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NAMD/SHVS Hold Workshop on Person-Centered LTSS
May 2015
In May, the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) brought together seven states
in a workshop to explore effective practices and approaches to encourage person-centered longterm services and supports (LTSS), with a particular emphasis on supporting these states’
efforts to balance their LTSS delivery systems towards home and community-based services
(HCBS). The seven states brought a diverse set of experts, including senior staff from their
Medicaid agencies, intellectual and developmental disabilities agencies, and agencies on aging.
The teams engaged in robust discussion of real-world tools and approaches around this topic.
The workshop was conducted with financial support from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation’s State Health and Value Strategies (SHVS) program.
During the two-and-a-half day workshop, participants discussed their states’ unique
approaches for encouraging person-centered LTSS, including the myriad challenges that arose
during planning and implementation and the issues raised by CMS’s final HCBS rule
requirements. Many of the participating states are utilizing or plan to transition to managed
care models to support their rebalancing efforts, though others rely on carefully managed feefor-service to ensure persons in need of LTSS are receiving high-quality services in settings of
their choosing. State discussants shared best practices, strategies, and lessons learned from
current efforts, and received vital feedback from experts and colleagues on their next steps in
efforts to promote person-centered programming.
Conversation between the states focused on a number of issue areas, including:
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Crafting a statewide vision of person-centeredness, applicable across all state agencies
working with the vulnerable populations in need of LTSS.
Quality measurement frameworks and issues in LTSS, including methods for linking
quality measurement to individualized service plans and the challenges in bridging the
gap between LTSS measures and clinical measures.
Ensuring provider preparedness for state HCBS initiatives and building up capacity
among community service providers to support more robust HCBS delivery.
This product was prepared with support provided through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s
program State Health and Value Strategies.
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Conducting effective consumer outreach, including methods for conducting rigorous
stakeholder input processes as required by the HCBS rule.
Factors to consider in crafting reimbursement methodologies to incentivize HCBS.
The workshop also featured an update from CMS on its HCBS work, including its ongoing
review of submitted statewide transition plans under the HCBS rule and its plans for technical
assistance under the Innovation Accelerator Program’s planned community integration
component.
NAMD and SHVS plan to hold a series of follow-up calls and webinars to continue the
conversations started at this workshop. These state-to-state knowledge-sharing opportunities
will be available to both workshop participants and any other interested states, and are planned
to begin in late June.
For more information about NAMD’s work on person-centered LTSS and HCBS issues, please
contact Jack Rollins at jack.rollins@medicaiddirectors.org or 202-403-8628.
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