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Medicaid News
Initiative to Keep Medicaid Patients at Home Gets
First Funding by CMS
17 States get $23 million of $1.75 billion for
demonstration projects
 January 17, 2007 – In the first round of funding
for a program aimed at keeping Medicaid patients out of health care
institutions and providing care in their homes, 17 states will receive
more that $23 million this year and up to $900 million over five years
for long-term care demonstration projects.
This program called the Money Follows the Person (MFP)
“rebalancing” initiative was included in the Deficit Reduction Act of
2005 (DRA) currently being implemented by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS).
These awards, announced by Leslie Norwalk, acting
administrator for CMS, are the first round of grants that will total
$1.75 billion over five years (2007-2011) to help states shift
Medicaid’s traditional emphasis on institutional care to a system
offering greater choices for individuals and a full range of home- and
community-based services.
“There is more evidence than ever that people who
need long-term care prefer to remain in their own homes and communities
whenever possible,” Norwalk said.
“States will also get more for their money by
giving the elderly and people with disabilities more control over how
and where they get the Medicaid services they need. With these grants,
the states propose to transition over 20,000 individuals from
institutions and into community settings.
“Because experience shows that money following the
person’s own preferences improves satisfaction and can reduce Medicaid
costs too, we intend to continue taking steps, such as those taken
through these grants, to remove barriers, real or perceived, that
prevent them from participating fully in community life.”
The Medicaid program traditionally pays for care
for elderly and disabled individuals living in institutions who need
help with activities of daily living. Previously, in order to fund home
and community-based services, states had to establish a “waiver program”
apart from the approved State Medicaid plan.
|
2007 MFP Awards |
|
State |
FY 2007
Amount |
|
AR |
$139,519 |
|
CA |
$90,000 |
|
CT |
$1,313,823 |
|
IA |
$307,933 |
|
IN |
$860,514 |
|
MD |
$1,000,000 |
|
MI |
$2,034,732 |
|
MO |
$3,398,225 |
|
NE |
$202,500 |
|
NH |
$297,671 |
|
NY |
$192,981 |
|
OK |
$3,526,428 |
|
SC |
$34,789 |
|
TX |
$143,401 |
|
WA |
$108,500 |
|
WI |
$8,020,388 |
|
OH |
$2,079,488 |
|
Total |
$23,750,892 |
To assist states in offering greater choices, the
DRA made changes in Medicaid that will allow states to add home- and
community-based services to their permanent array of benefits without
having to go through a waiver program. Under a DRA provision separate
from the MFP initiative, states now have the option to provide home and
community-based services without a waiver program.
States receiving grants today under the MFP
initiative (see list in table) will design programs with four major
objectives:
● Eliminate barriers or mechanisms that prevent
Medicaid-eligible individuals from receiving support for appropriate and
necessary long-term services in the settings of their choice;
● Increase the ability of the state Medicaid
program to assure continued provision of home and community based
long-term care services to eligible individuals who choose to move from
an institutional to a community setting; and
● Ensure that procedures are in place to provide
quality assurance for individuals receiving Medicaid home and
community-based long-term care services and to provide for continuous
quality improvement in such services.
All states were eligible to apply for participation
in the five-year demonstration that requires a commitment to participate
in the demonstration services for at least two consecutive years. A
second round of state grants may be announced later this year using 2007
grant money.
States receiving grant funds may be eligible to
receive a higher percentage of federal matching dollars to help cover
the costs for people moving out of institutions and into community
settings. The higher matching rate will be applied to certain services
provided to an individual for a one-year period after the individual
moves out of an institution and into the community. The state must
continue to provide community services after that period as long as the
person needs community services and is Medicaid eligible.
“These demonstration grants are a clear sign of our
continued commitment to expand choice to all individuals wanting to live
meaningful lives in the community,” Norwalk said. “These grants will
help give them the independence to live at home and be an active part of
their communities."
For more details about the New Freedom Initiative,
of which this demonstration is part, visit the CMS web site at:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom/.
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