In October of 2005, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals was awarded a five year Real Choice Systems Transformation Grant in the amount of $3.2 million.  Out of the 36 applications submitted to Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Louisiana's application ranked second.

CMS required that the first nine months of the grant be used as the Strategic Planning Phase of the grant.   In July 2006, CMS approved Louisiana’s Strategic Plan for implementing the Systems Transformation Grant.  

The 3 grant goal areas chosen by stakeholders are of utmost importance to the long-term care reforms called for by Governor Blanco through her Health Care Reform initiative.  The selected goal areas are:   Long-term supports coordinated with affordable and accessible housing (Housing), Comprehensive Quality Management System (QM), and Transformation of Information  Technology to Support Systems Change (IT) .

  

Housing Objectives Increase the capacity of affordable and accessible housing Improve the coordination of long-term supports within affordable housing Increase access to affordable housing with long-term supports

 

Quality Management (QM) Objectives Develop and implement comprehensive quality management system Develop and disseminate QM data and reports to stakeholders Periodically re-evaluate QM strategy

 

Information Technology (IT) Objectives Design IT applications to support individual-centered practices and processes Improve client access to services Monitor quality of services rendered