Arizona

This entry presents data on Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver expenditures from Federal Fiscal Years 1999-2004. As in previous years, information is classified for each individual HCBS waiver by the target population served in order to present information on the distribution of HCBS waiver expenditures across long term care populations. Tables include waiver spending by target population; growth in spending; expenditures by state; distribution of expenditures.

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 FY2004 Grantees.

The information in this paper supports the President's New Freedom Initiative initiative by describing how a state might use the Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability (HIFA) waiver option under Section 1115 authority to improve access to community-based services for persons with mental illness. These services can include basic health care coverage, enhanced community-based supports, and provisions to encourage the use of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI).

A wage pass-through is an additional allocation of funds provided through Medicaid reimbursement for the express purpose of increasing compensation for direct-care workers. Twenty-one states have implemented these programs in expectation that doing so will help address the worker shortage. The purpose of this issue brief is to: describe the structure in selected states; summarize what is known about the impact of these programs on recruitment and retention; and identify key design elements.

This issue brief will present several approaches that attempt to tackle the underlying challenge of reducing nursing facility utilization and expenditures. These range from modifying the nursing facility reimbursement methodology; to converting nursing facilities to assisted living centers, paying nursing facilities to take beds off-line, and using capitated managed long-term care; to approaches with theoretical promise that have yet to be adopted in any state.

The sixth biennial edition of the AARP Public Policy Institute's databook, presents an overview of long-term care in each state plus the District of Columbia by using numbers, graphs, charts, and maps. Data includes each state's demographics, need for LTC and HCBS services, the number of LTC workers per thousand people aged 65 and over, urban average for private-pay home health aide wages, and CNA hours per resident day. Each state is compared with others through rankings and national averages.

The survey results highlight inconsistencies and gaps in training, testing, and other pre-employment requirements for nursing assistants. The results from the nurse aide registries are presented in a series of charts. The survey notes who pays for pre-certification training in each state, whether candidates are allowed to become certified by passing the test without undergoing training, whether nurse aides pay a fee to be licensed or certified, who does criminal background checks, and more.

The Compendium contains basic information about each of the Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. The Compendium will help you learn more about how these grants will be used to allow more people of all ages with a disability or long term illness to live and participate in their communities. Real Choice Systems Change Grantees will also find the Compendium useful to identify other Grantees with similar goals and activities. The fourth edition of the Compendium replaces all previous editions.

Recognizing that states are engaging in risk planning for HCBS waiver participants, CMS requested this report that explores the topic of effective individual risk management. Potential risk falls into three general categories: health, behavioral and personal safety risks. The project selected 11 states to determine: how programs are addressing risk for participants, identify risk management themes and emerging issues, identify any state tools or policies that can be useful to other states.

This quality tool product was developed by the state of Arizona, Department of Economic Security. The Prevention and Risk Assessment form identifies risk in a variety of dimensions, including home, work, and the community. The tool identifies risk prevention and mitigation strategies, as well as needed supports and the individuals who can/will provide these supports.