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HHS
Announces $36 Million to Help Older
Americans and Veterans Remain Independent...Grants
include first-time collaboration with VA to
support America’s veterans
The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) today announced $36 million
in new grant programs to 28 states to help
older Americans and veterans remain
independent and to support people with
Alzheimer’s disease to remain in their homes
and communities.
Just over $19 million of this funding
involves a new collaboration with the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and VA Secretary
James Peake, M.D., announced the joint
effort to provide essential
consumer-directed home and community-based
services to older Americans and veterans of
all ages, as part of a Nursing Home
Diversion (NHD) grants program.
The new initiative builds on the similar
missions of HHS and the VA with regard to
caring for the populations they serve.
In addition, Secretary Leavitt announced a
$17 million investment to improve the
delivery of home and community-based
services to people with Alzheimer’s disease
and their family caregivers.
In announcing the collaboration, Secretary
Leavitt said, “This historic HHS-VA
initiative combines the expertise of the HHS’
national network of aging services providers
with the resources of the Veterans Health
Administration to provide more people,
including our nation’s veterans, with
improved long-term care options.
"This
unique effort supports the President’s New
Freedom Initiative which calls upon all
federal agencies to help people who need
long-term care and prefer to live in their
own homes and communities to do so. Through
this joint program, many people who would
have previously been placed in nursing homes
will be able to remain at home.”
“Our mission is to honor and support
America’s veterans, and this collaboration
provides an additional opportunity to do
that by offering more services, choices and
control over decisions to veterans in the
least restrictive environment consistent
with their needs and preferences,” Secretary
Peake said.
The new program will be administered by HHS’
Administration on Aging (AoA) in
collaboration with the Veterans Health
Administration.
Under the program, $10.5 million is being
provided by HHS through AoA, and $5.7
million by the states. VA estimates
purchasing at least $3 million in
veteran-directed home and community-based
services for older veterans and for recently
returned veterans with long-term care needs.
The number of veterans over age 85 has
tripled during the past decade, creating a
significant expansion in the need for long
term care.
“The HHS funding is specifically designed to
reach people who are not eligible for
Medicaid, but who are at high risk of
nursing home placement and spend-down to
Medicaid -which often occurs when private
pay individuals enter a nursing home,” said
Assistant Secretary for Aging Josefina G.
Carbonell.
“The program will also offer consumers more
control over their long-term care, including
the ability to determine the types of
services they receive and the manner in
which they receive them, including the
option of hiring their own care workers.”
The $17 million for individuals with
Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers
involves grants to 22 states under AoA’s
Alzheimer’s disease demonstration programs.
States
were able to apply for two types of grants:
Innovation Grants and Evidence-Based Program
Grants. Innovation Grants will demonstrate
new approaches to delivering services and
supports, and the Evidence-Based Grants will
support the replication of science-based
interventions that have already proven to be
effective at helping people with Alzheimer's
Disease and Related Disorders to continue to
live in the community.
Funding for the Nursing Home Diversion
grants program for 2008 is as follows:
State
Federal Share
State Share
Project Total
Arkansas*
$569,437
$188,539
$757,976
Connecticut*
$649,398
$216,692
$866,090
Florida*
$927,710
$307,163
$1,234,873
Georgia
$590,755
$704,259
$1,295,014
Louisiana
$927,710
$311,080
$1,238,790
Massachusetts*
$885,165
$1,280,832
$2,165,997
Michigan*
$649,398
$741,880
$1,391,278
New Hampshire
$649,398
$216,466
$865,864
New Jersey*
$565,151
$191,963
$757,114
New York*
$927,710
$420,307
$1,348,017
Ohio
$610,265
$206,413
$816,678
Texas*
$923,708
$308,187
$1,231,895
Virginia*
$759,493
$314,436
$1,073,929
Washington*
$912,813
$302,370
$1,215,183
Grand Total
$10,548,111
$5,710,587
$16,258,698
In addition, the VA will be
awarding $3 million to the States marked
with an asterisk (*).
Alzheimer’s Disease
Demonstration Grants to States Awards for
2008:
