COVID-19 message and resource compilation
The Department of Human Services (DHS) truly appreciates your support and the difficult decisions required to stay safe during this pandemic. We hope you are weathering this current situation in a safe and healthy way. Everything happening is unprecedented and there is no map for what we are all being asked to do.
As we confront this crisis, we are making major changes at an unprecedented pace. DHS is following a careful process, using authority the Governor granted us, but establishing rationale and accountability to support changes.
We must consider some difficult factors, such as:
- Assessing the different impacts multiple programs, divisions and agencies have
- Avoiding unintended consequences
- Realizing policy changes may
- cause IT/systems changes
- need fiscal review
- require state or federal approval
We anticipate the demand and pace of these change requests will grow.
Know that DSD recognizes the urgency of these requests. We ask for your patience and understanding as we respond with all the urgency we can while maintaining diligence and care in our decision-making.
We want to hear your questions and understand the issues that are most pressing for lead agencies. This information will influence our change request process.
Submit disability-related COVID-19 questions, comments and concerns to your Regional Resource Specialist (RRS) or the DSD Response Center. Submit aging-related questions, comments and concerns to DHS.AASD.HCBS@state.mn.us.
We compiled a list of COVID-19 resources to help you easily find the resources you need:
State of Minnesota: Coronavirus Disease in Minnesota dashboard
Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH): Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Department of Human Services
Disability Services Division (DSD)
Regional Resource Specialist (RRS) Geographic Area – DHS-4850B
The RRS team is hosting regional conference calls to provide COVID-19 updates and offer Q&A time for lead agencies. Regions 11 NE and 11 SW hold weekly calls and the rest of the regions hold a varied call schedule. Reach out to your RRS for additional details, dates and times.
Aging & Adult Services Division (AASD)
Minnesota Unemployment Insurance: COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and Unemployment Benefits
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Social Security Administration: Social Security & Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
Medicare: Medicare & Coronavirus
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Changes to SMRT referral process begin May 30, 2020
The State Medical Review Team (SMRT) is updating the referral form to include required information about a person’s MnCHOICES assessment date when seeking certification of disability to access a disability waiver. With this additional information, SMRT can ensure a person’s determinations are coordinated with the HCBS assessment of waiver need and eligibility. By incorporating the person’s assessment date, it is easier for SMRT to ensure a timely determination that is more aligned with waiver access timelines.
Lead agency financial workers submit referrals for disability determinations to SMRT. With the new process, the financial worker will need to include the date the MnCHOICES assessment was completed or is scheduled. The assessment must have occurred within the 150 days prior to, or be scheduled up to 60 days after, the date the referral is submitted. This is done in coordination with MA applications and assessor/case manager requests for a disability determination from SMRT on behalf of people they work with.
It is important to provide this information to financial workers to help SMRT and HCBS coordinate determinations. SMRT will implement this change on May 30, 2020.
Lead agency review (LAR) and HCBS monitoring
Lead agencies should continue to provide services following required timelines and procedures when possible. For cases in which lead agencies are not able to follow standard timelines and procedures because of the COVID-19 situation, make sure to include a “COVID-19 emergency protocol” message in documentation. Because of the COVID-19 peacetime emergency, DHS will allow variation based on temporary changes to administrative and regulatory requirements posted on the Latest information about COVID-19 from DSD and Latest information about COVID-19 from Aging pages. DHS will adjust LAR monitoring to account for the COVID-19 peacetime emergency protocols.
Windows 10 Troubleshooting document
We updated the Windows 10 Troubleshooting document on the MnCHOICES CountyLink Help Desk page to include a new troubleshooting issue for lead agencies to reference.
Eligibility does not run
This issue may be caused by configuration of one of the following security tools:
AppBlocker issues
If AppBlocker is in use and is set to “enforce” without rules for MnA, users briefly see the following message when they attempt to run eligibility in offline mode:
 Followed by the message:
 No eligibility results display after these messages.
The IT team will need to triage the issue and add the following rules to AppBlocker:
%OSDRIVE%\USERS\*\APPDATA\LOCAL\MNCHOICES\*
%OSDRIVE%\PROGRAMDATA\ORACLE\JAVA\*\*
Once these adjustments are made, users can close and reopen the application (go to online mode, return to offline mode). If this does not work, users should reboot the system and try again.
Users may need to perform additional troubleshooting with the lead agency IT team.
Other security programs
Lead agencies may need to add rules to any security program that is installed for eligibility to work in MnA offline mode. The lead agency IT team should triage by using Event Viewer to determine where to adjust rules.
MnCHOICES in-person time benchmark and COVID-19
Record interactive telecommunication assessment interview time as in-person interview time for benchmarks during the COVID-19 peacetime emergency. Assessors record this information in the disposition tab in the MnCHOICES assessment. Record the assessment time regardless of the final disposition (e.g. abandoned).
Review certified assessor list each quarter
Lead agency supervisors and certified assessors should check the Statewide List of Certified Assessors quarterly on MnCHOICES CountyLink. With a quick glance, you can see if your certification is current, expiring soon or lapsed. Lead agencies and certified assessors are responsible for keeping certifications current.
Rate sheets and MnCHOICES Assessments
DHS discovered that some lead agencies postpone assessments when completing rate sheets for a person that plans to move into a setting and needs a rate sheet . As a reminder, the assessment informs the rate sheet calculation. Lead agencies must not delay MnCHOICES assessments while waiting for rate sheets and agreements by providers. You are required to complete MnCHOICES assessments within 20 days of the assessment request, per MN Statute 256B.0911 Subd. 3a.
The following publications, forms and CBSM pages are new or have been updated and are now available in eDocs:
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DHS-3428C-ENG Determination of Age-Appropriate Dependencies for Children who use Long-Term Care
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DHS-4929-ENG Disability Services Division: Caregiver Living Expenses Worksheet
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DHS-7618-ENG Home and Community-Based Settings Applicant Assurance Statement
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DHS-2128-ENG Minnesota Health Care Programs Renewal for People Receiving Long-Term Care Services
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DHS-6189H-ENG Elderly Waiver and Alternative Care Assurance Statement for Family Caregiver Applicants
Note: Training attendees should check all training announcement pages to confirm if a training changed to an online format or is cancelled due to the COVID-19 peacetime emergency.
DSD Training News and Information Page – FREE CLU’s!
Read about and register for DSD-sponsored trainings or to visit TrainLink. Register using TrainLink: you must have a unique key to register and receive credit for trainings.
- Go to TrainLink
- Select Sign On in the upper right hand corner
- Enter your unique key
- Click on Find a Course
- Under Category choose: All Disability Services Division Courses
- Click the search button
- Click the Select button for a course of interest
- Click on the Course Content tab
- Select Start to begin the course
MnCHOICES Home page
Archive page
- New format
- MnCHOICES Matters newsletters from 2017
Communication and Webinars page
- MnCHOICES Matters March 2020
- Assessment 20.3.1 Release Notes & Companion Document
Help Desk page
- MnCHOICES Assessment Known Issues v20.3
- Windows 10 Troubleshooting
Mentors page
- Release and Outage Schedule
MCOs page
Support Plan page
- Launch webinar information and schedule – pre-launch calls added
Training page
- Statewide List of Certified Assessors (Updated March 2020)
The Known Issues list is a compilation of items that have been reported to the MnCHOICES team. We created the list to identify issues and provide workaround assistance for common items a user may encounter when working in the assessment or support plan. There are separate Known Issues documents for the Assessment and Support Plan.
As items are found, we add them to the list with descriptions and workarounds. We remove items from the list as they are resolved. These are short descriptions of the most recent additions and resolutions. For full descriptions, visit the MnCHOICES CountyLink Help Desk page.
MnCHOICES Assessment Known issue
Resolved:
- Certain MnA data does not copy over to subsequent reassessments and eligibility updates.
MnCHOICES Support Plan Known issue
None added or resolved
Visit CBSM – What's New often for a list of policies and pages we've recently updated in the Community-Based Services Manual. For a list of changes, visit the What’s New page.
DHS recently added or made updates to the Community-Based Services Manual (CBSM) about:
- COVID-19 pandemic information
- Waiver programs
For more information about MnCHOICES, visit us on the DHS website. For technical assistance about MnCHOICES, visit us on CountyLink.
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