New York

An overview of Cash & Counseling including a historical context, the theoretical framework for evaluation, and information on design.

This article describes existing personal assistance service programs as well as information on the Cash & Counseling demonstration and evaluation. The program evaluation, including program design, technical assistance, and selection criteria, is discussed.

This article highlights the specific importance of consumer participation in the pre- and post-survey focus groups, and how that participation enhanced program planners' understanding of survey results, informed the design of the CCDE cash option program, and identified messages to include in social marketing materials for cash option consumers.

This brief describes the evolution of beneficiary-managed home and community-based services since the original demonstration and provides an overview of state activity as of January 2006. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 gives states the option to use this model for an expanded range of home and community based services in their state Medicaid plans without having to obtain a waiver.

This report and tables present Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Waiver expenditures data from Federal Fiscal Years 2003 through 2008. Each HCBS waiver is classified by population served in order to show the distribution of expenditures across long-term care populations. This report includes new target population categories to identify waivers that target particular developmental disabilities such as intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders.

This report presents Medicaid long-term care expenditures data in Federal Fiscal Year 2008 (Oct 2007 - Sept 2008). Table 1 shows national data from 1996 - 2008. Other tables present state-by-state data for nursing homes, ICF/MR, state plan personal care, state plan home health, 1915(c) waivers, 1115 waivers that provide HCBS, and other Medicaid services.

Looking for profiles of each State’s Home-and Community-Based Service (HCBS) programs? This project report covers the components of HCBS programs under multiple funding streams. It includes an overview of findings from cross-state comparisons with accompanying tables and charts and individual profiles of 48 states and Washington, DC. The findings are intended to provide states with information that can help guide their efforts to expand and improve HCBS programs.

This is the third report in a series, from Mathematica's five-year evaluation of the Money Follows Person demonstration, aimed at helping Medicaid enrollees transition, from long-term care institutions to the community. It describes states’ early implementation experiences and state transition activity as of December 2008. Also discussed, are the challenges that states have encountered in trying to launch the program, and implications for making fundamental changes in the long-term care system.

Developing HCBS alternatives to institutional care has been a priority for many state Medicaid programs over the last three decades. While the majority of long-term care dollars still go toward institutional care, the national percentage of spending on HCBS has more than doubled from 19 percent in 1995 to 41 percent in 2007. This article presents a summary of the main trends to emerge from the latest (2006) expenditures and participant data for the three main Medicaid HCBS programs.

Making use of data and knowledge sharing to drive benefits outreach, enrollment, and retention efforts promotes the efficient use of limited resources, states a new issue brief from NCOA's National Center for Benefits Outreach & Enrollment. Sharing data also can help enroll eligible individuals in more than one benefits program at a time.