Policy alerts, briefs, letters & papers

This checklist prepared by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) highlights the ACA Medicaid requirements that will take effect in the next two years, nearly all of which will apply to states regardless of whether the state chooses to expand Medicaid eligibility.

This brief examines Medicaid's key role in meeting the long-term care needs of seniors in the United States, particularly those with limited incomes. Medicaid is the nation's primary payer of long-term services and supports, and state Medicaid programs provide a range of long-term care services. The brief includes state-by-state data on Medicaid enrollment and expenditures for elderly beneficiaries.

This fact sheet provides strategies for identifying transportation options and eliminating transportation barriers related to the provision and receipt of respite care. It addresses the importance of transportation and how to help family caregivers, providers and Lifespan Respite programs identify community transportation resources; determine the best transportation options; include transportation in the respite planning process; and create transportation options.

This brief provides a short summary of Medicaid eligibility and benefits for people with disabilities today and explains how they will be affected by the ACA in light of CMS's new regulations. Provisions of the new Exchange regulations are discussed briefly to the extent that they related to Medicaid eligibility determinations for people with disabilities.

This brief provides a summary of the CMS’s March 23, 2012 final rule to implement the ACA provisions relating to Medicaid eligibility and enrollment coordination. The rule (effective Jan. 1, 2014) lays out procedures for states to implement expansion and streamline and integrate eligibility and enrollment system. Achieving this goal will require substantial process and system changes among state Medicaid agencies and close coordination between Medicaid and other insurance affordability programs.

This issue brief revisits the use of SSA work supports among the nearly three-quarters of Buy-In Participants who also receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). To better understand who might benefit most from program outreach, this report explores variation in use rates by age, education, and disabling health condition. It also examines the relationship between work-support use, employment, and earnings.

Several states are experimenting with solutions to help individuals who need long term services and supports connect with available workers. One approach is a publicly-funded matching service registry (MSR) that facilitates connections between qualified home care workers and individuals who self-direct their in-home services and supports. This document explains how registries can help match supply and demand, what the benefits of MSRs are for states and how to begin creating these registries.

The availability of trained direct service workers is threatened by dramatic increase in population age 65 and older and the growing demand for long-term services and supports. This document explains why states and ADRCs need to focus on building their Direct Service Workforce to meet this growing demand.

What strategies addresses the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending by improving the coordination of care and reducing the cost for those who are dually eligible for both programs? This report evaluated plans such as PACE, Minnesota Senior Health Options, the Wisconsin Partnership Program and Evercare, which showed a reduction of hospitalizations. PACE was included as part of the solution to controlling Medicare and Medicaid spending.

MFP demonstration supports states' efforts to help Medicaid beneficiaries living in long-term care institutions transition back to community-based residences and make LTSS more accessible. Using nursing home assessment data, this report compared needs of MFP participants with a cohort of Medicaid long-stay nursing home residents who transitioned to HCBS in grantee states but were not enrolled in MFP, and a cohort of long-stay residents in MFP states who did not transition.