by Jim Copeland
The Advisory Council on Quality, or ACQ, advises the state on matters of importance in the area of developmental disability in NM, and our most recent meeting was last week.  Here are a few statistics revealed at last week’s meeting:

There are currently 4,380 people on the Central Registry Waiting List for DD Waiver services.  This does not include individuals who are in the “pending” category.  (“Pending” is for folks who, for whatever reason, haven’t established eligibility.  Usually, it is for the functional piece of eligibility.)  Last fiscal year, there were 3,776 people receiving services at a total cost of $267,000,000.  That is an average per year cost of $70,709 per person.  There are currently more people on the waiting list than are being served. 

The next allocations for the Metro Region will be for people who were put on the Registry as of May 30, 2001.  That’s already more than a 7 year wait for services.  Seven years.  It gets worse when you consider the following:  New Mexico allocates approximately 150 people per year.  Let’s see, 4,380 divided by 150 =29.2.  Twenty-nine point two.  That’s the number of years a person who was placed on the Registry on October 1, 2008 is likely to have to wait before receiving services. 

You can draw your own conclusions, but for all of us at the ACQ meeting, the numbers made one thing crystal clear:  We have a system we can’t sustain.  The chore is to figure out how we reduce costs without a perceived reduction in services.  Anyone know any really good magicians?