waiver and given the vast potential of this technology, costs can be reduced when consumers are able to be more independent; and, do not require hands-on staffing full time.

Adult Foster Living Care and Adult Family Living are two new services that we are exploring with a couple of individuals. If either of these services are appropriate and the individual agrees to use either service then the cost will be reduced from an hourly cost to daily cost for Homemaker Personal Care Service resulting in a significant saving to the Board in most cases. These new services are being explored in an effort to cut the Board’s waiver costs.

Coming up soon is the Provider Awards Day honoring all providers who work with our individuals to make their lives better. This will be the first year we include providers beyond residential providers. The date has not been set in stone, but we are looking toward October again. Last year was a huge success, so we have high hopes for this year!

We hope you all have a fun summer!