Personal Injury Law

A Survey of Medical Brain Injury Programs

By Bruce Stern

The Center for State Health Policy, the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Rutgers University has recently published an issue brief, "A Survey of Medicaid Brain Injury Programs" by Leslie Hendrickson, Visiting Professor at Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, and Randall M. Blume of Blume Associates, LLC.

The paper addresses waivers targeted to individuals with a brain injury.  States that had such waivers were identified and contacted to obtain information about how the state decided to create a waiver program, what the eligibility requirements were to obtain services, what the services were, and other information.

In late 2007, the Center for State Health Policy surveyed 23 states that operate brain injury waivers.  Data was obtained about the cost and number of individuals served by these waivers for the waiver years 2002 through 2006.  Three states began waivers for individuals with brain injuries in 2002 or later, and three other states discontinued waivers in 2006.  Every state except Arizona has multiple Medicaid 1915(c) home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers.  Arizona operates its long-term care system as an 1115 Waiver.

Services provided under the brain injury waivers vary considerably from a single waiver service to extensive arrays of services.  The size of the waivers also varies from 19 individuals to over 3,600 individuals served in a year.

Full post as published by Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog on July 02, 2008 (boomark / email).