Research Design Report for the Evaluation of the Money Follows the Person (MFP) Grant Program.

摘要

The Money Follows the Person (MFP) program is a combination of two programs: (1) a transition program to enable long-term institutional residents to move back to the community, and (2) a rebalancing initiative in which states use enhanced matching funds generated by these transitions to improve the long-term care systems and options for beneficiaries who need longterm care assistance and wish to remain in the community. The evaluation of the MFP is designed to assess the effects of both program components. Each state designs both components to fit state-specific goals. For the transition program, states determine which populations to target, how they will inform eligibles about the MFP program option and identify enrollees who wish to transition, the number of beneficiaries they expect to transition, the types and amount of enhanced home- and community-based services (HCBS) and other benefits that will be available to MFP participants, and how they will assure that MFP participants are safe and receive appropriate care. Some states may need to institute system changes prior to implementing the MFP program, such as amending a waiver program to create more waiver capacity or alter budget authority so that funds previously used for institutional care more easily flow to community care when someone transitions. States will be assessed in part by their success in meeting their targeted number of transitions, and by the aggressiveness of the target compared to pre-MFP transition rates. Once living in the community, each MFP participant receives HCBS according to his or her needs, and for many of these services (the qualified HCBS and the demonstration services) the states will receive an enhanced federal match (known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage or FMAP). States are required to reinvest the enhanced FMAP funds in their longterm care system, so they must determine how these funds will be used and have their plans approved by CMS before implementation.