Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals | Bruce Greenstein, Secretary

Children's Choice is a program designed to help families who provide in-home care and support for their children with developmental disabilities.  Children's Choice assists by providing funding for medical care, home modifications, care-giving assistance and support, and other specialty services.  Children's Choice is a support program designed to be flexible enough to let families choose when they need the covered services.

Children's Choice is intended to supplement the care and support that eligible children already receive at home, through their extended families or that is already available within local communities.  Funds available through Children's

Choice are capped at $16,660 per care plan year.  Recipients are also eligible for services through the Medicaid State Plan which includes all medically necessary services.

• Child is on the Request for Services Registry.
• Child is under nineteen (19) years of age.
• Child is disabled according to SSI criteria.
• Child requires the level of care provided in an ICF/DD facility (institution).
• Child has income less than three (3) times the SSI amount.
• Child has resources less than $2,000.
• Child meets all Medicaid non-financial requirements (citizenship, residence, Social Security number, etc.).
• Child's plan of care meets the health and welfare needs of the child.
• Appropriate level of care can be provided outside an institution.

• Support Coordination
• Family Support
• Center-based Respite
• Environmental Accessibility Adaptations
• Family Training
• Medical coverage via the Medicaid program

When a child is certified for Children's Choice, they will be entitled to receive medical services and get a Medicaid card.

Some services include physician services, hospital services, home health, additional personal care services, durable medical equipment, pharmacy services and many others.

The NOW is a comprehensive community-based waiver program that serves both children and adults with developmental disabilities.  Traditionally, Medicaid pays for and provides services for these individuals in institutional settings.  Through the waiver program, citizens with developmental disabilities have greater flexibility to choose where they want to live, and the services and supports that best suit their needs, while still receiving Medicaid benefits.


The NOW pays for services such as personal care attendants, environmental modifications, assistive devices, respite care and many other services.  In addition, day/vocational services and residential alternatives (such as supervised independent living and extended family living) are provided.

A parent can call Toll Free 1-866-783-5553 to obtain their child's request date, or contact the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities at 225.342.0095.

When Children's Choice opportunities are available, letters go out to families.  Families who have initially said "no" will not be offered a Children’s Choice Waiver again, unless OCDD has gone through the entire DD Request for Services Registry (RFSR) and there are still CC Waiver slots available, they would then be re-offered a CC Waiver by their date of request on the DD RFSR.

Children's Choice is designed for children under age nineteen (19) with low to moderate needs and whose families provide most of the care and support.  But if a crisis situation develops and additional supports are warranted, there are crisis provisions designed to meet the needs of families on a case-by-case basis.

If a child's needs significantly change and the crisis or non-crisis designation is met, the child's name would be returned to the Request for Services Registry with the child's original request date.  There is also an administrative appeal process for families who request and are denied either crisis or non-crisis designation.  Additionally, once your child turns age nineteen (19), and continues to meet the eligibility criteria, your child would transfer to an appropriate adult Waiver.

It depends on whether or not crisis or non-crisis designations are met.

The non-crisis provisions allow Children's Choice Waiver participants to have their names restored to the Request for Services Registry for the NOW.  Names are restored to the registry in original date order, when all of the following four (4) criteria are met:

• The recipient would benefit from services through the NOW which are not available through his/her current waiver or through Medicaid State Plan Services; AND
• The recipient would qualify for those services under the standards utilized for approving and denying services to the NOW participants; AND
• There has been a change in circumstances since his or her enrollment in the Children's Choice Waiver causing these other services to be more appropriate. 
•  A change in the recipient’s medical condition is not required.  A change in circumstances can include the loss of in-home assistance through a caretaker's decision to take on or increase employment, or to obtain education or training for employment.   The temporary absence of a caretaker due to a vacation is not considered "good cause"; AND The recipient's request date for the NOW has passed on the Request for Services Registry.

Re-adding the recipient to the DD RFSR will allow him or her to be placed in the next available waiver slot that will provide appropriate services provided the individual is still eligible when the slot becomes available.

When the crisis occurs, the family should contact the support coordination agency to convene the team to evaluate the need and to request approval of the needed services.

Once your child turns age nineteen (19), and continues to meet the eligibility criteria, your child would transfer to an appropriate adult waiver.  Approximately ninety (90) days before your child turns nineteen (19), this eligibility and transfer process would begin.

No, support coordination is a Children's Choice Waiver service.  In fact, DHH/Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities (OCDD) has raised the cap to $16,660 in order to address this concern.  The support coordination agency is responsible for development of the comprehensive plan of care and assuring the services your child needs are delivered.  However, DHH/OCDD will continue to seek ways to make the support coordination requirement more flexible.

No.  There are no other "required" services under Children's Choice.

Support Coordination agencies are selected from a "Freedom of Choice" list.  This list will be sent after a family has accepted the offer of the Children's Choice Waiver.

This is not available at this time and would require an amendment approved by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to the Children's Choice Waiver.

The process works as follows:
1) The family accepts Children's Choice Services
2) A support coordinator is chosen and development of a Plan of Care (POC) begins
3) The child is determined eligible for the Children's Choice Waiver; and
4) The POC is approved.
The support coordinator then begins to implement the POC and arrange other necessary services.

Re-certification is required annually, and the POC is renewed annually as well.

Yes.  The Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) raised the yearly cap from $7,500 to $15,000 to $17,000 and due to a budgetary short fall  the yearly cap has been decreased to $16, 660 per plan-of-care-year.  Parents and advocates have expressed great support for this increased limit.

Call the OCDD toll-free help line at 1-866-783-5553.

Regarding state funded programs, it is a case-by-case decision as to whether there would be an effect.

The Plan of Care (POC) determines the number of service hours a recipient can receive based on the individuals need.  The POC should be flexible to meet the individual's needs, and if one's needs change, the POC can change, thus allowing the individual flexibility.

This acceptance should have no effect on other Medicaid state plan services.  SSI would need to be contacted to see what effect it would have, as SSI is an individual determination.

Direct care can be services and supports provided in a direct manner to the individual.