Long-Term Care: Availability of Medicaid Home and Community Services for Elderly Individuals Varies Considerably

摘要

Persuant to a Congressional request, this Government Accounting Office (GAO) study provides information on: 1.the extent to which home and community-based services were available within selected states programs for Medicaid-covered longterm care services for the elderly; 2. the Medicaid-covered long-term care services that local case managers would offer for two hypothetical elderly individuals with disabilities based on the levels of unpaid informal care provided by family members; and 3. the extent to which care offered to the same hypothetical individual with the same level of informal support varied among the selected states. To answer these objectives, the GAO selected four geographically diverse states - Kansas, Louisiana, New York, and Oregon that varied in the extent of spending for Medicaid home and community-based services for individuals who are elderly and disabled. In each of these states, GAO researchers interviewed state Medicaid officials and reviewed information about home and community-based services covered by their Medicaid programs. Based on data the states reported on Medicaid expenditures to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for 1999, the most recent year for which data were available, GAO also estimated the amount each of these states spent on several categories of long-term care services for the elderly.