Massachusetts

This memorandum presents state-by-state data on Medicaid long term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2004 (October 2003 through September 2004). The accompanying tables present data on Medicaid Expenditures for Long-Term Care services from 1992 to 2004. A new table this year shows the effect of supplemental nursing facility payments in some states on expenditure data. A separate file ranks states based on the proportion of LTC spending for community services.

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.

This new assessment tool is currently being piloted within the MA Real Choice Pilot Project & will undergo formal evaluation over the course of the next year. A full report will follow. The core of the instrument is 7 pages, with an estimated average completion time of 15-20 minutes. The tool is designed to be web-based with a variety of modules, the entire tool is much longer. Please note that this instrument is intended for REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY and is not to be implemented for actual use.

This topic paper summarizes how states can use Medicaid to pay for most institutional transition program costs on a permanent basis as a result of policy change since 2000. It also describes how states are currently using Medicaid HCBS Waivers to pay for community transition services-temporary supports people need when trying to move such as housing deposits, utility set-up fees, and furniture.

This brief User’s Guide is designed to accompany orientation and training sessions that will be provided to the statewide and regional Councils in Massachusetts that use the Q.A. report as a foundation for exploring how to use data as a quality tool. To use data effectively requires that users have a basic understanding of the benefits and limitations of data. That is the purpose of this guide and the training sessions that will be provided to Quality Council members.

Since the inception of the survey and certification process in 1994, the Dept. of Mental Retardation in Massachusetts has been assessing the quality of supports provided by both public and private providers to help individuals obtain important outcomes in their lives. This evaluation process formed the basis for certifying/licensing agencies to provide services. This web link describes services that are subject to licensure, defines the levels, outcomes and survey results.

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.

The primary purpose of this technical assistance activity was to promote sustainability of CMS-funded infrastructure developments that demonstrate promise by explicitly linking them to the state’s strategic plan.

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.