Money Follows the Person 2014 Annual Evaluation Report
Evidence | Publications

Money Follows the Person 2014 Annual Evaluation Report

Published: Dec 18, 2015
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Mathematica Policy Research
Health Disability Long-Term Services and Supports Medicaid and CHIP Advisory Services Research and Evaluation Technical Assistance Evaluation Design Policy Analysis
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Associated Project

Research and Evaluation of the Money Follows the Person (MFP) Demonstration Grants

Time frame: 2007-2017

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Authors

Carol V. Irvin

Noelle Denny-Brown

Alex Bohl

John Schurrer

Andrea Wysocki

Rebecca Coughlin

Susan R. Williams

Key Findings

Key Findings:

  • Cumulative MFP enrollment climbed to more than 51,000 transitions by the end of December 2104, a 27 percent growth over the total number at the same point in 2013.
  • The MFP demonstration was found to be associated with an increase in transition rates among younger adults residing in nursing homes but none of the other targeted populations. Furthermore, the analyses suggest that, by 2010, about 95 percent of MFP participants in this targeted population represented new transitions or transitions that would not have occurred if this demonstration had not been implemented. MFP also was associated with an improvement in post-transition outcomes for older adults transitioning from nursing homes.
  • MFP participants appear to receive more of their LTSS and post-acute care in community settings than others who transition, as shown by their greater expenditures for community-based LTSS and Medicare home health care. Conversely, MFP participants frequently have fewer expenditures for Medicare skilled nursing facility services and facility-based subacute care than others who transition to community living, although the difference is not always statistical significant.
  • Consistent with past research, our analyses show that participants experience increases across all seven domains of their quality of life after transitioning to the community, and the improvements are largely sustained two years post-transition. Among all seven domains of participants’ quality of life, participants experienced the highest levels of satisfaction with their living arrangements; nearly all participants (92 percent) reported liking where they lived one year after community living, which represents a 32 percentage point increase compared to when they were in institutional care.

The MFP demonstration program represents a major federal initiative to give people needing LTSS more choice about where they live and receive care, and to increase the capacity of state long-term care systems to serve people in community settings. Calendar year 2014 marked the eighth year of the national MFP demonstration.

This is the sixth annual report from the national evaluation of the MFP rebalancing demonstration. It presents four broad sets of analyses that report on the overall progress and effects of the MFP demonstration: (1) progress grantees are making on their statutory transition and expenditure goals, (2) the extent to which the MFP demonstration is associated with changes in transition rates from institutional care to community-based LTSS, (3) post-transition outcomes and whether the MFP demonstration is associated with these outcomes, and (4) a qualitative assessment of how the quality of life of MFP participants changes after the transition to community-based services. To the extent possible, the analyses cover the program from its inception through December 2014.

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