CMS awards millions to home care
By HME News Staff
Updated Sat June 30, 2007
WASHINGTON - CMS awarded $547 million in grants in May to help states build Medicaid long-term care programs that keep people in their homes and out of nursing homes.
CMS awarded the five-year grants to 13 states and Washington, D.C. As part of a "Money Follows the Person" initiative outlined in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, the agency will award a total of $1.75 billion in grants from 2007 to 2011.
"There is more evidence than ever that people who need long-term care prefer to remain in their own homes and communities whenever possible," CMS official Leslie Norwalk stated in a release. "This new program will help states shift Medicaid's traditional emphasis on institutional care to a system offering greater choices that include home-based services."
The grants will allow states to move more than 14,000 people into community settings, according to CMS's release.
The agency awarded grants to Delaware; Washington, D.C.; Georgia; Hawaii; Illinois; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; New Jersey; North Carolina; North Dakota; Oregon; Pennsylvania; and Virginia.
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