Support Money follows the Person

Please plan to attend and offer your support at a press conference to be held in the lower rotunda of our State Capitol in Charleston on Tuesday, September 5, 2006 at 1 p.m. to urge Governor Manchin and the WV Department of Health and Human Resources to act now and apply for federal funds to implement Money follows the Person in West Virginia.

Why West Virginia Should Apply For MFP

Currently the State of West Virginia spends 33.7 million dollars in its Medicaid long term care budget. Of that, only 37.4% is spent on home and community based services. The majority of the funds (62.6%) are spent in nursing homes and ICF/MR settings. Nursing home care costs an average of $46,800 per year. The average cost for an individual utilizing the A/D Waiver is around $12,100. Since the Olmstead decision in 1999, the Federal Government has been encouraging states to rebalance their systems to support people in cost effective ways and respect their rights. The MFP grant gives WV the opportunity to:

recognize the need to rebalance the Medicaid system and end the institutional bias in our state.
receive 90% of the funding to assist people to move back to their home communities.
establish a full time staff person to oversee the Money Follows the Person initiative.
provide the resources to support the implementation of the Olmstead plan that was signed on January 23, 2006.
apply for up to 5 million dollars for up to five years to support this effort.
assist between 100-500 people living in nursing homes who have said they want to go back to their OWN home.
provide the critical information needed to redesign the system so all people who wish to live and work in their communities can do so.

This grant would also provide a starting point and detailed information for the WV Legislature as they move toward passage of a Money Follows the Person bill. For more information on Money Follows the Person, view a fact sheet on this Web site.

For more information on this press conference, please email Scott Miller.

Mountain State Centers for Independent Living is providing transportation to this press conference. If you live in Cabell County, please call MTSTCIL in Huntington at 304-525-3324 to register for transportation. If you live in Raleigh County, please call MTSTCIL in Beckley at 304-255-0122 to register for transportation.