ILRU

As part of the 2004 Real Choice grants, New Hampshire and Wisconsin proposed to complete a feasibility study and then develop LIFE Account programs. With no federal legislation creating a savings program, grantees are restricted to modified program that works under existing law. This paper considers six options: Section 1115 Demonstrations, Waivers under Section 1915(c) & 1915(b), Section 1915(i) & 1915(j) State Plan programs, and Section 1937 Benchmark programs and suggests some next steps.

The Alabama Medicaid Agency contracted with The Lewin Group to conduct a single point of entry feasibility study. Lewin and the Alabama Medicaid Agency staffed a single point of entry work group composed of Alabama consumers and other long term care stakeholders; this work group guided the study. A literature search on SPE best practices and national initiatives was used to develop three possible models for the state, each of which presents an array of pros and cons.

Guest speaker Linda Couch, Deputy Director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition presents federal housing policy updates. Topics include: HUD appropriations for the next fiscal year; proposed changes to public housing and the Section 8 voucher program (expanding the Moving to Work demonstration and almost eliminating public housing authority plans); current information on Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HOME, and CDBG; creating a National Housing Trust Fund, and other timely issues.

The aim of this policy brief is to offer state planners and program administrators an overview of strategies being used to improve and develop programs to support individuals with co-occurring psychiatric and developmental disabilities.

States' Initiatives to Address the Needs of Persons Dually Diagnosed with Psychiatric and Developmental Disabilities.

In many ways, consumers are the best experts on their disabling conditions, including their own needs for support and the effectiveness and quality of programs. As a result, obtaining consumer participation and input at all stages of program design, implementation, evaluation and quality assurance is important. Effectively and efficiently involving consumers and obtaining their input, however, requires creative and innovative methods. This checklist will help to enhance full participation.

Review the archives from the June 28, 2006 Deficit Reduction Act teleconference with Kathy Rama and Donna Schmidt of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The call includes discussion of section 1937 and the option of states to amend their state plan to provide alternative benefit packages to beneficiaries, without regard to comparability, statewideness, freedom of choice or other traditional Medicaid requirements.

The manual is a nursing home to community discharge planning manual designed primarily for use in nursing homes and may be of help to others to use in developing manuals for their communities. It is designed to orient the long-term care providers to the nursing home discharge process by defining the roles of the key partners who are involved in returning residents to community living and to document a standard protocol for accessing and maximizing partner resources.

The third paper in the series examines what contemporary social service systems can do to promote consumer-directed services. We identify different features that make a service \"self-directed,\" and we identify characteristics of successful consumer direction and self-determination. In its present form, this paper serves as foundation work for additional dialogue and will also undergo continuing development in discussions with representatives of projects and consumer leaders in states.

The second in the series, this paper identifies the features of high-quality integrated community services and the systems that support them and serves as the foundation work for additional exploration. The paper will undergo continuing development in discussions with representatives of projects and consumer leaders, will augment assessment of existing systems and planning of new or improved systems, and ideally become an even more useful tool for those involved in systems transformation.