Projects
Below is a list of the RTC's active projects in the area of residential support/medicaid. For more information, see the contact person(s) for each project.

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RTC staff will work with the Lewin Group to deliver technical assistance to the 10 grantees who received direct support workforce systems change grants from CMS. The project will include activities such as RTC staff participating in an orientation training event at CMS, participating in an annual systems change conference at CMS and the delivery of telephone, e-mail and written technical assistance activities to the 10 DSW grantees.

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This study will provide ongoing evaluation from consumers and will develop programs and products to promote the ideals and support informed decision making in a multi-agency consumer-controlled housing initiative.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, regulation, and certification directly and indirectly affects the majority of the long-term care workforce. During FY2003, CMS took on a more prominent leadership role in addressing community-based long-term care workforce shortages through the solicitation of 7 to 10 Direct Service Community Workforce Demonstration projects. The Lewin Group, Institute for the Future of Aging Services (LFAS) and The Center on Community Living/Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota are performing an “Evaluation of Contract Demonstration to Improve the Direct Service Community Workforce.” This project requires a qualitative assessment of implementation readiness and progress to identify and describe Promising Practices, technical assistance to grantees on local evaluation designs, and the development of a quantitative evaluation design to assess demonstration program effectiveness.

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For over 20 years, the National Residential Information Systems Project has been collecting and disseminating annually, national and state statistics on public and private residential services, Medicaid program utilization, expenditures, etc.

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Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) is the primary national program to support long-term care for persons with ID/DD. Amidst its rapid growth a recent General Accounting Office report noted reason for national concern about the quality of quality assurance (QA) in community services and what should be expected of system defining in community services. This project will gather and analyze survey, interview, document and focus group data about current systems of states and the federal regions for monitoring, expecting and promoting quality as part of a Participatory Action Research study by the Developmental Disabilities Quality Consortium (8 national ID/DD organizations) evaluate, and offer and advocate for policy and program guidelines for community quality assurance.

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This study will gather data in two surveys, in 2004 and 2006, on family support services in the 50 states and D.C. Data analyzed will include revenue, spending, and participant data for cash subsidy payments directly to families, and other family supports including respite care, in-home supports, counseling and other services. Data analysis and dissemination activities will address family support spending and numbers of families served in the past decade, family support spending in comparison to total ID/DD long-term care spending, and the level of Medicaid HCBS support for family support services in each state and the US.

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This project integrates Medicaid HCBS (“waiver”), ICF/MR, and Nursing Facility data collection and national data systems of the RTC/CL Minnesota and Colorado programs to maintain a national and state-by-state program of current information on status and trends in Medicaid and related programs that finance and support access to community services. (Activities in this area are co-sponsored by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities and by the Universities of Minnesota and Colorado.)

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The National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS), in conjunction with the Research and Training Center, Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota is developing an emergency preparedness self-assessment instrument for state developmental disabilities agencies. The new self-assessment tool is being constructed to assist member state agency officials evaluate the extent to which their existing preparedness plans are able to address the unique characteristics of individuals receiving support through publicly funded developmental disabilities programs.

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The Minnesota State Legislature convened a committee, the Quality Assurance Panel, to study the efficacy of establishing regional quality assurance and improvement models in Minnesota. The Department of Human Services asked the Research and Training Center (RTC) on Community Living and the Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) to provide assistance to the Panel. The Quality Assurance Panel recommended that Minnesota establish a State Quality Commission to provide leadership on quality improvement activities and review quality outcomes at the state level, Regional Quality Councils to review quality outcomes at a regional level and to identify and implement initiatives to improve those outcomes. The QA Panel also recommended that Minnesota conduct an annual independent statewide sample of service recipients, an outcome-based quality assessment program, and an updated effective program of incident reporting, investigation and analysis.

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