News
Bill to expand ‘Money Follows the Person’ program
By Governor Rell's office
Jun 16, 2008 - 12:43:03 PM

Governor M. Jodi Rell today signed into law Senate Bill 561, An Act Concerning the Money Follows the Person Project and Other Long-Term Care Initiatives, legislation that expands a popular program encouraging community and home-based alternatives to long-term care in nursing homes.

“This legislation has been called ‘MFP2’ because it builds on the landmark ‘Money Follows the Person’ initiative,” Governor Rell said. “That program is enabling about 700 people to move out of nursing homes or other institutional settings and into less-restrictive, community-based settings in the next five years. This program has generated real enthusiasm, and MFP2 will be moving even further to achieve these goals by establishing similar home- and community-based services project for adults who may not meet the MFP nursing home requirement.

“In many ways, ‘MFP2’ builds on two decades of work in Connecticut to rebalance our reliance on institutional services in favor of community based services and housing supports,” the Governor said. “The first use of home- and community-based services in our state occurred 20 years ago, when two home care waivers were approved by Medicaid. Participants in those early programs were – for the first time – given a choice of where they received their services and support. This respects the desires of many people to live as independently and as close to their ‘home’ as possible.”

Under the bill signed today, the state plans to increase from 700 to 5,000 the number of individuals who can be served under the state’s MFP demonstration program.

“While it will take us some time to get there, this is nevertheless an important policy goal. This is what it takes to continue our goal of rebalancing the system,” Governor Rell said.

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