Individualized Budget

The Tennessee Personal Assistance Supports and Services program developed this comprehensive guide to assist individuals in self-direction. The guide provides people with disabilities the information and tools needed to hire and manage a Personal Assistant. The guide discusses the differences between hiring individually or through an agency, how to process a self-assessment, offers job descriptions and performance expectations, and other checklists.

Beneficiary-managed individual budget model had its origins in the Cash & Counseling Demonstration. This brief describes the evolution of the model since the original demonstration and provides an overview of state activity. Although Medicaid waivers have been required for individual budget model programs to date, the Deficit Reduction Act gives the option to use this model for an expanded range of home and community based services in the Medicaid plans without having to obtain a waiver.

The statehealthfacts.org had recently added a data on states who offer Individual Budget programs. Use this interactive guide to compare and review activities related to participant-directed care. Data includes the program type, program name, CMS waiver authority, includes elderly, and a status update. Current as of January 2006.

IL NET of Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) will present a three-week distance learning course. The online program is designed to help CIL and SILC leaders manage organization finances more effectively. Upon completion, participants will be able to identify key components of sound fiscal management, develop fiscal reports, prepare and deliver agency and program budgets, identify fiscal risk management controls, and define appropriate roles for board and staff financial oversight.

This is the fourth in a series of newsletters produced at the Exchange to provide assistance to our CMS Real Choice Systems Change grantees. This newsletter is produced biannually. Topics include: Building Nursing Home Transition into a Balanced Long-term Care System: The Washington Model, Individualized Back-up Planning and Independence Plus in Louisiana & New Hampshire, Participant-Centered Planning & Individual Budgeting, South Carolina's Care Call, and Money Follows the Person.

This website is the site for the Maine Quality Choices grant. Maine’s Work Group for Community-Based Living includes a broad array of consumer and state representatives from five departments (Transportation, Labor, Education, Human Services, and Behavioral and Developmental Services). The website offers information on the Work Group, Accessing Services, Community Living, Data Integration, Person-Centered Services, Quality Improvement, Workforce and a Project Index.

Recent health policy shifts and practice changes have explored consumer-directed health care. The National Council on Disability decided to research & evaluate the evidence base in order to offer a clear picture of the initiatives strengths and weaknesses. This study includes a systematic review of the literature (both print & Web-based) on consumer-directed and -oriented care. The study also addresses questions and researches the variety of models, preferences, outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

Real Needs-Real Costs With an Eye Toward the Future: A Process for Developing Service Plans and Individual Budgets was presented on October 12, 2004 at a teleconference for CMS Independence Plus Grantees. The presentation draws on 6 years of prior experience in developing Consumer Directed Programs for adults at the Area Agency of Greater Nashua.

On October 12, 2004 the Community Living Exchange Collaborative at Rutgers Center for State Health Policy hosted a Self-Direction audio conference for Independence Plus and CPASS grantees to discuss Person-Centered Planning and Individual Budgeting. Presentations inlcuded CMS, Minnesota, Wyoming, and New Hampshire.

This Policy Research Brief reviews available research on the costs and outcomes of community service provision for people with intellectual disabilities (or “mental retardation”) and developmental disabilities, with a particular emphasis on residential services. It focuses on a number of key issues related not only to public expenditures, but also to funding systems, related policies and regulations, and their impact on service systems, on specific service types, and on service users.