Promising practices

The State of Colorado has established Single Entry Point (SEP) agencies that provide an access point for several publicly funded long-term supports for people with disabilities, including older people, people with physical disabilities, people living with AIDS, and people with brain injuries. SEP agencies provide education to individuals about available options and provide easier access for individuals and families to the programs. This report describes the SEP system in Colorado.

In June ‘03, Maine Gov. Baldacci signed into law the Dirigo Health Reform Act. A major premise behind the law is that successful health care reform must address cost, quality, & access simultaneously & with equal vigor. Named for Maine's motto: To Lead-the program is designed to guarantee health coverage by ‘09 to those who cannot afford insurance. The ME Governor’s Office of Health Policy & Finance (GOHPF) has partnered with NASHP to develop issue briefs keeping states abreast of the reform.

The Quality Mall is \"a place where you can find lots of free information about person-centered supports for people with developmental disabilities. Each of the Mall stores has departments you can look through to learn about positive practices that help people with developmental disabilities live, work and participate in our communities and improve the quality of their supports.\"

This purpose of this teleconference was to discuss options for combining Medicaid long term care funding and expanding the scope of long term care services. The call was organized in response to a need identified by a grantee and included states that were available and had relevant experience with the questions being raised.

This is the first of three national teleconferences that addresses strategies for improving home and community based services for individuals with mental illness. This call looked at promising practices using the Medicaid Rehab option.

Arkansas is part of a demonstration project to measure the impact of substituting a cash allowance for Medicaid services from provider agencies. This report describes how the participants were randomly assigned to two groups, one that received Medicaid personal care through a provider agency and one that received a monthly cash allowance and services to help them effectively use the allowance, and their respective outcomes.

This report briefly describes a managed long-term care pilot project the State of Florida has initiated to test a Medicaid managed care program that includes incentives for coordinating acute and long-term care and for using less expensive, community-based alternatives to nursing homes for people age 65 or older with disabilities. This report includes background information and descriptions of the intervention, implementation, and impact.

Alaska changed its Medicaid personal care program based on principles and recommendations from a 75-person Personal Care Summit that involved program participants, personal assistance providers, advocates, and state policy makers. The changes created consumer-directed personal care agencies that train participants to direct their own services and perform fiscal responsibilities for people who employ their own personal assistants through the CDPCP.

This report describes the State of Pennsylvania’s Family Caregiver Support Program (FCSP), administered by the Department of Aging, that offers a comprehensive service package with specific funding and services for family caregivers. FCSP uses state & recently available federal funds to allow the caregiver to choose the services needed to help care for an older relative at home and provide financial assistance with out-of-pocket expenses. Early program evaluation found the services effective.

This Promising Practices Bulletin highlights a Consumer Outcomes Survey administered annually annually to a random sample of waiver participants by Family Care, Wisconsin’s Medicaid managed long-term care waiver. The State shares information garnered from the surveys with the Care Management Organizations and uses the information to monitor changes in outcomes over time.