Kaiser examines latest data and trends in Medicaid long-term services and supports

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) has released a package of resources that examine the latest data findings regarding Medicaid’s long-term services and supports for seniors and people with disabilities.

Three new reports examine the five year-old Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration grant program, which was extended through 2016 under the new health reform law. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia participate in the program, which provides enhanced federal funding to states to transition Medicaid individuals living in institutions back to the community. Money Follows the Person: A 2010 Snapshot, drawing on a 2010 survey of state MFP programs by the KCMU, reports on the significant gains states have made in transitioning participants. A case study looks at Ohio’s MFP demonstration, known as HOME Choice, and a related paper offers short profiles of four Ohio residents who have benefitted from the program.

A new report, Medicaid Home and Community-Based Service Programs: Data Update, summarizes the key trends in expenditures and participation data for the three main Medicaid HCBS programs -- optional 1915© HCBS waivers, the mandatory home health benefit and the optional state plan personal care services benefit – as well as the policies shaping the administration of those programs. More than 2.8 million people were served by the programs in 2007, the most recent year for which such data is available, down slightly from peak enrollment in 2005. Overall spending on Medicaid HCBS rose to $42 billion that year and per person spending averaged $14,776. In 2009 all states, coping with the recession, used cost control measures, such as limits on service hours or expenditures.

Two issue briefs examine key ingredients in the drive toward more community-based long-term services and supports in the Medicaid program. One brief highlights two important operational elements that can affect access to such services in a state: efforts to provide accurate and timely information to consumers, and procedures to make Medicaid eligibility determinations efficiently. The other brief describes current case management efforts in states and activities and policies that can enhance states’ efforts to help consumers themselves manage the services and supports they need.

All of the materials were released during a public briefing in the Foundation’s Washington, D.C. offices that featured an expert panel following opening remarks on long-term services and supports by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Copies of the reports and an archived webcast of the briefing are available online.