The Florida Alzheimer's Disease Medicaid Waiver Program: An Evaluation of Alzheimer's Beneficiaries Prior to Program Initiation

Publication Date: 6/1/2005

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Description:

Alzheimer's disease affl icts over 4.5 million persons in the United States, and almost half a million Floridians. In response to the social, medical and fi scal challenges posed by the disease, Florida has initiated a new waiver program, the Florida Medicaid Alzheimer's Home and Community-Based Waiver Program. Th e four counties that comprise the site of the waiver program are those that historically have demonstrated the highest number of deaths due to Alzheimer's disease: Dade, Palm Beach, Broward and Pinellas.

As a means of establishing the characteristics of Medicaid benefi ciaries with Alzheimer's disease during a time prior to the implementation of the new waiver program, two sets of investigations were conducted. Th e fi rst looked at some general questions about the socio-demographic and health characteristics of benefi ciaries with Alzheimer's disease, their patterns of service utilization and associated costs, and variations by racial/ethnic group membership. Th e second investigation looked specifi cally at medications used by benefi ciaries with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and was based on a slightly diff erent sampling approach.