Rutgers/NASHP

This State Policy in Practice brief describes Michigan's nursing home transition program and summarizes evaluation findings. The program has been sustained statewide through the addition of transition services to Michigan's 1915c waiver for the aged and disabled. This brief is intended to help state policy and program leaders, advocates, and providers learn from their peers and colleagues across the states.

The Nursing Home Transition Summit, convened by Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, was held September 28 through September 30, 2005. It brought together 39 participants from ten states, in addition to representatives from CMS, to discuss how to sustain nursing home transition programs. The New Jersey Community Choice Counseling program served as the summit centerpiece, with presentations by program staff and visits to several sites in the Central New Jersey area.

This State Policy in Practice brief describes Indiana’s efforts to develop a new, comprehensive program that helps people in Indiana (the Hoosiers) avoid nursing home placement if possible and desirable. It also describes pilot programs to transition those who choose to enter a nursing home, but then want to return to their homes. It is intended to help state policy and program leaders, advocates, and providers learn from their peers and colleagues across the states.

This policy in practice brief describes the statutory foundation of the Community Choice Counseling program which is rooted in pre-admission screening for nursing homes, and how state leaders used that 1988 law to reduce resistance from nursing homes and obtain a sustainable funding source for the staff. This brief also summarizes new innovations, evaluation findings, lessons learned, and potential future directions.

Looking for the facts about Fast track, presumptive and expedited eligibility? Do they mean the same thing? This handout from the ADRC Fall Meeting offers a quick overview of questions around federal laws and state implementation.

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.

The report describes a program created by the Minnesota Legislature that provides long-term care choice counseling and services designed to help people live in community settings. Minnesota's Long Term Care Consultation (LTCC) services have made it possible for people of all ages to receive information about services, community residence, determination on whether they qualify for public services, and assistance in transitioning from an institution to a community setting.

This toolbox was developed for nursing facility transition (NFT) and Money Follows the Person (MFP) grantees to provide materials to support the design, development and operation of nursing facility programs. This toolbox includes over 30 resources to assist states in these efforts. Resources include existing materials or tools, CMS guidance and report developed by the Rutgers/NASHP team and others. An electronic link to the tool or document is included when available.

This Issue Brief summarizes the results of a recent descriptive study, Medicaid and Family Caregiving: Services, Supports and Strategies Among Aged/Disabled HCBS Waiver Programs in the U.S. (Feinberg & Newman, 2005). This issue brief is the first to characterize and analyze the role of Medicaid HCBS waiver programs in supporting family and informal caregivers of frail elders and adults with disabilities. The brief highlights key findings and summarizes conclusions.

The majority of public funding in the US for home and community-based care comes from Medicaid. Yet we know relatively little about how and in what ways Medicaid HCBS waiver programs support family caregivers or how such waiver services coordinate with other federal or state-funded caregiver programs. This descriptive study is the first to characterize and analyze the role of Medicaid HCBS waiver programs in supporting family and informal caregivers of frail elders and adults with disabilities.