Analysis of Channeling Project Costs

This report examines a small but key aspect of Channeling — the costs of operating the demonstration itself. The ten sites incurred costs of $23 million as they prepared for and later provided case management and long-term care services to clients between September 1980 and June 1984. In addition to the project costs, the states spent $2.8 million and the technical assistance contractor spent $1.6 million between September 1980 and June 1984. During the period studied, the Basic Case Management Model sites enrolled 3,300 clients; the Financial Control Model sites enrolled 3,900 clients. Over 51,000 ongoing case-months of service were provided by the ten sites. These cost estimates correspond to the demonstration as fielded and therefore reflect the small scale extra administrative and research costs that are part of a demonstration. Based on the available literature, the estimated average costs for Channeling are comparable with those of other demonstrations. [107 PDF pages]