Puerto Rico

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through CMS, awarded approximately $25 million in planning grants to five new states and territories to expand access to home and community-based services through Medicaid’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program. With these awards, 41 states and territories across the country will now participate in MFP. Awards of up to $5 million have been granted to Illinois, Kansas, and New Hampshire, as well as for American Samoa and Puerto Rico. This is the first time MFP grants have been made available to territories. These awards will support the early planning phase for their MFP programs.

The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) released a report on the Eldercare Locator, a national information and referral resource, funded by the Administration on Aging, that provides assistance to older adults and caregivers. The report draws on data from the locator, breaking the data into different categories.The trends in this data reflect information gathered from 271,234 contacts made with the Eldercare Locator.

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released an issue brief reviewing the national and state-level Medicaid Advantage enrollment trends as of March 2015. It was believed that the reductions in payments to Medicare Advantage plans would reduce enrollments, but it has actually increased by 5.6 million. One key finding showed that "Almost one in three (31%) of people on Medicare (16.8 million beneficiaries) were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan in March 2015."

Mathematica Policy Research published a report examining the relationship between the primary impairments of Social Security disability beneficiaries and the employment and earning experiences of the beneficiaries. The report can inform policymakers on innovative ways to assist beneficiaries in becoming self-sufficient and gaining employment. The researchers found considerable differences in employment and earning across the primary impairments studied.

The UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization released a new brief. Many Americans do not have health insurance coverage, and Medicaid enrollment can cover the gap of the uninsured, if successful practices are used. This brief highlights four approaches used in Kentucky and Arkansas to increase enrollment for low-income residents to cut their uninsured populations in half. The solutions in this brief can inform other states on efforts to decrease the number of uninsured people.

Every year the Administration for Community Living (ACL) uses U.S. Census data to compile a profile of the U.S. population over age 65. The population of older Americans is experiencing dynamic changes, and monitoring these changes over time is an important part of understanding current needs and preparing for future growth.

As almost half of the States have implemented MLTSS programs, community-based organizations, will be significantly impacted. At the 2013 HCBS conference, ADvancing States, with support from the SCAN Foundation, held a day-long intensive to discuss these impacts. This report outlines 5 discrete roles that CBOs are well-suited to play in MLTSS programs using as a reference point CMS’ 2013 guidance on MLTSS program design and implementation. To request a hard copy version, email Ali Diaz at adiaz@advancingstates.org.

The OIG report examines state standards and requirements for network adequacy and access to care. The report was based on surveys and interviews of state officials, CMS employees, and External Quality Review Organizations. In the report, OIG notes that state standards on access to care vary widely, and that state oversight of health plans also varies. Based on its findings, OIG offers recommendations to CMS in the report.

This white paper provides an inventory of all current MLTSS programs and a projection of future programs as of July 2012. The report includes state-by-state results and synthesizes findings across states, reporting national enrollment, characteristics of contractors and multiple program features.

This State Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Scorecard is a multidimensional approach to measure state-level performance of LTSS systems that assist older people, adults with disabilities, and their family caregivers. This second edition of the State LTSS Scorecard measures LTSS system performance across five key dimensions: affordability and access; choice of setting and provider; quality of life and quality of care; support for family caregivers; and effective transitions.