Please keep services facilitation as a standalone service. Our service facilitator knows my brother's medical history and needs. They help our family with paperwork, authorizations, and problems when they come up. Replacing facilitators with a statewide broker system risks gaps in his services and the loss of a person who knows him. If a broker model goes ahead, please keep independent facilitation as an option families can choose, and make sure his current authorizations stay in place until the new system is confirmed to be working.

Please keep the EVV exemption for live-in caregivers. My mother lives in the home and provides care around the clock, not in set visits. Clocking in and out does not fit that kind of care. It adds a burden to a caregiver who already has little time off. It also risks pay problems from missed punches or app errors, and she could stop being able to afford to do this work. I understand the exemption is part of the budget and not the waiver amendment, but I ask DMAS to keep it wherever it has the authority.

Paid family caregivers like my mother keep people like my brother at home and out of institutions, which is better for him and costs the state less. Please protect these supports.

Thank you,

Shai Malik