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Community consortium project

Published (5/9/2008)
By Patty Ostberg
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A demonstration project that would allow three community consortiums serving older adults to pool health care funds for long-term care purposes was passed 132-0 by the House May 1.

Sponsored by Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL-Mpls), HF3955 would allow the human services, health and housing finance commissioners to develop a three-year demonstration project by July 1, 2009.

The bill was passed by the full Senate May 8. Sen. Tony Lourey (DFL-Kerrick) is the Senate sponsor.

The consortiums would create a joint decision-making process with a goal to pool funds and provide flexibility in the distribution of health care money. An evaluation report would be due to the Legislature by Jan. 15, 2013, on the project’s performance.

Each project would be designed to:

• ensure consumer access to a continuum of older care services;

• create an adequate supply of affordable home-based alternatives to care for those in nursing facilities, or those needing a facility in the future;

• establish and achieve measurable performance targets for care delivery; and

• support management of chronic and complex conditions through greater coordination of all services needed by older adults.

Consortiums would be given priority for technology-related grants, projects designed to create or preserve affordable housing options for older adults and transportation-related funds to create transportation options for older adults.

Funding would come, in part, from appropriations to the nursing home moratorium exceptions process for the biennium ending June 30, 2011. According to a Department of Finance fiscal note, the Legislature appropriated $3 million for nursing home moratorium projects during the 2008-09 biennium. The health commissioner could reserve 10 percent of these funds for project distribution.

A successful amendment by Rep. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) would create a community-based consortium to analyze waiver program practices and make recommendations for improvements to the counties and health commissioner.

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