State Long-Term Care Reform: Development of Community Care Systems in Six States Final Report

This study examined the approaches used in six states (Arkansas, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Oregon and Wisconsin) to make their long-term care systems more responsive to the needs of older people. According to the study, each of the states was able to expand community-based care services without generating runaway costs in total long-term care spending. Experiences in these states also demonstrated that some aspects of community care systems can be tightly structured and uniform state-wide, without compromising the flexibility necessary for responding to individual service needs. Non-medical supportive services were also found to form the core of state long-term care programs. [167 PDF pages]