Expenditures

This issue brief, developed by the National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services, examines the impact of the purchase of goods and services on participants. The brief uses information collected from project staff and program participants from the Cash & Counseling demonstration.

A summary from the June 2001 symposium titled, “Independent Choices: A National Symposium on Consumer-Direction and Self-Determination for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities”. Major themes and outcomes are highlighted based on the dialogue from the various speakers including policymakers, program administrators, consumer advocates, service producers, and researchers.

Based primarily on interviews with demonstration staff and other stakeholders, this paper draws lessons from their learning process on the design of basic features, in the Cash and Counseling demonstration programs. The lessons pertain to cooperating with existing service providers; outreach and enrollment; counseling and fiscal services; consumer spending plans and allowances; controlling program costs; and preventing misuse of the allowance and exploitation of the consumer.

This article describes the importance of examining views from multiple key stakeholders involved in implementing CD programs. The report focuses on the three background studies that informed the Cash & Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation, as well as results from the first year of implementation.

This tool was developed to help participants in Cash & Counseling programs set personal goals. There are three major objectives sighted for the process: To develop a structured process to ensure that the participants’ goals are clearly articulated and that the spending plan represents the needs and wishes of the consumer, to assure and improve quality at the individual level, and to use data collected for quality improvement at the program level.

Pennsylvania developed this plan for their Services My Way program. The plan summarizes the results of an internal and external scan, lays out intended messages and activities, and details a timeline for activities.

This FAQ was developed for West Virginia's Personal Options program. It includes information on employer responsibilities and support services.

This study assesses the effects of consumer direction on the experiences and well-being of the primary informal caregivers of children who participated in Florida's Cash & Counseling demonstration. Instead of Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) waiver benefits, the demonstration program provided a monthly allowance and let parents hire providers and manage the other services and goods their child needed.

Arkansas’ Cash & Counseling Demonstration program, IndependentChoices, was studied to examine the ways in which consumer-direction affects the cost of Medicaid personal care services, as well as the cost and use of other Medicaid and Medicare services. The study also examines the affect the program had on service utilization.

This study of Florida's Cash & Counseling demonstration program, Consumer Directed Care (CDC), compares children's use of services and quality of care under traditional versus consumer-directed approaches to Medicaid HCBS.