Last Adult on Wisconsin's IRIS Waitlist Joins the Program

Friday, March 12th, 2021 -- 12:01 PM

(WMTV) The last Medicaid-eligible adult in Wisconsin to be on the state’s waitlist for long-term care services has been able to join a program, the Department of Health Services announced Wednesday.

The 40-year-old person with a physical disability was referred to the Include, Respect, I Self-Direct (IRIS) program on Feb. 28, which is the state’s self-directed long-term care program.

According to a news release, the effort to provide home and community based care programs to people with physical or developmental disabilities has been decades in the making.

In 1999, the formerly named Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services created a pilot Family Care program in five counties, hoping to create a long-term care system that would ensure anyone who was eligible for Medicaid long-term care services, and wanted to live in their home or in a community-based setting, was able to.

The IRIS program was then created in 2008 to expand on these programs, DHS continued.  Family CARE and IRIS have expanded through the state over the years, with the last county to support a Family Care program to take it on in July of 2018.

There are more than 77,000 people currently participating in these programs.

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