By Ron Spence, Independence Northwest Operations Director
As many of you may have heard, the Oregon Office of Developmental Disabilities (ODDS) has taken a step back from its mandate that all payments to brokerage providers – Personal Support Workers and otherwise – be moved into eXPRS starting in January of 2015. Brokerages have worked closely with ODDS throughout 2014 to help them understand the risks of moving into the eXPRS system before it’s truly ready and we’ve seen real partnership from state leaders in the last couple months on this issue. ODDS has valid reasons for wanting to get this thing launched once and for all (so does Independence Northwest – more on that soon); it’s a tribute to the new leadership that they listened to our concerns and agreed to develop a more sensible plan based on the realities of the situation, a plan that allows a gradual roll out between now and April of 2015. Some brokerages will enroll PSWs in January, some in February, some in March, and some in April.
Based on our evaluation of the current state of eXPRS, Independence Northwest has made the decision not to move its PSW payments into eXPRS until April of 2015.
If you’d like to learn more about our decision, stay tuned. We’ll be posting a more in-depth article on the topic this week. In the meantime, don’t forget to sign up for one of the eXPRS/PSW trainings happening in January 2015 in the Portland metro area.