Vermont

NCHSD held its 4th Annual National Fall Technical Assistance Conference for Medicaid Infrastructure Grantees. This year’s meeting featured pre-conference regional gatherings, a day-long session on building public-private partnerships with employers, updates from our CMS partners, and a series of state expert panel presentations. Attached are the Fall 2004 Conference Edition eNews with highlights and promising practices plus the conference materials and presentations from every session.

Medstat identified common factors of system change in a six-page brief, based on a review of organization transformation literature and, more importantly, the experiences of eight state long-term support systems that were the subject of a series of case studies on comprehensive system reform.

To assist states in preparing for the challenges and opportunities they will face as baby-boomers age, the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practice's (NGA Center) published this report designed to identify current trends and future directions, and to assist state policymakers in creating programs and policies that respond to need. This data book provides information on demographic shifts, health care concerns, & long term care workforce shortages.

A federal judge’s decision that the Fair Labor Standards Act applies to thousands of home care workers who had been exempt is causing providers to rethink the way they provide services. The ruling in Evelyn Coke v. Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. & Maryann Osborne found that workers who are employed by agencies or other third parties are entitled to overtime pay if they work more than a 40 hour week & they are covered by minimum wage laws & other FLSA rules, such as compensation for travel time.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published final FY 2005 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) that reflect the estimated 40th and 50th percentile rent levels trended to April 1, 2005. The FMRs determine the Section 8 payment amounts established by HUD for counties. FMRs apply to both renewal rents and initial rents for vouched programs. HUD is legally required to publish FMRs at least annually, adjusted to be effective on the first of October of each year.

National Core Indicators is a collaboration among participating NASDDDS member state agencies and HSRI, with the goal of developing a systematic approach to performance & outcome measurement. Through the collaboration, participating states pool their resources & knowledge to create performance monitoring systems, identify common performance indicators, work out comparable data collection strategies, & share results. This multi-state collaborative effort to improve performance is unprecedented.

Explores states’ use of “global budgeting” to promote a public policy of supporting consumers’ long-term care choices. Prepared for NJ policymakers, this report defines global budgeting in the context of long-term care, provides five state models, and offers lessons learned about determining what is “in the globe,” legislative and administrative language to advance it, and how it can be implemented. Funded by the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services.

This report describes the FY ‘01 & FY ‘02 Grantees’ accomplishments & progress, using information from 10/1/02 to 9/30/03 (Year Two of grant period for FY ‘01 Grantees & Year One of grant period for FY ‘02 Grantees). The report describes grant activities in six major areas: Consumer Direction & Control, Access to LTC Services & Supports, State Budgeting & Reimbursement Rates & Methodologies, Service Creation/Modification, LTC Service & Support Workforce, Quality Management Mechanism.

On 10/7/2004 eleven new states were awarded three-year Cash & Counseling grants, allowing them to replicate and expand on the Cash & Counseling model. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation and the Administration on Aging, the following states will receive approximately $250,000 to implement Cash & Counseling programs: AL, IA, KY, MI, PA, RI, VT, WA, and WV. MN and NM will receive an additional $100,000 to enhance their programs.

On October 5, 2004, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced $31 million in grants to 31 states to help people with disabilities or long-term illnesses live in their homes and participate fully in community life. The grants were awarded under the New freedom Initiative and are known as Real Choice Systems Change Grants. A total of 52 grants were awarded in nine categories. The press release, which describes the grant categories, and list of grantees are available.