Washington

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has updated and improved the Medicaid Benefits Online Database, an interactive tool providing easy access to information on services provided by each state's Medicaid program. This site contains Medicaid Benefits survey data from 2003 and 2004 with information about benefits covered, limits, co-payments and reimbursement methodologies for the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Territories.

On August 18, 2005 CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, and Administration on Aging Assistant Secretary Josefina Carbonell announced $15 million in grants to 19 states to create a single source of information and assistance for families navigating the often confusing array of long-term care services. Part of the New Freedom Initiative, the ADRC grants are jointly administered by CMS and HHS’ Administration on Aging. A complete list of grantees and award amounts are included in the press release.

States seek to streamline access to HCBS in order to expedite and simplify the experience of consumers seeking services so that they receive the services they need in community settings, preventing or delaying the need for institutional care. The design of the Washington long-term support system for older adults and people with physical disabilities provides examples for other states interested in simplifying or expediting access to long-term supports.

Medicaid is the major public payer of community services and supports for working age adults with serious mental illnesses. This handbook explains how existing Medicaid options and waivers are used by states to finance a broad range of community services and supports for adults with serious mental illnesses, and demonstrates what aspects of state-of-the art community services and supports for this population are funded by Medicaid.

This memorandum presents state-by-state data on Medicaid long term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2004 (October 2003 through September 2004). The accompanying tables present data on Medicaid Expenditures for Long-Term Care services from 1992 to 2004. A new table this year shows the effect of supplemental nursing facility payments in some states on expenditure data. A separate file ranks states based on the proportion of LTC spending for community services.

This entry presents data on Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver expenditures from Federal Fiscal Years 1999-2004. As in previous years, information is classified for each individual HCBS waiver by the target population served in order to present information on the distribution of HCBS waiver expenditures across long term care populations. Tables include waiver spending by target population; growth in spending; expenditures by state; distribution of expenditures.

A wage pass-through is an additional allocation of funds provided through Medicaid reimbursement for the express purpose of increasing compensation for direct-care workers. Twenty-one states have implemented these programs in expectation that doing so will help address the worker shortage. The purpose of this issue brief is to: describe the structure in selected states; summarize what is known about the impact of these programs on recruitment and retention; and identify key design elements.

The sixth biennial edition of the AARP Public Policy Institute's databook, presents an overview of long-term care in each state plus the District of Columbia by using numbers, graphs, charts, and maps. Data includes each state's demographics, need for LTC and HCBS services, the number of LTC workers per thousand people aged 65 and over, urban average for private-pay home health aide wages, and CNA hours per resident day. Each state is compared with others through rankings and national averages.

The survey results highlight inconsistencies and gaps in training, testing, and other pre-employment requirements for nursing assistants. The results from the nurse aide registries are presented in a series of charts. The survey notes who pays for pre-certification training in each state, whether candidates are allowed to become certified by passing the test without undergoing training, whether nurse aides pay a fee to be licensed or certified, who does criminal background checks, and more.

The Compendium contains basic information about each of the Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. The Compendium will help you learn more about how these grants will be used to allow more people of all ages with a disability or long term illness to live and participate in their communities. Real Choice Systems Change Grantees will also find the Compendium useful to identify other Grantees with similar goals and activities. The fourth edition of the Compendium replaces all previous editions.