Minnesota

The Minnesota Disability Linkage Line (DLL) produced a community report. The DLL is a statewide information clearinghouse, call center, and assistance network. The report to the community outlines the purpose of the DLL, how it works, consumer testimonials, and related statistics such as customer satisfaction ratings.

The Minnesota Department of Administration, Department of Health, Department of Human Services, Brain Injury Association, and MIG program held a workshop that provided an overview of disability in Minnesota and its economic impact on the state. This flyer served as a “save the date” for the event. You can also review the agenda and registration as a sample.

The Minnesota MIG program, Pathways to Employment, created a PowerPoint presentation to serve as a primer on employment for individuals with disabilities. The primer covers the topic areas: work incentives and benefits counseling, workforce centers, vocational rehab services, and specialized services.

Need an overview of the basic components of the nation’s largest health coverage program? Medicaid covers 55 million low-income individuals and is the dominant source of long-term care financing. Examine the structure of the program, who it covers, what services it provides, and spending. Because Medicaid is jointly financed by the federal and state governments programs vary across states. Tables examining the state-to-state variation in eligibility, enrollment, and spending are included.

Hawaii’s MIG, entitled “Hire Abilities”, produced a draft report presenting an analysis on how Hawaii will offer the MIG program to working people with disabilities. The draft report was posted online and made available for reader feedback. The report also addresses how six other States have implemented their MIG programs.

This report provides an overview of 35 states’ initiatives to improve their LTC systems and includes lessons learned and recommendations that can guide states undertaking similar initiatives. Despite accomplishments and improvements, Grantees described continuing barriers including insufficient funding for home and community services; workforce shortages; lack of affordable and accessible housing and transportation; and outdated or inflexible administrative, statutory, and regulatory provisions.

States are increasingly interested in the individual budget model for older Medicaid beneficiaries as a mechanism to improve responsiveness of benefits to beneficiaries’ needs and preferences and to increase their ability to remain outside or leave nursing homes. This report describes 10 operating individual budget model programs that serve older persons and identifies four areas of program design that are of particular importance to the success of the individual budget model.

In light of this major change and assuming that states may want to learn more about Cash & Counseling, this publication offers an in-depth description of the option, a discussion of key findings from the three-state demonstration, and preliminary information about the program’s expansion into 12 more states. At the end is a list of resources—both Web sites and published materials—for further information. Stories about consumers who have first-hand experience appear throughout this publication.

To help States build the infrastructure needed to remove barriers and create more consumer responsive LTC systems, CMS awarded $70 million in Real Choice Systems Change Grants. Fifty-two Grants were awarded in Sept. 2001 (25 Real Choice, 10 Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services & Supports, 17 Nursing Facility Transition). This report describes the progress FY01 Grantees have made on their activities during the first year of the three-year Grant period (Oct 1, 2001-Sept 30, 2002.)

This paper explores and analyzes selected state approaches to engage nursing facility operators to be part of systems change activities that offer individuals additional, less restrictive choices to live more independently with appropriate supports. The strategies described offer other states lessons learned that may be replicated as part of a broader approach to meet changing and growing demand for home and community-based services. Efforts in IN, IA, MI, MN, NE, ND, NY, and WI are described.