The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new fact sheet with 10 things to know about LTSS, some notable findings: the US spent over 400 billion dollars on LTSS in 2020 which accounted for nearly 10% of all national health care expenditures. Medicaid paid 54% of the over $400 billion spent on LTSS in the U.S., people paid an additional 13% out-of-pocket, private insurance paid 8%, and other public and private payers paid the remaining 26%. Home and community-based services (HCBS) include residential care facilities, Medicaid home health services, and Medicaid HCBS waiver services. Spending on those services was $245 billion and the remaining $157 billion was spent on institutional LTSS such as nursing facility care. More than half of LTSS spending was on HCBS services though there is huge variation from state to state. For example, 4 states – MN, AZ, OR, and NM – spent over 75% of their Medicaid LTSS on HCBS while 18 states are under 50%. The full brief with more insights can be found here.
