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The Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced the availability of
up to $165 million in supplemental funding to states currently operating
Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration programs. This funding will
help state Medicaid programs jump-start efforts to transition individuals
with disabilities and older adults from institutions and nursing facilities
to home and community-based settings of their choosing.
Today’s action
delivers on the Administration’s commitment to transform
Medicaid by fostering increased state flexibility and innovation and to
ensure
safety and quality for beneficiaries.
“The tragic devastation
wrought by the Coronavirus on nursing home residents exposes America’s
over-reliance on insitutional long-term care facilities,” said
Administrator Seema Verma. “Residential care will always be an essential
part of the care continuum, but our goal must always be to give residents
options that help keep our loved ones in their own homes and communities
for as long as possible.”
“Home and
community-based care is not only frequently more cost effective, but is
preferred by seniors and adults with disabilities seeking to maintain the
dignity of independent living. This new federal investment will help states
get our loved ones back home,” she added.
Today’s action is
supported by new data that shows the need for this supplemental funding
opportunity to accelerate states’ MFP activities. According to a new
report released by CMS today, MFP state grantees transitioned 101,540
Medicaid beneficiaries from institutional care to home-based and community
services (HCBS) since the program started in 2007. However, last
year, only 4,173 Medicaid beneficaries were transitioned under the MFP
program – a 46 percent decrease from 2018.
Thirty-three states
(including the District of Columbia) that operate MFP-funded transition
programs and plan to continue participating in MFP after this fiscal year
are eligible to participate: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina,
North Dakota, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington,
Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
Each state is
eligible to receive up to $5 million in supplemental funding for planning
and capacity building activities to accelerate long-term care system
transformation design and implementation, and to expand HCBS capacity, such
as:
- Assessing HCBS system capacity and
determining the extent to which additional providers and/or services might
be needed;
- Assessing institutional capacity and
determining the extent to which the state could reduce this capacity
and transition impacted individuals to more integrated settings;
- Provider and direct service worker
recruitment, education, training, technical assistance, and quality
improvement activities, including training people with disabilities to
become direct service workers;
- Caregiver training and education;
- Assessing and implementing changes to
reimbursement rates and payment methodologies to expand HCBS provider
capacity and/or improve HCBS and/or institutional service quality;
- Building Medicaid-housing partnerships to
facilitate access to affordable and accessible housing for Medicaid
beneficiaries with disabilities and older adults; and
- Diversion strategies to prevent nursing
facility admission.
In addition, states
could use this funding opportunity to support HCBS planning and capacity
building activities in direct response to the COVID-19 public health
emergency, such as to plan and implement the use of telehealth for nursing
facility transition activities that would normally be conducted in-person
or to redesign service delivery models to reduce the risk of COVID-19
infection among MFP participants.
Supplemental budget
requests under this funding opportunity will be accepted on a rolling basis
through June 30, 2021. CMS will provide all eligible grantee states,
that currently operate a MFP-funded transition program, with additional
information on this funding opportunity.
For more information,
please visit: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/long-term-services-supports/money-follows-person/index.html
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