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Volume 13 Number 39 News: Medicaid CINCINNATI, OH—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has approved a new waiver program for Kentucky that will help people with acquired brain injuries avoid institutionalization, the state said Feb. 26. Scheduled to take effect later this year, the waiver program will allow Medicaid "to offer greater supports to [acquired brain injury or ABI] individuals so they can live at home after they have been through rehabilitation," Gov. Steve Beshear (D) said in a prepared announcement. In his biennial budget proposal, Beshear allocated $6.5 million to fund the program in fiscal year 2009, opening it up to 50 individuals, and $18.7 million in fiscal year 2010 in order to serve 150 additional Kentuckians. Federal matching funds would total nearly $60 million, the state estimates. Janie Miller, secretary of the state's Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the long-term care waiver program will help Kentucky spread its limited Medicaid resources further by allowing ABI patients to live at home or in group-care settings rather than nursing homes. The program will pay for nursing assistance, adult day care, and housekeeping services for persons aged 18 and older with who have reached a plateau in their rehabilitation and need maintenance help to live safely in the community, Miller said. "Medicaid must continue to find innovative, cost-effective solutions that allow us to maximize the range and quality of care available to those we serve," said Miller, noting the new waiver program will do that by creating additional capacity for ABI individuals to be served outside institutional settings. Within the state, acquired brain injuries occur at a rate of about 4,000 to 5,000 a year, caused chiefly by vehicle and motorcycle accidents, according to the Brain Injury Association of Kentucky.
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