Archived conference materials / Presentations

Quality surveys were developed to be administered by consumers to other consumers and their families. They measure in-home attendant care, habilitation, and respite services delivered. In addition to surveys are materials used to train the interviewers, survey response thresholds, and a presentation outlining survey findings.

Medicaid covers health and long-term care services for many millions of low-income Americans. Conversations were already underway at this event concerning the role of Medicaid as a vehicle for economic stimulus, and about health coverage expansion proposals, with particular discussion around the challenges facing states implementing the program in the recent economic downturn.

March 2-4, 2009 state program staff, CMS staff, and technical assistance providers met in Baltimore to discuss Money Follows the Person and other strategies for helping people move out of nursing homes. Speakers presented on topics ranging from service integration, housing finance strategies, mentoring, quality, and many others.

This document outlines a Forum Session which was sponsored by the National Health Policy Forum at George Washington University. The Forum topic focused on different state's approaches to managing overall long-term care spending, offering consumers broader access to home and community-based services, and coordinating long-term care services.

The growing elderly population is a persistent theme in policy deliberations. Gerontologists believe that policy discussions must go beyond population size and take into account socioeconomic characteristics such as living and employment situation, home life, culture, and education. Experts from the fields of economics, political science, and social policy do just that in this forum session, presenting in-depth demographics with a focus on economic security, electoral dynamics, and stereotypes.

View the forum session presentations to learn how Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia have created consumer-directed options. They discuss demographics, program details and histories, costs, challenges, and the future. The final presentation goes over Money Follows the Person and Cash and Counseling from the federal level, examining policy, demographics, and outcomes.

The Veterans Health Administration plans to partner with the Aging Network in order to be serving over 109,000 veterans using HCBS by 2011. February 25 and 26, 2009, these organizations met in Boston to develop the partnership, work out next steps, and identify challenges. Presentations provide details on existing infrastructure, Nursing Home Diversion, financial management services, and existing research on HCBS and self-direction.

Revisit the material presented at the 2008 HCBS Conference. The DSW Intensive provided an overview of the direct service workforce challenges and the initiatives being researched and developed to address them. Intensive materials posted include a planning document, trends in policy and recommendations for data collection.

Find answers to your questions about FMS. The Cash & Counseling National Program Office originally presented this overview during a technical assistance call. It defines self-direction and reviews the duties of FMS agencies and issues in the field. Among these are definitions of services and employee categories, types of FMS, tax and labor laws, costs, and funding models.

The presenters relate information and an Illinois case study on this affordable housing funding strategy. TBRA is tied directly to a MFP recipient’s income level, thereby overcoming limitations of other strategies such as development subsidies and Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8). Similar to a voucher, TBRA covers the gab between fair market rent and a percentage of a recipient’s income.