HHS expanding home health services for people with disabilities
Awards of up to $5 million are being announced for Illinois, Kansas and New Hampshire, as well as American Samoa and Puerto Rico.
Photo: Marko Geber/Getty Images
Five new states and territories have been awarded about $25 million in planning grants to expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS) through Medicaid's Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program. The awards were granted through the Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Awards of up to $5 million are being announced for Illinois, Kansas and New Hampshire, as well as for American Samoa and Puerto Rico – the first time MFP grants have been made available to territories.
With the awards, 41 states and territories across the U.S. will now participate in MFP. The funds are meant to support the early planning phase for their MFP programs.
Among the work being done in the planning phase is establishing partnerships with community stakeholders, including those representing diverse and underserved populations, tribal entities and governments, state and local agencies – such as state and local public housing authorities – and community-based organizations.
Other components of the planning phase include conducting system assessments to better understand how HCBS support local residents; developing community transition programs; establishing or enhancing Medicaid HCBS quality improvement programs; and recruiting HCBS providers, as well as expert providers, for transition coordination and technical assistance.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT
A new report from CMS also describes how MFP has helped facilitate more than 107,000 transitions out of institutional settings since 2008.
It also indicates that, due in part to programs like MFP, more than 85% of people who used Medicaid long-term services and supports in 2019 received HCBS rather than institutional services. First authorized in 2006, MFP has provided states with more than $4 billion to support people who choose to transition out of institutions and back into their homes and communities.
Medicaid is the primary funder of HCBS nationally, and plays a role in supporting states' efforts to strengthen these services for their beneficiaries. Through the American Rescue Plan, President Biden temporarily increased Medicaid funding for HCBS, and every state elected to participate in the program has submitted a plan for how they will use the funds.
The administration estimates this change will ultimately result in $25 billion in increased funding, allowing states to develop ways to address existing HCBS workforce and structural issues, expand the capacity of critical services, and begin to meet the needs of people with disabilities, family caregivers and providers.
THE LARGER TREND
CMS released the first-ever home- and community-based services quality measure set in June to promote consistent quality measurement within and across state Medicaid home and community-based programs.
The measure set is intended to provide insight into the quality of HCBS programs and enable states to measure and improve health outcomes for people relying on long-term services and support in Medicaid.
Nationally, more than 7 million people receive HCBS under Medicaid, and Medicaid-funded HCBS accounts for $125 billion annually in state and federal spending.
From the beginning of the Medicaid program in 1965, state Medicaid programs were required to provide medically necessary nursing facility care for most eligible individuals ages 21 or older, but coverage for home- and community-based services has been a state option.
States have used several Medicaid authorities, as well as CMS-funded grant programs, to develop a broad range of these services to provide alternatives to institutionalization for eligible Medicaid beneficiaries and to advance person-centered care.
The HCBS quality measure set is one piece of a larger Medicaid quality strategy, CMS said. The agency expects to update the measure set in the future, including adding newly developed measures that address measure gaps, as the field of HCBS measure development advances.
ON THE RECORD
"We're putting the full weight of this agency behind solutions that can meet people where they are and help get them to where they want to be when it comes to healthcare," said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. "Money Follows the Person has a proven track record of helping seniors and people with disabilities transition safely from institutional care to their own homes and communities. Letting 'money follow the person' is key to those successes, and to the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to affordable, accessible, person-centered care."
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com
