Policy Research Shop Testimony: May 23, 2012

PRS Students Testify Before the Grafton County Nursing Home Administrator Craig Labore

On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, three Dartmouth students, Natalia Agredo ’14, Michael Sanchez ’13, and Will Bishop ’12, from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center Policy Research Shop, traveled to North Haverhill, NH, to present before the Grafton Country Nursing Home Administrator Craig Labore and members of his senior staff. In the context of a recent state-level shift from providing long-term care through nursing homes to providing the same care through a home- and community-based service system (HCBS), the students presented their research on how to make HCBS cost-effective.

In addition to providing an overview of the system and its funding mechanisms, the team described three state-level case studies and three nationwide statistical studies to assess cost savings (if any) and best practices associated with transitioning to HCBS. The students found that while recent studies show cost neutrality or even increase associated with HCBS, on average, programs like the Arkansas Community Connector program that selectively identify patients eligible for Medicaid who would benefit from HCBS may allow Grafton County, or the state as a whole, to avoid becoming part of this negative statistic. After the presentation the team answered questions from the audience and engaged in a conversation with Administrator Labore.