Medicaid

Almost everything an autistic adult receives comes through Medicaid, and almost none of it is guaranteed.

This category covers the waiver programs that pay for community-based support: who is eligible, what services each one includes, how the waiting lists work, and what happens when a service is removed from the array. It also tracks federal rule changes, because a decision made at CMS reaches a kitchen table in Michigan a year or two later. Written for families, not for billing departments.

How 60 Years of Broken Promises Created Today’s Adult Autism Crisis

Crisis Timeline Feature Medicaid Policy Analysis

Sixty years of promises and the crisis they built Nobody designed this. That is the problem. Six decades of reasonable decisions, each solving the previous decade’s emergency, stacked into a...

Advocacy Resources Legislative Action Medicaid Waiting Lists

The two bills that could actually save your services One puts emergency money into a collapsing workforce for two years. The other removes the structural rule that makes an institution...

Budget & Appropriations Medicaid Michigan-Specific Policy Analysis

What $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts means for your family Home and community based services are optional under federal Medicaid law. Nursing facilities are not. When federal money contracts, states...

Data & Research How-To Guides Level 2/3 Autism Medicaid

Dental Care for Autistic Adults: The Crisis Nobody Talks About A toothache doesn’t announce itself politely in an adult who can’t easily say where it hurts. It shows up as...

Documentation Strategies How-To Guides Medicaid Michigan-Specific

Appeals, grievances, and fair hearings (MDHHS/PIHP denials) A denial letter looks final. It isn’t. Michigan gives you a real, structured path to challenge it, with a clock that starts the...

Advocacy Resources How-To Guides Medicaid Michigan-Specific

Transportation barriers (paratransit, NEMT, brokerages, and workarounds) A missed pickup doesn’t just cost a ride. It costs the appointment, the day program slot, the job shift, and sometimes the entire...

Adult Transition Medicaid Michigan-Specific

The age-21 cliff when the Medicaid Autism Benefit ends Michigan’s Medicaid Autism Benefit does not send a warning letter before it ends. It simply stops on a birthday, and what...

Documentation Strategies Medicaid Michigan-Specific

HSW renewals and changes: what to watch for The waiver funding your family’s services gets renewed and amended on a schedule most families never learn exists, through a public comment...

How-To Guides Medicaid Michigan-Specific

Michigan’s Habilitation Supports Waiver, step by step The HSW is the funding source behind most adult autism services in Michigan, and almost nobody explains it in order. Here is the...

How-To Guides Medicaid Michigan-Specific Waiting Lists

Michigan’s PIHP maze Why the county line you live on decides whether your autistic adult gets day programming, crisis support, and respite, or waits years for any of it. By...