About one of five Medicare beneficiaries has serious physical or cognitive limitations that require personal care services and supports, like bathing and meal prep, on a long-term basis. Only low-income beneficiaries eligible for Medicaid, however, can get coverage for these services. In a Commonwealth Fund report, Karen Davis of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues explore what it could mean to offer a Medicare benefit for home- and community-based services by examining Maryland’s experience with Community First Choice, a new Medicaid benefit option that allows states to cover expenses for personal care.
