Kentucky

NCHSD held its 4th Annual National Fall Technical Assistance Conference for Medicaid Infrastructure Grantees. This year’s meeting featured pre-conference regional gatherings, a day-long session on building public-private partnerships with employers, updates from our CMS partners, and a series of state expert panel presentations. Attached are the Fall 2004 Conference Edition eNews with highlights and promising practices plus the conference materials and presentations from every session.

To assist states in preparing for the challenges and opportunities they will face as baby-boomers age, the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practice's (NGA Center) published this report designed to identify current trends and future directions, and to assist state policymakers in creating programs and policies that respond to need. This data book provides information on demographic shifts, health care concerns, & long term care workforce shortages.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published final FY 2005 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) that reflect the estimated 40th and 50th percentile rent levels trended to April 1, 2005. The FMRs determine the Section 8 payment amounts established by HUD for counties. FMRs apply to both renewal rents and initial rents for vouched programs. HUD is legally required to publish FMRs at least annually, adjusted to be effective on the first of October of each year.

A get acquainted teleconference for 2003 and 2004 Family to Family grantees with Kathy Rama of CMS and facilitated by Darrell Jones of ILRU on November 10, 2004.

National Core Indicators is a collaboration among participating NASDDDS member state agencies and HSRI, with the goal of developing a systematic approach to performance & outcome measurement. Through the collaboration, participating states pool their resources & knowledge to create performance monitoring systems, identify common performance indicators, work out comparable data collection strategies, & share results. This multi-state collaborative effort to improve performance is unprecedented.

This report describes the FY ‘01 & FY ‘02 Grantees’ accomplishments & progress, using information from 10/1/02 to 9/30/03 (Year Two of grant period for FY ‘01 Grantees & Year One of grant period for FY ‘02 Grantees). The report describes grant activities in six major areas: Consumer Direction & Control, Access to LTC Services & Supports, State Budgeting & Reimbursement Rates & Methodologies, Service Creation/Modification, LTC Service & Support Workforce, Quality Management Mechanism.

Across the nation, people with disabilities, of all ages, are currently facing an affordable housing crisis. This guide provide information and guidance for states as they work collaboratively to develop realistic systems-level strategies to expand housing opportunities for people with disabilities. This guide was developed based on information and approaches detailed at a Regional Housing Forum in Washington, D.C. in Nov. 2002. A link to that meeting notes & presentation is below.

On 10/7/2004 eleven new states were awarded three-year Cash & Counseling grants, allowing them to replicate and expand on the Cash & Counseling model. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation and the Administration on Aging, the following states will receive approximately $250,000 to implement Cash & Counseling programs: AL, IA, KY, MI, PA, RI, VT, WA, and WV. MN and NM will receive an additional $100,000 to enhance their programs.

On October 5, 2004, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced $31 million in grants to 31 states to help people with disabilities or long-term illnesses live in their homes and participate fully in community life. The grants were awarded under the New freedom Initiative and are known as Real Choice Systems Change Grants. A total of 52 grants were awarded in nine categories. The press release, which describes the grant categories, and list of grantees are available.

Families USA has released Medicaid: Good Medicine for State Economies predicting the impact state Medicaid spending will have on business activity, jobs, & wages in 2005. The report argues that extending the $10 billion in fiscal relief provided by Congress to the states last year, through enhanced Federal participation in Medicaid, through the end of fiscal year 2005 would help strengthen state economies by generating even more business activity, jobs,& wages. Includes data for every state.