The Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program, established by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and extended by the Affordable Care Act, made nearly $4 billion in funding available to states to strengthen their ability to provide home and community-based services. Over the first eight years of the program, 44 states and the District of Columbia transitioned over 63,000 Medicaid beneficiaries from institutional settings back to their communities. While the final awards were made in 2016, states have until 2018 to enroll beneficiaries in the program, and until 2020 to claim the costs they incur from transitioning those beneficiaries.
This presentation reviews the evidence to date about the demonstration’s performance, and suggests policy issues for the Commission to consider if Commissioners decide to comment on the U.S. Department Health and Human Services’ forthcoming evaluation of MFP.