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Medicaid News

For Immediate Release: Contact:
Thursday, July 22, 2004 CMS Office of Public Affairs
202-690-6145

For questions about Medicare please call 1-800-MEDICARE or visit www.medicare.gov.

HHS APPROVES WEST VIRGINIA PLAN TO HELP ELDERLY AND DISABLED INDIVIDUALS REMAIN IN THEIR COMMUNITIES

CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., today approved a West Virginia plan to help elderly and disabled individuals remain in the community and out of institutions.

           

Approval of this home-and-community-based waiver program will provide elderly and disabled persons in certain public housing facilities with the opportunity to receive adult residential care services and allow them to “age in place” rather than be moved to a skilled nursing facility as their conditions deteriorate. 

 

“This West Virginia waiver furthers our goal of helping people live independently in their homes and communities, rather than entering institutions,” said Dr. McClellan.  “This plan will give even more West Virginians the kind of benefits they need to live fuller, more productive lives.”

 

Today’s announcement adds 150 individuals in each year of the waiver’s initial three-year term, and will provide services to persons who otherwise would require care in a nursing facility.   Individuals served under this waiver will receive a package of adult residential care services including personal care, homemaker, chore, attendant care, companion, medication oversight, therapeutic social and recreational programming, transportation, and periodic nursing evaluations. These are all services that would be provided in a licensed community care facility.  This waiver program will be pilot-tested in four areas in West Virginia:  Moundsville; Williamson; Wheeling; and Huntington. 

 

Medicaid is a state/federal matching program to provide health care services to certain low-income populations, primarily children, disabled adults and the elderly.  States and the federal government share the cost of the Medicaid program.

 

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