title: Supplemental Security Income for the Aged, Blind and Disabled (SSI) program demonstration project; treatment of cash received and conserved to pay for medical or social services--SSA. Notice.
abstract: The Commissioner of Social Security will conduct a demonstration project to test how certain altered resources counting rules might apply in the SSI program. The SSI program is authorized by title XVI of the Social Security Act (the Act). The rules which will be tested are those that apply to the treatment of cash received and conserved to pay for medical or social services. Cash which is received for the purposes of payment for medical or social services is not counted as income to the beneficiary when received. If cash received for medical or social services which is not a reimbursement for these services already paid for by the beneficiary is conserved, it is not counted as a resource for the calendar month following the month of receipt, so long as it remains separately identifiable from other resources of the individual. Beginning with the second calendar month following the month of receipt, cash received for the payment of medical or social services becomes a countable resource used in the determination of SSI eligibility. The Health Care Financing Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is collaborating with the States of Arkansas, Florida, New Jersey and New York and with the National Program Office at the University of Maryland's Center on Aging, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the DHHS, the National Council on Aging and Mathematica Policy Research (the evaluator) on a demonstration project to provide greater autonomy to the consumers of personal assistance services. Personal assistance services are help with the basic activities of daily living, including bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, and eating, and/or instrumental activities of daily living such as housekeeping, meal preparation, shopping, laundry, money management and medication management. Consumers of personal assistance services who participate in this demonstration will be empowered by purchasing the services they require (including medical and social services) to perform the activities of daily living. In order to accomplish the objective of the demonstration project, cash allowances and information services will be provided directly to persons with disabilities to enable them to choose and purchase services from providers which they feel would best meet their needs. Medicaid is the predominant source of public financing for personal assistance services programs for the aged, blind and disabled. The demonstration which will permit the States of Arkansas, Florida, New Jersey and New York to waive certain requirements under title XIX of the Act to participate in this "Cash and Counseling" demonstration is within the authority granted to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) by section 1115 of the Act. Medicaid beneficiaries who participate in this demonstration will be given cash to purchase the services they need from traditional and nontraditional providers as they deem appropriate. Counseling will be available for these beneficiaries to assist them in effective use of funds allotted for personal assistance services. Many of the Medicaid beneficiaries who participate in the Cash and Counseling demonstration will be SSI beneficiaries or belong to coverage groups using eligibility methodologies related to those of the SSI program under title XIX of the Act. The Commissioner of Social Security wishes to test the appropriateness of current SSI rules which require counting cash received for the purchase of medical or social services as resources if retained for more than one month after the month of receipt. The test will also be used to assist the Secretary of HHS in testing the possibility of providing greater autonomy to the consumers of personal assistance services by empowering them to purchase the services they require (including medical and social services) to perform their activities of daily living. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003256:Community Participation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006077:Government Agencies; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012943:Social Security / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D013221:State Health Plans; D014481:United States