Waiting Lists

A waiting list is a denial with better manners.

This category covers the waiting lists for waiver services: how long they actually run, how states count them and how they avoid counting them, the federal reporting requirements coming into force, and what a family can do while it waits. Wait times are the clearest measure of the distance between what a program promises and what it delivers.

Starting July 2027, States Must Publish Their Waiting List Numbers. Here’s How to Use Them.

Advocacy Resources Federal Guidance Medicaid Waiting Lists

Starting July 2027, States Must Publish Their Waiting List Numbers. Here’s How to Use Them.For more than forty years no state had to tell anyone how long people wait for...

Medicaid Policy Analysis State Comparisons Waiting Lists

Only One State Has No Waiting List for Disability Services. Here’s What It Costs.I went looking for states that eliminated their waiting lists and found that most of the ones...

Data & Research Medicaid Michigan-Specific Waiting Lists

63 Months: The Average Wait for Autism Services Through Medicaid WaiversMore than five years. That is the national average wait for an autism-specific Medicaid waiver, against 37 months for intellectual...

Adult Transition Data & Research Feature Waiting Lists

By the numbers: the adult autism services gap in 7 charts Seven federal figures, none of them controversial, none of them disputed. Put them side by side and the gap...

Community Living Supports (CLS)Michigan-Specific Waiting Lists Workforce Crisis

When the hours are authorized and nobody shows up A denial you can appeal. An unfilled shift is not a denial, so most families have no idea it is actionable...

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...

Advocacy Resources Michigan-Specific Policy Analysis Waiting Lists

Understanding service deserts and waitlist delays Some Michigan counties simply don’t have the service you need, at any price, on any waitlist. That’s not a failure of your advocacy. It’s...

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...

Advocacy Resources Data & Research Legislative Action Waiting Lists

When waiting lists act like policy tools A waiting list is not a queue that eventually empties. On an HCBS waiver, it is a rationing mechanism, sized by legislative appropriation,...

Advocacy Resources How-To Guides Medicaid Waiting Lists

Understanding Long Waitlists and What to Do While You Wait The HCBS waiver waitlist is rationing dressed in administrative language. The wait is real, the wait is long, and the...