Wisconsin

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 paper reports the outcome of focus groups, interviews and written surveys conducted in 2003 by a consultant working for the Northern Area Agency on Aging in Wisconsin under a contract with the Department of Health and Family Services. Groups of elders, family members and long-term care professionals were asked to address the question of how, when and why older people make the decisions they do about long-term care.

To help States build the infrastructure needed to remove barriers and create more consumer responsive LTC systems, CMS awarded $70 million in Real Choice Systems Change Grants. Fifty-two Grants were awarded in Sept. 2001 (25 Real Choice, 10 Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services & Supports, 17 Nursing Facility Transition). This report describes the progress FY01 Grantees have made on their activities during the first year of the three-year Grant period (Oct 1, 2001-Sept 30, 2002.)

This paper explores and analyzes selected state approaches to engage nursing facility operators to be part of systems change activities that offer individuals additional, less restrictive choices to live more independently with appropriate supports. The strategies described offer other states lessons learned that may be replicated as part of a broader approach to meet changing and growing demand for home and community-based services. Efforts in IN, IA, MI, MN, NE, ND, NY, and WI are described.

The Compendium contains basic information about each of the Real Choice Systems Change Grant awards in FY03–FY04 plus the Family to Family and Systems Transformation Grantees awarded in FY05 and FY06. The Compendium will help Grantees identify others with similar goals and activities. Learn more about how the 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. The sixth edition replaces all previous editions.

As part of its quality management program, Wisconsin revised its Individual Service Plan (ISP) form that was required as part of the Medicaid waiver process. The new revised forms address individual outcomes. Attached forms include the ISP Instructions, Medicaid form, and Individual Outcomes.

This report provides a comprehensive framework for Wisconsin’s Functional Screen Quality Assurance. Wisconsin’s Functional Screen system (a web-based application that collects information about an individual’s functional status, health and need for assistance for various programs) is comprised of three separate screens: Adult Long Term Care Functional Screen (LTC FS), Children’s Long Term Support Functional Screen (CLTS FS), and Mental Health/AODA Functional Screen (MH/AODA FS).

Part of the Wisconsin QA/QI grant was to develop a framework to evaluate long-term care services. The framework was based on desired personal-experience outcomes. Once desirable outcomes were recorded, they were used as benchmarks for quality management and outcomes measurement.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) concerned the development of methods and training for assessing personal-experience outcomes for adults with developmental or physical disabilities and frail elders. The grant awardee would contract to develop a tool and related tasks to assess person-experience outcomes and quality of life for the above listed populations.

The “Quality Close to Home” papers are part of Wisconsin’s process to review the existing quality management system for Home and Community Based Services. The report on local practices was the result of a series of interviews conducted with local informants who conduct quality management activities. The second paper outlines the scope of quality management, challenges of quality management, federal rules and regulations, and provides a design for an improved quality management system.