Money Follows the Person

Call hosted by the Community Living Exchange Collaborative at Rutgers Center for State Health Policy with CMS and grantees to explore the potential use of the MDS section Q1 to identify people in nursing homes who want to relocate. We were joined by a member of our National Advisory Committee, Bob Kafka. We invited Money Follows the Person grantees and Nursing Home Transition grantees.

On September 17, 2003, CMS sent a letter to state Medicaid directors addressing the principles of Money Follows the person. This letter is a follow up to the August 13, 2004 letter. Because the concept has been widely discussed in “Open Door” forums, this letter provides additional examples and clarification of the concept.

Two presentations from the South Carolina Planning Retreat in January 2004 can be found here. A presentation by Susan Reinhard, of the Community Living Exchange Collaborative, focuses on ADRC purpose, goals, and system issues. A presentation by Karen Linkins and Sharon Zeruld, TAE, focuses on national vision and expectations for ADRCs.

This conference was designed to assess state initiatives to improve quality, cost, and access and to help policy makers—from both the executive and legislative branches—identify the most promising and cost effective of these programs and policies. Sessions of interest for grantees include: Quality Challenges in LTC, Self-Direction Sweeping States, Information to Live by...Building Integrated Health Data Systems, Beyond HCBS Waivers, Money Follows the Person, Medicare Modernization Act

More states than ever are re-directing Medicaid funds to keep more people out of institutions and living in their own communities and homes, and there are many approaches that states can use to accomplish this, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said August 17th in a letter to state Medicaid directors. In addition there is a link to the two previously sent State Medicaid Directors letters, which are referenced in the letter.

This report looks at attempts by different states to allow money to follow the person. Money Follows the Person refers to a system of flexible financing for long-term services that enables available funds to move with the individual to the most appropriate and preferred setting as the individual’s needs and preferences change.

This report describes the State of Washington’s plan to allow families to create a trust fund for people with disabilities without effecting eligibility. This program matches 25% of private contributions and eliminates fees to encourage participation. This document describes the program implementation.

The Formative Evaluation of the Real Choice Systems Change Grants evaluates how the Systems Change grantees are progressing towards meeting their goals. The Formative Evaluation identifies problems faced by the grantees and ways that they deal with the problems. This document provides summary information about each of the FY2003 Grantees.

This memorandum presents data on Medicaid long term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2003 (September 2002 through September 2003). The accompanying tables present data on Medicaid Expenditures for Long-Term Care services from 1991 to 2003.

This memorandum and the accompanying tables present data on Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver expenditures from Federal Fiscal Years 1998 through 2003.