Physical Disabilities

This brief examines four key questions that emerge related to how dual eligibles will fare under the Medicare Part D plans starting in January 2006. Given the potential that the dual eligible population could be adversely affected by the current legislation, it may be prudent to give serious consideration to the issues highlighted in this brief as the new benefit is being implemented.

This brief examines the efforts of a local area systems collaboration. In order to better understand partnership and collaboration at a local level, the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on State Systems and Employment at the Institute for Community Inclusion facilitated a collaboration to assist state systems in a local area to address employment services for people with disabilities.

The TTW was designed to remove many of the barriers that previously influenced people’s decisions about going to work because of concerns over losing health care coverage. The goal is increase opportunities & choices for beneficiaries to obtain employment, vocational rehabilitation, & other support services. The attached regional updates offers statistics, newly-approved provider listings, & upcoming events. More information: visit website or fill out fax form on the newsletter backside.

The report presents twenty-seven case stories about the experience of adults with disabilities who receive the cash option in the IndependentChoices Program. The report focuses on how "care units," composed of consumers and/or representatives, paid workers, & counselors interacted around issues of consumer directed care. Stories were analyzed for cross-cutting topics & themes such as family context of care, the meaning of independence, & the community context of care emerged in the interviews.

This report describes South Carolina’s programs for older people and people with physical disabilities to gain access institutional and community Medicaid supports through a single access point, and have increasing opportunities to direct their own services. The report also describes how the state has been particularly innovative in using information technology to improve the quality of community supports and participants’ access to services.

This report describes a Florida cash payment program, Consumer Directed Care, which is testing the effectiveness of increased participant control for people with disabilities, including children and older persons. Florida is part of a demonstration project to measure the impact of substituting a cash allowance for Medicaid services from provider agencies. This document provides information on the program implementation and impact.

This document provides information on VNS Choice, the New York long-term care program for older people with disabilities. Case managers work with healthcare and long-term care providers to coordinate participants’ Medicare and Medicaid services. The document discusses the intervention and implementation of this program. According to program staff, VNS CHOICE has reduced hospital and nursing home use among participants and has low disenrollment.

The Utah Family Council is a non-profit organization that provides support to all families of people with disabilities, regardless of whether they receive public funding. This document describes this program, which uses funding from the Self-Determination Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to increase availability. The report describes the program and its implementation.

This report briefly describes the New Jersey Statewide Respite Care Program. The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) administers a state-funded, Statewide Respite Care Program providing a wide variety of services to relieve unpaid, informal caregivers from the stress of caring for older people and/or people with disabilities. The respite program customizes services to the person and the caregiver, with a focus on alleviating caregiver stress.

This report provides a summary of the partnership development activities undertaken by the 52 Grantees that were awarded a Systems Change Grant in 2001. It describes the ways that Grantees involved consumers and public and private partners in the development of Grant applications and their plans for involving them in implementation activities. In addition, the report includes a more in-depth description of partnership involvement for nine Grantees (three from each Grant type).