Home Health & Hospice Week

Americans' desire to stay at home and out of nursing homes is reflected in the boom in usage of waivers over the last decade. The General Accounting Office gathered these vital statistics for its recent report on Medicaid home and community-based waivers ("Medcaid:  Batten Down The Hatches For a Waiver Crackdown"): From 1991 to 2001, spending for HCBS waivers grew from 5 percent of Medicaid long-term care spending ($1.6 billion) to 19 percent of LTC spending ($14.4 billion). From 1992 to 2002, the number of waiver programs increased 70 percent to 263. Seventy-seven of the 263 served the elderly. From 1992 to 2002, the number of beneficiaries served by waivers tripled to 700,000. In 1999, 377,083 elderly beneficiaries were served by waivers - twice as many as in 1992. The state with the highest waiver spending per beneficiary in 1999: Hawaii ($15,065). The state with the lowest: New York ($1,208). The U.S. average waiver spending per beneficiary in 1999: $5,567.