Charles Milligan participated in a meeting for congressional and federal staff hosted by the National Health Policy Forum on October 29, 2010, in Washington, D.C. This meeting, the seventh of the Focus on Reform series providing an in-depth look at various components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and related implementation and operational issues, was entitled Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Provisions in PPACA. The session provided an overview of the Medicaid LTSS provisions enacted as part of the ACA, including the Community First Choice and Section 1915(i) state plan options; and the balancing incentive payments (BIP) and Money Follows the Person (MFP) programs, among others. Speakers described the provisions; strategies being employed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to assist states implement the various options, and opportunities and challenges facing states in implementation of the provisions. In his presentation, Milligan discussed the growth in Medicaid expenditures for LTSS; presented the results of a Hilltop study of Medicare/Medicaid cross-payer effects that found that Medicare and Medicaid financing do not align to promote home and community-based services (HCBS); described state and federal opportunities and barriers; and forecasted the take-up of LTSS options in the ACA.
Charles Milligan participated in a meeting for congressional and federal staff hosted by the National Health Policy Forum on October 29, 2010, in Washington, D.C. This meeting, the seventh of the Focus on Reform series providing an in-depth look at various components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and related implementation and operational issues, was entitled Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Provisions in PPACA. The session provided an overview of the Medicaid LTSS provisions enacted as part of the ACA, including the Community First Choice and Section 1915(i) state plan options; and the balancing incentive payments (BIP) and Money Follows the Person (MFP) programs, among others. Speakers described the provisions; strategies being employed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to assist states implement the various options, and opportunities and challenges facing states in implementation of the provisions.
In his presentation, Milligan discussed the growth in Medicaid expenditures for LTSS; presented the results of a Hilltop study of Medicare/Medicaid cross-payer effects that found that Medicare and Medicaid financing do not align to promote home and community-based services (HCBS); described state and federal opportunities and barriers; and forecasted the take-up of LTSS options in the ACA.
Charles Milligan was one of three experts who spoke at the UMBC Public Policy Forum entitled Health Care Reform: What Will It Mean to Maryland?, held October 22, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland. In his presentation, entitled What Federal Health Care Reform Legislation Means to States, Milligan gave an overview of the new federal health reform legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and discussed its implications for states regarding Medicaid; exchanges; insurance-related issues; information technology; long-term services and supports; workforce issues; and preventive services and public health.
With the growing role of home and community-based services (HCBS) in Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS), it is important to have a clear understanding of the different characteristics of the population transitioning from institutional care to HCBS, the trends occurring in LTSS over time, and the effect of the different programs. This resulted in Hilltop developing a series of metrics that were first presented to the Maryland Money Follows the Person (MFP) Stakeholder Advisory Group and are now available here in the form of chart books. These metrics can be tailored for any state to guide program development, explore other aspects of its LTSS system (such as opportunities for cost savings and program efficiency), and target populations for outreach efforts. This chart book discusses the first set of metrics, which focuses on institutional utilization and transitions.
Also in this series are: The Institutional Characteristics of Transitioned Individuals, The Service Use and Cost of Transitioned Individuals, The Quality of Life Survey Responses, and a Summary.
Charles Milligan gave this presentation at the closing general session of the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Medicaid Conference on September 16, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The session addressed issues surrounding coordination of coverage and seamless integration of benefits for dually eligible individuals. Milligan’s presentation painted a portrait of dual eligibles, using Maryland as an example; gave an overview of cross-payer effects for dual eligibles and of Hilltop’s research on cross-payer effects for dual eligibles in Maryland; and discussed the study’s findings and policy implications.
This report describes the services The Hilltop Institute provided to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) under the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between Hilltop and DHMH. The report covers state fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010). Hilltop’s interdisciplinary staff provided a wide range of services, including: Medicaid program development and policy analysis; HealthChoice program support, evaluation, and monitoring; behavioral health and dental care analyses; long-term services and supports program development and policy analysis; Medicaid rate setting payment development and financial monitoring; and data management and web-accessible database development.
Charles Milligan presented the luncheon keynote address at the second State Health Access Program (SHAP) All Grantee meeting on July 26, 2010, in Arlington, VA. Milligan’s keynote focused on state opportunities and major decisions related to federal health reform and offered suggestions for the role that SHAP grantees could play in their respective states.
Charles Milligan participated in a roundtable at the 2010 AcademyHealth Research Meeting on June 28, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts. His presentation gave an overview of Hilltop’s research on cross-payer effects for dual eligibles in Maryland, provided the results of the study, and discussed some implications for policy.
Harriet L. Komisar participated in a meeting for congressional and federal staff hosted by the National Health Policy Forum on June 18, 2010. This meeting, the third of the Focus on Reform series providing an in-depth look at various components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and related implementation and operational issues, was entitled <i>Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) and the CLASS Act</i>. Komisar’s presentation discussed financing sources for LTSS.
This presentation, given by Cynthia H. Woodcock at the National Medicaid Congress pre-conference symposium entitled Managing Current and New Dual Eligibles on June 7, 2010, discussed system coordination issues for dual eligibles in Maryland long-term care settings from a fiscal and service perspective and presented the opportunity for a coordinated care program. It also described New Mexico’s Coordination of Long-Term Services (CoLTS) program, which Hilltop helped New Mexico develop, and discussed whether coordinated long-term care was more efficient.
