New Jersey

This memorandum presents data on Medicaid long-term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2006 (Oct 2005-Sept 2006). Table 1 presents national data on Medicaid expenditures for Long-Term Care from 1994-2006. Other tables present state-by-state data 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, Targeted Case Management and PACE.

This report describes grant activities (accomplishments and progress) in three major LTC systems areas: Access to LTC Services and Supports, Services, Supports, and Housing, Administrative and Monitoring Infrastructure. The report also provides illustrative examples of the challenges Grantees have faced as they implement grant activities, and consumers’ roles in the implementation and evaluation of these activities.

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.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia will get more than $547 million in grants over five years to build Medicaid long-term care programs that will help keep people at home and out of institutions. This “Money Follows the Person” initiative was included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA), currently being implemented by CMS. The press release lists the states and the amount of money committed over the next five years.

The New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) presents their action plan for systems change. This Plan outlines the process of transitioning individuals with developmental disabilities from developmental centers (DCs) to the community over the next 8 years (State FY 2008 through FY 2015). The Plan addresses the requirements of state legislation (S1090, PL 2006, Chapter 61) as well as the issues in the NJ P&A Olmstead lawsuit.

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.

This Issue Brief by the Alliance for Health Reform provides a short overview of the Cash & Counseling program. Sections include How the program came about, Access, health outcomes, and satisfaction with service, Five steps in getting started, Cost comparisons, Outstanding issues, Fast facts and Expert sources.

A new Health Services Research Journal is a dedicated issue to Cash & Counseling. Review the summary of 15 articles; topics include public/private partnerships, research design and methodological issues, evaluation, consumer enrollment and experiences, costs, worker issues and case histories. Also find two commentaries on Cash & Counseling, one on the international context and the other about social experimentation.

This study examines how a new service delivery model of consumer direction affected Medicaid and Medicare service use and costs. Of particular interest were the program's effects on expenditures for the services that the program \"costed-out\" (that is, those services for which an allowance was provided instead) and on total expenditures for all Medicaid services.