Subtitle E of this section says that it provides new options for states to provide Long-Term Services and Support. You know, in case your state is in to that kind of thing.
Section 2401 allows the states to pay for home care or a home-like community care place in situations where they might previously be required to send a person to a nursing home or hospital.
Section 2402 removes more barriers to providing this kind of option. Given what they are doing, the barriers seem to have a lot to do with a lack of coordination on the part of the various entities responsible for such care. Also, there were apparently rules about the level of benefits these people could receive, and for how long, and etc. So these are eliminated by this section.
Section 2403 is called “Money Follows the Person” reduces the waiting period for payment for people who have been admitted to long-term care.
Section 2404 protects these people from spousal impoverishment. It doesn’t actually describe what the process of spousal impoverishment is, but it will protect you from it if you are in a long-term home care situation being paid for by Medicaid.
Section 2405 gives $10,000,000 a year until 2014 to increase aging and disability resources in the states.
Section 2406 is another “Sense of the Senate” section. It says that even though we said as a country we should improve the way we handle elder care in this country, we didn’t. These provisions should help improve this possibility, mostly by not requiring that we shove our sick and old into institutions rather than trying to care for them in their homes and their communities.
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