Reports

This document summarizes the meeting on Money Follows the Person: Financing and Budgeting, convened by Rutgers Center for State Health Policy and the National Academy for State Health Policy, held on September 11-13, 2006 in Olympia, Washington. Participants discussed budgeting and financing approaches states can use to assist their residents in moving from institutions to community settings. This document will provide a brief description of the meeting and a guide to resources that were shared.

This study was conducted as part of the Nebraska Nursing Facility Transition (NFT) Grant. The target population included children living in nursing facilities who meet the criteria for transition to home and community-based settings and children living at home identified as at-risk for nursing facility placement. The goals of this paper were to decrease the number of children in nursing facilities, identify risk factors, and to develop a plan to keep children in home and community settings.

The Turner Geriatric Clinic Social Work Department established a community-hospital liaison as part of the Michigan Nursing Facility Transition grant. This report discusses the goals of the project, its development and implementation, challenges and successes, and the end results.

The problems of board and care homes, also known as adult homes, for people with psychiatric disabilities are the focus of a new SAMHSA report. The history, demographics and common concerns of these homes are detailed in-depth plus ten recommendations to improve quality of life. A list of measures being implemented to improve the lives of residents and recommendations calling for a recovery-oriented approach based on the principles of self-direction and community integration are also provided.

Legisbrief is a briefing papers that offers important issues of the day. This volume provides an overview of the new demonstration initiative entitled \"Money Follows the Person.\" States now have additional support from the federal government. The new federal demonstration provides new financial incentives for states to initiate system of flexible spending for long-term services and supports that enables available funds to move with the individual to the most appropriate and preferred setting.

While aggregate household net wealth grew from $25.9 trillion in 1995 to $50.1 trillion in 2004 (both in 2004 dollars), nearly 90 percent of the net gains occurred only among the top quartile of households in the wealth distribution. This paper discusses both household wealth and inequality growth, examines demographic factors behind the growth, and analyzes housing’s role in it, using the Survey of Consumer Finances data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank.

A goal of the Maryland Real Choice grant was to “provide information and assistance to consumer in acute care hospitals to aid decision-making and assist with transitions back to the community.” In 2003, a hospital discharge initiative was used to pay for nurses to work with patients being discharged from acute-care hospital stays. This paper reviews and answers whether there has been any change in discharge patterns from pilot sites to nursing homes relative to the rest of the state.

In laying the groundwork for sustainable improvements in the infrastructure for LTC policy and program implementation, Massachusetts Real Choice grantees conducted an assessment of current Service Coordination practices across State agencies. The research objective was to better understand present service coordination practices among agencies dealing with elderly and individuals with disabilities with the intention of identifying “promising practices”. This report presents the review results.

These reports are reviews of Utah’s long–term care system and waiver programs and provide recommendations for change. The Focus Group Findings focused on non-institutionalized and community based settings. The Long-Term Care paper provides more generalized findings about the structure of Utah’s long-term care system and how to transition forward based on input from stakeholders and administrators, comparisons to other states, and review of current documents and policy.

MA grantees hired an independent evaluator to conduct qualitative assessments of consumers’ experiences at two and nine months of participation. At two months, the successes included connections to community supports and services. Identified challenges included developing and managing an individual budget. Successes at 9 months include increased independence, self-determination, and availability of workers and supports. Challenges included community liaison training and out-of-pocket spending.