DODD Fact Check: Let’s Check Their “Facts”

DODD has posted a new “Myth vs. Fact” page defending Ohio’s change to the interRAI test.

Families should read it carefully and compare DODD’s claims with DODD’s own statements and documents.

DODD claims interRAI is not meant to be a cost cutting measure. But in a required statewide training, Deputy Director Nyoka Craddolph told county board employees that waiver modernization (that’s the project that includes interRAI) could provide financial “relief” to county boards. Craddolph described current cost-containment measures as “bridging the gap” until this relief shows up, and that "this is just the beginning."

Fact check: A DODD senior official has connected “waiver modernization” with cost cutting.

DODD claims it’s a myth that people will receive less funding.

DODD says interRAI will identify support levels and that the OhioISP will still identify needed services. Those are different questions from how much funding a person will receive. Take a look at Nebraska. Nebraska also implemented interRAI to assign support levels. NBC News reported that hundreds of people had their Medicaid-funded care budgets slashed. The news story is called "How an Algorithm is Taking Medicaid Caregiving Away from Disabled People."

Fact check: DODD does not promise that no one’s funding will decrease.

DODD claims the home inspection portion of the test is not a home inspection.

DODD says the interRAI assessors will “check if there are any safety risks” in your home, but that this is “not the same as a home inspection.” So an assessor will come into your home and check it for safety risks, but it’s not an “inspection,” it’s a “check.”

Fact check: This is just another DODD word game, and it’s an insult to the intelligence of people with developmental disabilities.

DODD claims the interRAI assessors will be “highly trained.”

Training assessors does not prove that the test itself is useful, accurate, or helpful. It also doesn’t have anything to do with how the test will be scored and matched to funding levels.

Other states have already had major problems with interRAI results. Take a look at Indiana. They have to pump the brakes on interRAI “as advocates raised alarm about the tool’s accuracy.”

Fact check: Training the person who gives the test does not prove the test will come out with the right result.

DODD claims sending your data to interRAI for research “does not violate Section 5123.62 of the Ohio Revised Code, which references individual rights related to research.”

At its September webinar, DODD Deputy Director Allan Showalter said: “Certainly having de-identified information shared is not research.” DODD’s website now says something narrower: that use of de-identified information is not “human subjects research.”

But DODD’s signed contract with interRAI says interRAI will use the data “solely for research purposes and to develop standards.” It also says interRAI may “evaluate and publish data and research findings.”

Fact check: DODD’s own contract expressly says the data will be used for research. The Ohio Revised Code expressly says you have the right to refuse to participate in research. Not “human subjects research.” Not “research with your name on it.” Research. Period.

Verify It Yourself

You don’t have to rely on DODD’s spin doctors. In fact, you don’t even have to rely on us either! Watch Nyoka Craddolph’s statewide training. Read the interRAI contract. Read what happened in Nebraska and Indiana.

When the government tries to tell you that “check[ing] if there are any safety risks” in your home is “not the same as a home inspection,” pay attention.

When it says the changes coming are not about cutting costs after telling county boards they may provide financial “relief" and "this is just the beginning," pay attention.

When it says your data are not being used for research while its signed contract says your data will be used “solely for research purposes,” read the contract yourself.

And when two other states are sounding the alarm, don’t ignore them.

That is why families are asking questions now.