Congratulations Money Follows the Person Awardees
On January 11, 2007, CMS announced the 17 States that were awarded “first
round” Money Follows the Person (MFP) grants. Congratulations!
CMS stated that “for too long people had to follow the money,” and now
Medicaid money can follow the people. These 17 MFP awardees are expected to
“reinvest the savings [from the institutions] into community-based services” and to
have “annual rebalancing benchmarks.”
These 17 States will receive more than $23 million in FY 07 and will be
eligible for more than $900 million federal dollars over the next 5 years. These
funds will help 25,000 disabled and elderly persons leave institutions, return
to the community, and receive appropriate Medicaid funded services in their
own homes. CMS emphasized that the winning States addressed a broad range of
people with disabilities, people with “complex needs,” people with developmental
disabilities, elderly persons, persons with dual diagnoses and others.
CMS stated that the MFP grants will help States “level the playing field by
eliminating barriers in the community” and “expand choice” for persons who
want to live in the community.
CMS publicly recognized ADAPT’s and NCIL’s extraordinary hard work in both
convincing Congress to allocate the $1.75 billion for MFP and in urging and
working with States during the application process.
Now the work really begins in those 17 States. Over the next 12 months, you
and your State must flesh out “Operational Protocols” answering how the
program will be implemented. Disability and elderly advocates have the expertise in
transitioning persons from institutions to the community. You know the real
problems people will face. Get to the table.
The 17 winning States are: WI, NY, WA, CN, MI, OKL, ARK, MARYLAND, NEB, N.
HAMPSHIRE, CA, IND, TX, S. CAR, IOWA, OH, MISSOURI.
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER STATES?
Another 21 States applied for MFP but, according to CMS, need to “refine
their application” with “more specificity.” As far as we can tell, as a
general matter, CMS correctly did not award these 21 States a first round grant
because CMS wants (a) more details on how these 21States will “rebalance” their
institutional versus community Medicaid expenditures/services and (b) more
specific benchmarks regarding the numbers of persons who will be transitioned out
of the institutions.
– From Steve Gold’s site
March 10th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I applaud those states who took the initiative to apply for this funding. Unfprtunately Utah didn’t even try, stating that their current programs are just as good. NOT!
Disabled Rights Action Committee is currently putting on the pressure to make them see their errors and stupidity.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Best wishes, and keep me abreast, ok? The Colorado folks should do the same, since, despite their efforts, Colorado, also, would not apply. They used basically the same excuse as Utah. Oregon (where Joe and Pam are) was one of the 21 states that were told, in essence, “come again”? So was DC, and Pennsylvania. But, at least they applied.