10/09/2026
**Advocacy Alert**
Thank you to the fine folks at Protect TX Fragile Kids! Hoping everyone has heard that comment is needed ASAP for the upcoming hearing!
Last fiscal year, 239 children qualified for the Medically Dependent Children Program (MDCP) through the Money Follows the Person nursing facility limited-stay pathway. It is the only route for the most medically complex children to bypass years waiting on the interest list without spending 30+ days in a nursing facility first. Some are on ventilators or feeding tubes. Others don't fit neatly in any boxโchildren with rare and undiagnosed disorders, children in active cancer treatment, children with no immune system, children with uncontrolled seizures and degenerative conditions, whose needs a list was never going to capture. Kids who would likely be in an ICU or intermediate care unit if they were hospitalized. Their parents are providing that level of care at home.
MDCP is what makes it possible to provide and sustain a hospital level of care at home--at a fraction of what institutional care costs the state.
Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is replacing that pathway. The new NF diversion process makes 120 slots available for the year.
Uptake rates for the current limited-stay pathway have gone up every year since FY23, when 124 children qualified--and these numbers only represent the families who actually made it all the way through a lengthy eligibility process and were approved. The actual need is far higher than what the numbers show.
Per the state's waiver amendment to CMS, the 120 figure is based on "prior utilization." Every year of prior utilization sits above that line.
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Public hearing Monday, Oct. 12, 10 AM, hybrid
โฐ Register by 5 PM Sunday, Oct. 11 to testify virtually
๐ https://t.co/MOXV6Xffnl
If your family or someone you love has been through this, the state needs to hear from you. You don't need to explain the rule. Share your story, and tell the state what this will mean for families.
