Medicaid and LTC Coverage

Gene Coffey (staff attorney at the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Washington, D.C.) has recently published his article entitled Narrowing Medicaid’s LTC Coverage? The Implications of the DRA’s Home and Community-based Care Benefit, 9 Marq. Elder’s Advisor 131-153 (2007).

Here is an excerpt from this article:

The purpose of this article is to examine the new HCBS option and its potential to narrow NF care entitlement, to consider the new option in the context of state efforts to modify clinical eligibility standards, and to identify how far states may go in making standards more stringent. Ultimately, it is entirely up to states to decide whether they will use the new option to expand or contract coverage. Fortunately, the first state to implement the HCBS option has chosen to use it to expand coverage. Still, because of recent efforts by other states to reduce enrollment by narrowing the NF clinical standard, and because of pressure states may feel to identify ways to reduce their LTC obligations, do not lightly dismiss the possibility that a state may attempt to restrict coverage by using the HCBS option. It is therefore important to identify the limitations of the states’ ability to do so.