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As part of broad deficit-reduction plans, policymakers are considering reforms to the nation's three major entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - that could significantly affect the economic security of seniors in their retirement years.
The nearly nine million dual eligibles who receive both Medicare and Medicaid benefits are a high cost, high need population, accounting for a disproportionate share of expenditures relative to their enrollment in both programs.
This issue brief examines the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a component of the health reform law that establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living services and supports that is designed to expand options for people who become functionally disabled and require long-term help.
This issue brief examines the early successes and challenges of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration (MFP), a Medicaid initiative enacted into law in 2006 that gives states enhanced federal support to balance their Medicaid long-term care programs by providing more services in the community and fewer in institutional settings.
Vermont's Choices for Care experiment in long-term services, created through a five-year Medicaid waiver in 2005, was designed to increase access to home and community-based services while reducing the use of institutional services and controlling overall costs.
Consumer Direction of Personal Assistance Services Programs in Medicaid: Insights from Enrollees in Four States Medicaid consumer direction of personal assistance services (CD-PAS) is a growing trend. Although overall enrollment in these programs is small, 42 states offered consumer direction in Medicaid in 2006.
With recent policy debates about the future of Medicaid, the Foundation's Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has created a resource page of recent publications that address key policy issues when examining Medicaid's role for high cost populations and in long-term care.
Private Long-Term Care Insurance: Who Should Buy It and What Should They Buy? Despite the growing interest in private long-term care insurance (LTCI), there has been little independent examination of how much protection LTCI policies provide consumers or whether LTCI policies are a worthwhile purchase for people of average means.
Long-Term Care: Medicaid's Role and Challenges This Policy Brief examines Medicaid's role in providing long-term care services. It describes long-term care services, the population that needs these services, and how people get long-term care services.
This policy brief describes the current federal staffing requirements and how states separately regulate staffing levels in nursing homes. It also presents data showing actual staffing levels in over half of this country's nursing homes exceed the levels that states and the federal government require.
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