Illinois

The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) Conference was held in August 2006 in Chicago. A one day session focused on Aging and Disability Resource Centers. The day was broken into three sections: an AoA/CMS Overview, State Profiles from Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois and an audience consultation session. Review the overview slides and the state summaries which explore Single Point of Entry and navigating the long-term care systems maze.

HCBS.org News CLIPS highlights the important work of Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. In this issue, we have interviewed 3 grantees (Tracy Warren from Idaho, Abby Hulme from Montana and Diane King from Colorado) to discuss the implementation of their Independence Plus Programs. Learn more about outreach and enrollment techniques, consumer involvement, on-line training tools, peer consultants, and improving emergency back up procedures.

This report describes grant activities in three major LTC systems areas: Access to Long-Term Care Services and Supports, Services, Supports, and Housing, Administrative and Monitoring Infrastructure. For each of the focus areas the report describes Grantees’ accomplishments, illustrates the challenges and discusses the consumers’ role in the implementation and evaluation of activities. The report uses information provided during the reporting period October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005.

This report highlights the work of nine CMS Money Follows the Persons Grantees, with a focus on Texas and Wisconsin. The report describes the initiatives, and discusses policy and design factors states should consider when developing MFP programs, including developing legislation and budget mechanisms for making transfers of funds, assuring availability of services and housing, identifying potential consumers for transition, developing NFT infrastructure, and monitoring and quality assurance.

A new monthly report from HUD is available on-line and is broken down state-by-state and downloadable in an MS Excel spreadsheet. Participating Jurisdiction (PJs) can use the reports to view open activities in IDIS including activities with 100% of the funds drawn and with a status code of FD, or final draw. PJs can view activities that have been open (OP) for several years with little or no HOME funds drawn. These projects, if not progressing, should be cancelled. The data is updated monthly.

This memorandum and tables present data on Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver expenditures from Federal Fiscal Years 2000 through 2005. Each individual HCBS waiver is classified by population served in order to show the distribution of HCBS waiver expenditures across long term care populations.

This memorandum presents data on Medicaid long-term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2005 (Sept 2004-Sept 2005). The accompanying tables present data on Medicaid Expenditures for Long-Term Care services from 1993-2005. Data included for Nursing Homes, ICF-MR, Personal Care, HCBS Waivers, Home Health, Home Care, Inpatient Hospital Care, Inpatient DSH, Inpatient Mental Health, Mental Health DSH, Medicaid Managed-Care, Prescribed Drugs, Long-term Care, Targeted Case Management and PACE.

This paper describes the activities of the 19 Grantees funded in fiscal year 03 and 04 from CMS and six Grantees funded in fiscal year 02 by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). F2F Health Information Centers assist families of children with special health care needs. This paper provides information states and stakeholders will find useful when planning or implementing similar initiatives. Read about the grant activities, implementation challenges, and accomplishments.

The statehealthfacts.org had recently added a data on states who offer Individual Budget programs. Use this interactive guide to compare and review activities related to participant-directed care. Data includes the program type, program name, CMS waiver authority, includes elderly, and a status update. Current as of January 2006.

With this funding for Systems Transformation, CMS will be awarding several states and non-profit agencies with small supplemental grants. States and other eligible organizations, in partnership with their disability and aging communities, may submit proposals to design and construct systems infrastructure that will result in effective and enduring improvements in community long-term support systems.