Thirteen states and the District of Columbia will get more than $547 million in grants over five years to build Medicaid long-term care programs that will help keep people at home and out of institutions, Leslie V. Norwalk, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced earlier this week.
The awards are the second round of grants that will total $1.75 billion over five years (2007-11) to help shift Medicaid’s traditional emphasis on institutional care to a system offering greater choices that include home and community-based services.
This “Money Follows the Person” initiative is a component of the administration’s New Freedom Initiative, a nationwide effort to remove barriers to community living for people of all ages with disabilities or chronic illnesses. States expect to be able to move more than 14,000 people into community settings using these grant awards. States receiving grant funds will qualify for a higher percentage of federal matching dollars to help cover the costs of moving people out of nursing homes and into community settings. Read the overview.
