Reports

What incentives help encourage in-home supportive services workers to remain in caregiving? A Connecticut College research team explores this question by surveying 2,200 workers. \"Flexibility and wages matter,\" the researchers note, \"research clearly shows that giving workers $10/hr plus access to decent benefits significantly increases the supply and retention rate of home care workers, making it possible for consumers to find good caregivers.\" The executive summary offers further results.

As the number of those needing care at home continues to grow, it is becoming more difficult to find workers. One solution is to rely on consumer-directed services, in which clients hire friends and family as paid caregivers (whom we call “related caregivers”). This study explored the experiences of related caregivers, most of which had not considered direct-care work if a loved one had not needed them and sought to understand who might represent potential home care workers in the future.

AARP has developed a two page fact sheet that outlines the definitions, need, funding and expansion options for home and community based services.

What are the specialized needs of seniors, people with disabilities and individuals with mental illness during emergencies? This brief describes how ADRCs can assist consumers before, during and after crisis situations. Although numerous federal, state and local agencies are involved in emergency activities, this issue brief focuses on the key roles of ADRCs in emergency planning, response and recovery.

Because effective partnership is a cornerstone of successful ADRC program development and ongoing operations, the Lewin Group has completed several aging and disability case studies on existing successful public-private partnerships. The case studies describe the approach, implementation, and outcomes of each partnership as well as reported “lessons learned.”

Provides practical information on how state agencies can obtain and use the MDS through Data Use Agreements (DUAs) with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Explores the progress states have made in: using the MDS to facilitate nursing facility transition; identifying barriers that remain; and, suggesting recommendations for changes to the MDS to make it more useful for nursing home transition efforts. We examine three uses of the MDS by nursing facility transition program.

This memorandum and tables present data on Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver expenditures from Federal Fiscal Years 2000 through 2005. Each individual HCBS waiver is classified by population served in order to show the distribution of HCBS waiver expenditures across long term care populations.

This memorandum presents data on Medicaid long-term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2005 (Sept 2004-Sept 2005). The accompanying tables present data on Medicaid Expenditures for Long-Term Care services from 1993-2005. Data included for Nursing Homes, ICF-MR, Personal Care, HCBS Waivers, Home Health, Home Care, Inpatient Hospital Care, Inpatient DSH, Inpatient Mental Health, Mental Health DSH, Medicaid Managed-Care, Prescribed Drugs, Long-term Care, Targeted Case Management and PACE.

A few recent Medicaid initiatives have emerged that take the program into new directions. States have a number of objectives in developing these approaches, including offering beneficiaries greater choice, promoting personal responsibility and healthier behaviors among enrollees, and looking at the private marketplace. This brief examines how these approaches change financial risk and responsibility for states, the federal government, beneficiaries and providers.

This publication summarizes and synthesizes some of the most important things that research and demonstration programs have learned about consumer direction. The paper provides leaders and practitioners with a common framework of understanding for our next challenge: To build upon current knowledge and to make “consumer direction” an integral part of the options available for all older persons who may need long-term care. Read the 12 common consumer direction myths and then learn the reality.