The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a toolkit intended to help state Medicaid agencies rebalance their long-term care systems to decrease reliance on institutional settings and increase capacity for home and community-based services (HCBS). The tools focus on helping states strengthen their infrastructure and develop robust HCBS for eligible Medicaid beneficiaries. CMS believes that nursing homes are an important part of a complete care continuum, however, they also believe that many elderly individuals and their families should have access to HCBS as an option.
The toolkit provides states with examples of innovative state models and best practices to rebalance their long-term care systems. As the primary funder of long-term care nationally, Medicaid plays an important role in supporting state efforts to achieve a more equitable balance between the share of spending and use of services and supports delivered in individuals’ homes and communities as compared to institutional care.
The toolkit is posted online at https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/long-term-services-supports/downloads/ltss-rebalancing-toolkit.pdf (accessed November 22, 2020).
This was reported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Resources on November 2, 2020.
Contact information: Office of Communications, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21244; 202-690-6145; Fax: 202-260-1462; Website: https://www.cms.gov/
