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On August 1, 2013, Diane Rowland, Executive Vice President of the Kaiser Family Foundation and Executive Director of the Foundation's Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, testified
before the Federal Commission on Long-Term Care about ways in which the Medicaid program could be strengthened to better support low-income individuals with long-term services and supports needs.
With the passage of health reform, the Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration grant program was extended through 2016 giving states further options to transition Medicaid beneficiaries living in institutions back to the community.
This case study looks at Michigan's Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program, which has enabled the state to accelerate existing transition activities and increase access to home- and community-based services (HCBS) by providing enhanced federal funds for each MFP participant’s 365-day enrollment period.
Medicaid’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration has helped seniors and people with disabilities move from institutions to the community by providing enhanced federal matching funds to states since 2007. The program operates in 44 states and has served over 90,000 people as of June 2018. The program is credited with helping many states establish formal institution to community transition programs that did not previously exist by enabling them to develop the necessary service and provider infrastructure. With a short-term funding extension set to expire on December 31, 2019, MFP’s future remains uncertain without a longer-term reauthorization by Congress.
This issue brief uses hypothetical examples of working people with disabilities to illustrate the experiences they might have with Medicaid and Marketplace coverage in four states (California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Ohio), with a focus on benefits that are typically important to people with disabilities.
This issue brief analyzes the impact of the four measures intended to safeguard coverage for people with disabilities and others who should not have been subject to the work and reporting requirements. It draws on data newly available from Arkansas’ 2018 annual waiver report to CMS and monthly data released by the state while the requirements were in effect. The data reveal that few people used these safeguard measures relative to the number of people who lost coverage due to the new requirements. Among those who accessed the safeguards, the vast majority did so due to disability/other health issues or technical issues such as those related to reporting.
This issue brief explains how behavioral health parity applies in the Medicaid program, including the major provisions of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) April 10, 2015 proposed regulations, and identifies key policy issues at the intersection of behavioral health parity and Medicaid.
This issue brief discusses four key issues related to long-term services and supports (LTSS) including institutional and home and community-based services (HCBS) quality, highlighting major legislative and policy changes over the last 30 years since the passage of the Nursing Home Reform Act.
State interest in Medicaid Section 1115 behavioral health waivers, including mental health and substance use disorders, remains high. As of November, 2017, there are 15 approved and 11 pending behavioral health waivers in 22 states. This issue brief describes recent waiver activity in four areas: using Medicaid funds to pay for substance use and/or mental health services in “institutions for mental disease” (IMDs), expanding community-based behavioral health benefits, expanding Medicaid eligibility to cover additional people with behavioral health needs, and financing delivery system reforms.
This issue brief identifies key themes in policy changes states are making under Appendix K authority to adapt Medicaid HCBS programs in light of the COVID-19 emergency.
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