Welcome to Virginia’s Money Follows the Person Website!

Virginia is one of 31 states participating in a five-year, $1.75 billion Money Follows the Person ("MFP") Demonstration project designed to create a system of long-term services and supports that better enable individuals to transition from certain long-term care institutions into the community. This project supports Virginia's Olmstead initiative and complements the efforts of the recently awarded Systems Transformation Grant that aims to improve the infrastructure for community-based long-term supports. Virginia's MFP project, administered by the Department of Medical Assistance Services, will make over $28 million in federal Medicaid funds available to support Virginia's seniors and individuals with disabilities.

The "MFP" project is now underway. The "Operational Protocol" serves as Virginia's program manual or Guidebook for the project. This Guidebook has been approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. You can access the Guidebook here.

Virginia's MFP project permanently adds services and supports to select home and community-based Medicaid waivers. The following chart illustrates the waiver services added as a result of the MFP Demonstration Project:

*Please note that these services will only be available to MFP Participants as of July 1, 2009.

Transition services and transition coordination are new services.

• Transition services are for up-front household expenses for people moving from a provider-operated living arrangement to a private residence.
• Transition coordinators assist individuals in moving out of institutions.

Individuals who choose to participate in the MFP project may also be able to access:

• Supplemental funds for home modifications that exceed $5,000; and
• Temporary rental payments while home modifications are being completed.

Planning is underway for Consumer-Directed Supported Employment, which provides a consumer-directed option for individual supported employment services, to be added to the MR/ID, DD, and Day Support Waivers later.

To participate in the MFP project, you must:

• Have lived for at least six (6) consecutive months in a nursing facility, an intermediate care facility for individuals with mental retardation/intellectual disabilities, or a long-stay hospital licensed in Virginia, which can include periods of hospitalization;
• Be a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia;
• Be Medicaid eligible for at least one month at the time of discharge;
• Qualify for one of the five following waiver programs:
  • Elderly or Disabled with Consumer-Direction Waiver (EDCD)
  • Individual and Family Developmental Disabilities Support Waiver (DD)
  • HIV/Aids Waiver (AIDS)
  • Mental Retardation Waiver (MR)
  • Technology Assisted Wavier (TECH); and
• Move to a “qualified residence.”  A qualified residence is: 1) a home that you or your family member owns or leases; 2) an apartment with an individual lease, with lockable access and egress, that includes living, sleeping, bathing and cooking areas over which you or your family has domain and control; or 3) a residence in a community-based residential setting in which no more than four (4) unrelated individuals reside.

Please check this site frequently for updates!