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Medicaid News
 States Offered $1.75 Billion by HHS to Help
Medicaid Patients Live at Home
People who need care and prefer to live
in their own homes can do so
July 26, 2006 - Health and Human Services announced
today it will offer $1.75 billion over five years to states who help
shift Medicaid patients from institutions to home and community-based
services.
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Bush Administration Exempts Millions in Medicaid
from Proof of Citizenship
July 7, 2006 Facing lawsuits and unhappy state
health officials, the Bush administration has backed off at least a
little on the requirement that took effect on July 1 that Medicaid
applicants provide proof of citizenship. In an announcement yesterday,
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said certain beneficiaries will be
exempted. It is estimated to include about eight million of the 55
million Medicaid users.
Read more...
Idaho Becomes First State with Approved Medicaid
Reform Plan
States have sweeping new options
to design
Medicaid programs
May 26, 2006 - Medicaid beneficiaries in Idaho will
be among the first in the nation to have benefits designed to meet their
needs based on age and health status -- changes allowed by the Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA), HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced today.
Prior to enactment of the DRA states could not target benefits to one
certain group of enrollees.
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Help in Understanding New Medicaid Regulations
Provided Online
ElderLawAnswers.com looks at details of new
transfer rules
April 24, 2006 Most senior citizens would prefer
to pay their own way as they are forced to seek professional help in
dealing with the deterioration of mind and body that is inevitable with
aging. Unfortunately, many cannot afford it and must turn
to Medicaid for help. ElderLawAnswers.com this week looks at the new laws
pertaining to asset transfers that may be necessary to qualify for
Medicaid. Read
more...
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Medicaid News |
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Through competitive grants, the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will fund states to help shift
Medicaid from its historical emphasis on institutional long-term care
services to a system that offers more choices for senior citizens and
persons with disabilities from all age groups, including home and
community-based services.
This Money Follows the Person rebalancing
initiative was included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA)
currently being implemented by CMS. This endeavor is also a part of
President Bush's New Freedom Initiative.
With this program, people who need long-term care
and prefer to live in their own homes and communities can do so, HHS
Secretary Mike Leavitt 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-funded long-term care services they
need.
Weve worked with advocates and states for years
to end the institutional bias in Medicaid, and now weve got the best
opportunity ever to do it, said Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., CMS
Administrator. We need to move as quickly as possible to make that
shift across Medicaid. With new Federal funding, there is no longer any
excuse for the status quo.
States interested in applying for a Money Follows
the Person grant can propose new programs to CMS that are aimed at
sustaining people in their homes or communities who would have otherwise
received care in a nursing home or other institution.
The qualified expenditures may be eligible for an
enhanced match rate from the federal government equal to an increase of
50 percent of the usual state Medicaid percentage contribution in
addition to the usual match rate.
In effect, the federal government will pay for 75
to 90 percent of the costs of transitioning individuals out of nursing
homes and into community settings, and the associated long-term care
benefit costs. Grant funds may also be used to help control how they
receive these services.
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. Funds
can be used not only for alternatives to institutional care services,
such as home health care; they can also be used for home modification
costs, respite services to augment informal or unpaid caregivers,
personal care and assistive devices. In their applications, states are
encouraged to coordinate with local and state housing authorities to
provide coordinated assistance for community-based housing needs.
CMS and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) have made steps to establish a new interagency liaison
to support this coordination.
We know that accessible, affordable, integrated
housing is critical to a person's ability to make the transition into
the community, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said. My agency will
strongly urge the Public Housing Agencies and Housing Finance Agencies
in the states to work collaboratively with Medicaid programs to help
create opportunities for those moving out of institutions into the
community.
Each state awarded a grant must continue to provide
community services after the year of enhanced match as long as the
person needs community services and is Medicaid eligible. The deadline
for the first years applications is Nov. 1, 2006. Demonstration grants
will be competitively awarded to states from Jan. 1, 2007 through Sept.
30, 2011. Funds will be available for a five-year period; however,
states must participate in the demonstration for a minimum of two
consecutive years.
The Medicaid program traditionally pays for care
for persons who are elderly and those with disabilities living in
institutions who needed help with activities of daily living, because
institutional care was the norm when the Medicaid law was enacted forty
years ago.
To provide home and community-based services,
states must get a waiver of normal program rules designed to pay for
care in institutions. Waivers and demonstration programs offer the
promise of significantly lower costs per beneficiary and reductions in
overall Medicaid spending as a result of giving individuals control over
how to get their services, rather than requiring them to use
institutional care in order to get Medicaid long-term care benefits.
But rebalancing Medicaid coverage may have some
short-term costs, which the new federal program enables states to
overcome.
In addition to the Money Follows the Person
initiative, the DRA made many 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 the waiver process. For example,
under another DRA provision, states now have the option to provide home
and community-based services without needing a waiver.
Even though personal control leads to better
results and lower costs for people with a disability, its still true
today that most elderly or disabled enrollees do not have a choice about
how they get their long-term care services under Medicaid, said Dr.
McClellan.
By working with states, advocates, and Medicaid
enrollees to take advantage of these unprecedented opportunities, thats
going to change."
A copy of the 2006 Money Follows the Person
Rebalancing Initiative Demonstration Program, including the application
forms, can be obtained at
www.grants.gov. For more details about the New Freedom Initiative,
visit the CMS Web site at:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom/.
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