Reports

This paper assesses the effect of consumer-directed care on the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of the primary informal caregivers of the Medicaid beneficiaries who voluntarily joined Arkansas's Cash and Counseling demonstration. The implications of the demonstration find that permitting interested Medicaid beneficiaries to direct their own in-home supportive services reduces burden on informal caregivers, which may help reduce beneficiaries' nursing home use.

The Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services is designing an integrated state-local quality management system for the state’s HCBS long-term care programs. The Long Term Care Functional Screen (LTCFS) is a key element of their program, used for eligibility determination and rate settings. This paper explores ways to discover accuracy in the Level of Care determination process and describes an approach to LTC FS building on enhancements of current efforts and incorporating new activities.

States seek to streamline access to HCBS in order to expedite and simplify the experience of consumers seeking services so that they receive the services they need in community settings, preventing or delaying the need for institutional care. The design of the Washington long-term support system for older adults and people with physical disabilities provides examples for other states interested in simplifying or expediting access to long-term supports.

In recent years, there has been growing interest among different groups representing and serving persons with disabilities in providing more mainstream housing opportunities for this constituency. This HUD study finds that size plays a lesser role in project satisfaction than meeting disabled residents’ needs, preferences and requirements for supportive services.

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson released two papers titled Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities. <i>Barriers at Every Step</i> coupled with its companion report, <i>Guidance for Practitioners</i>, advance the consumer’s ability to verify – and furthers chances of eradicating – inequity in housing opportunities for persons with disabilities. This newly released study employs a number of newly developed, field-tested tools for measuring housing discrimination.

This is the fourth in a series of <i>Data Profiles, Family Caregivers of Older Persons</i>. This Data Profile (Number 4, August 2005) examines primary family caregivers age 25 to 64 who are working and those who are not working. Review the statistics, demographics and other characteristic differences between working and non-working caregivers.

This tool kit has been designed as a result of three years of collaboration building workshops in 33 different states. The impetus arose from the need to disseminate the latest information on aging and intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD) and to find ways in which agencies can collaborate to assist caregivers and care recipients. This tool kit is an accumulation of the materials presented at the workshops and provides agencies with resources for forming new partnerships.

This Congressional briefing examined the \"Cash and Counseling\" program, which provides an individualized allowance that Medicaid beneficiaries can use to hire a personal care assistant of their choice - often a family caregiver - or purchase items that help them live independently, such as chair lifts. As policymakers look to the future, what are the lessons learned from the first phase of the cash and counseling program?

MinnesotaHelp.com is the state ADRC information network and they have shared a number of resources offering information on their Information and Assistance Datebase. Included in this posting are three presentations: a. An overview of the database b. the ADRC role c. Consumer use of resources. The technology business case summaries the impact of the database system. The technology project management document details the roles and responsibilities of individuals who operate the resources.

Facts about fast track, presumptive and expedited eligibility. Includes information about how can states implement it, who pays when mistakes are made and which states expedite the financial eligibility decision. Fast track and presumptive eligibility are two ways to expedite a person’s financial application for Medicaid.