Employment services

Minnesota added three employment services to our home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers on July 1, 2018. We added the following services to the Developmental Disabilities (DD), Community Alternative Care (CAC), Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI) and Brain Injury (BI) waivers:

Employment exploration services: Community-based services that introduce people with disabilities to employment options and allow them to explore their options through work experiences. This service helps people to make an informed choice about working in competitive, integrated employment.
Employment development services: Individualized services that help people find competitive, integrated employment or attain self-employment.
Employment support services: Individualized services and supports that help people to maintain community employment in an individual or group arrangement.

Benefits
What's changed?
Timeline

Benefits

The three employment services:
- Provide services and resources to support competitive, integrated employment for people with disabilities: We know that many Minnesotans with disabilities choose to work in competitive jobs in the general workforce. As an Employment First state, Minnesota knows it is important to provide services and supports to help people to be successful in their careers. These services provide new supports and additional resources.
- Create more individualized services: The employment services allow for supports and services to be tailored to a person’s needs, dreams and unique circumstances.
- Allow for more specific service planning: The employment services increase the person’s, lead agency’s, service provider’s and DHS’s understanding of the services that have been authorized and provided.
What's changed?

The employment services make the following changes to Minnesota’s HCBS waivers:
- Separate community-based employment from the day training and habilitation (DT&H) and prevocational services. Providers will now authorize, provide and bill for all community-based group work arrangements (such as work crews or enclave arrangements) as part of the employment support service. Center-based work activities remain a part of DT&H.
- Replace the current supported employment services support under the HCBS waivers with the new employment services (primarily with employment development and employment support)
- Add employment exploration as a new service to give people with disabilities experiences to help them make an informed choice about competitive, integrated employment
Timeline
We are rolling out the new employment services according to the schedule below:
- June 2017: Minnesota Legislature approved the new employment services.
- Oct. 31, 2017: DHS submitted waiver services amendment to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
- March 8, 2018: CMS approved Minnesota's request to add the employment services to our HCBS waivers.
- July 1, 2018: MMIS changes go live and employment services become available. New service recipients may immediately receive employment services.
- Sept. 1, 2018: At any annual renewal date on or after this date, service authorizations must move to the new employment services.
- Sept. 1, 2019: By this date, all people who receive services must have moved to the new employment services.