Medicaid

This CMS letter highlights the ways that states can include public input in the 1115 waiver, Home and Community-Based Service Waiver, and managed care waiver process. Some examples are provided including public forums and legislative hearings.

On August 13, 2002, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a letter to State Medicaid Directors highlighting promising state practices. It complements the letter Tommy Thompson sent to Governors.

CMS letter allowing coverage of transition costs under 1915 (c) waivers. This letter clarifies some methods by which HCBS waivers under section 1915(c) may aid in the transitioning of individuals from institutional settings to their own home in the community through coverage of one-time transitional expenses. This clarification was promised in the HHS New Freedom Report to the President.

The United States General Accounting Office study conducted on home and community based long-term care that is supported by Medicaid waivers. The population that they focused upon was older adults. The reasons for the study were to look at trends in uses of Medicaid waiver programs, to review quality assurance approaches used by states in their administration of the waivers, and to determine the adequacy of federal oversight of the waivers.

This is the first of three national teleconferences that addresses strategies for improving home and community based services for individuals with mental illness. This call looked at promising practices using the Medicaid Rehab option.

Reports from the CMS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formally known as HCFA) Medicaid HCBS Study of the impact of Medicaid home and community based services programs on quality of life, quality of care, utilization and cost. The research project will study the financing and delivery of services to older and younger people with disabilities and the Medicaid financing and delivery of services for individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) in six states.

The data presented in Tables A through N are derived from HCFA 64 reports submitted by states to the Health Care Financing Administration. The HCFA 64 is the form used by states to claim Federal Financial Participation (FFP) for state Medicaid outlays, and is audited by the Federal government. It is thus considered to be one of the most reliable sources of information on state Medicaid spending.

The accompanying tables and graphs present data on Medicaid expenditures for 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services waivers from FY 1995 through FY 2000. The memo provides detailed data on expenditures for individual waivers. In addition, the materials classify each 1915(c) waiver by target population, and present information on the distribution of expenditures for HCBS services across long term care populations.

This report updates and builds upon the Medicaid 1915(c) home and community based waiver data collected for 1992-1997 and for part of 1998 in two previous studies by Charlene Harrington, Ph.D., for the Health Care Financing Administration (Contract 500-97-0002). This work is part of a larger study on the home and community based service program being conducted for The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The accompanying two tables and two graphs present data on Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver expenditures from Federal Fiscal Years 1995 through 2001. This is the second annual memo we have produced on Medicaid spending for individual HCBS waivers. As we did last year, we have classified each waiver by target population to present information on the distribution of HCBS waiver expenditures across long term care populations.