Medicaid Waivers

For the last two years, WV Real Choice has worked in collaboration with other agencies and organizations to create improvements in long term support systems so persons with disabilities and/or long term illnesses can make their own choices and have the necessary supports to live and work in their communities. Attached are the program's community outreach materials such as brochures, flyers, postcards and previous and current conferences advertising materials.

The majority of public funding in the US for home and community-based care comes from Medicaid. Yet we know relatively little about how and in what ways Medicaid HCBS waiver programs support family caregivers or how such waiver services coordinate with other federal or state-funded caregiver programs. This descriptive study is the first to characterize and analyze the role of Medicaid HCBS waiver programs in supporting family and informal caregivers of frail elders and adults with disabilities.

Although consumer direction is a growing trend in publicly supported HCBS programs across the states, we know relatively little about how this approach is implemented in the states. This national study aims to describe the role of consumer direction in publicly funded family caregiver support services and HCBS programs with a family caregiving component. This report addresses three questions with the intent of informing policy discussions.

State policy makers and consumer advocates are advancing programs and policies to support community living for all individuals. Operationalizing principles of “self direction,” “consumer direction,” or “participant direction” entails many details. This State Policy in Practice technical assistance document offers concrete information and specific state examples on ways to implement participant-directed planning and individualized budgeting.

Rutgers Center for State Health Policy/National Academy for State Health Policy Community Living Exchange Collaborative organized a site visit for Money Follows the Person grantees to learn about the Pennsylvania Community Choice Initiative. The initiative was designed to expedite access to home and community based services to avoid admission to a nursing home. The site visit was attended by grantees from California, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey and Texas.

A key component of consumer-direction includes methods to ensure that essential supports are provided. This State Policy in Practice technical assistance document offers a practical example from the State of South Carolina. Care Call is a system developed to help South Carolina monitor service delivery provided though South Carolina Choice, an Independence Plus waiver that enables self-direction, and its other traditional home and community-based services (HCBS) waiver programs.

CMS has acted to assure Medicare, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs will accommodate emergency health care needs of beneficiaries and medical providers in Hurricane Katrina devastated states. CMS emergency relief activities and information including a detailed explanation of billing and payment policy revisions, and phone numbers for the state medical assistance offices can be found on this website. Frequently asked questions and their answers will be updated daily by 2pm.

The Hawaii Medicaid Infrastructure Grant, called Hire Abilities–Hawaii, is brand new this year but a dynamic website has already been unveiled. The site offers information about the project’s goals and strategies, advisory board and staff, and work incentive programs. It also serves as an important communication tool through the use of a public discussion board and on-line calendar. As an added feature, the site contains administrative tools to help the project team manage grant activities.

This presentation reviews important changes CMS is making in the reporting system for FY04 RCSC grants. The slides provide an overview of the “why and how of the proposed changes” offers next steps and introduces the Logic Model Framework. The Logic Model is a tool for strategic planning and program evaluation. This presentation notifies grantees of upcoming changes to the web-based reporting system and introduces the systems terminology, context and concepts.

This report describes the FY 2002 and FY 2003 Grantees’ challenges and progress using information provided by the Grantees during the reporting period October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004. The report describes grant activities in four major LTC systems areas: Access to Long-Term Care Services and Supports, Services, Supports, and Housing, Administrative and Monitoring Infrastructure and Long-Term Care Service and Support Workforce