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Five new reports from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured tackle certain long-term care issues – such as asset transfers — that influenced the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

One report, “Asset Transfer and Nursing Home Use: Empirical Evidence and Policy Significance,” found that for people becoming Medicaid eligible at the time of nursing home admission, 50% had asset transfers of less than $5,000. Also, only 13% of people who had become Medicaid eligible at admission transferred more than $50,000. Also, over the six-year period examined, when applying the DRA asset transfer rules, authors determined that federal savings to Medicaid could amount to $1.87 billion.

Three other reports focus on the challenges and efforts of moving towards more home and community-based Medicaid long-term care services. A fifth report, “Medicaid Long-Term Services Reforms in the Deficit Reduction Act,” provides an overview of the changes to the rules and direction of Medicaid long-term care services as enacted in the act.

For more information, go to http://www.kff.org/medicaid/kcmu041706pkg.cfm.