As part of Colorado's Employment First efforts, in the 2019 legislative session Health Care Policy & Financing (the Department) received funding to design and run a Supported Employment Incentive Based Pilot (Pilot). The purpose of the Pilot is to test if using an incentive based payment system for supported employment services will lead to more Competitive Integrated Employment outcomes.
The goals of this Pilot are to:
- Support Pilot participants to find and be successful in Competitive Integrated Employment
- Promote and support the Pilot participants' full integration and independence into their employment community
- Collect and analyze the data generated from this Pilot to inform future Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Supported Employment policy decisions and payment systems
The Department is conducting this Supported Employment Incentive Based Pilot from December 2020 through March 31, 2024 for a limited number of waiver members in the Developmental Disability (DD) and Supported Living Services (SLS) waivers. The providers taking part in the Pilot are identifying the waiver members that would most benefit from discovery, an element of customized employment, extended job coaching, and are interested in Competitive Integrated Employment.
The services provided by the Pilot include discovery and job coaching, and participants will still utilize the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) for job placement and the start of job coaching services. The Pilot will be reimbursing the providers for these services in a few new ways that are more incentive based instead of the traditional way Supported Employment services are currently paid for (fee-for-service).
- Providers in the Pilot will be reimbursed for every hour the participants work, not every hour the employment specialist provides job coaching.
- Providers will be eligible for other payments for certain participant outcomes and supporting specific populations.
The Department contracted with the following three providers for this Pilot:
- Continuum of Colorado
- Easterseals Colorado
- Imagine!
- Integrating Supports Colorado
- Parker Personal Care Homes
These providers will be supporting their participants in getting and keeping Competitive Integrated Employment (real work for real pay). The Department will be working with the providers and monitoring the Pilot to learn and develop new best practices that will help inform updates and changes to the Supported Employment programs.
Contact Lauren.Riley@state.co.us for more information.