Home and Community-Based Services

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Supporting person-centered programs that enable older adults and people with disabilities to live in their communities

Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) enable older adults or people with disabilities of any age to remain in their homes or communities. HCBS may be provided 1:1—for example, by a home care aide—or delivered in a group setting, such as congregate meals, adult day services centers, and residential care.

What is the goal of HCBS?

All HCBS have the underlying goal of supporting person-centeredness and enabling people to live independently as they wish, rather than defaulting to facility settings for care. We partner with numerous federal, state, and private entities to design, implement, and evaluate HCBS programming designed to provide the supports needed for individuals to meet their care goals.

Barriers to HCBS Implementation

Despite increased interest and support for HCBS, many challenges remain, including:

HCBS workforce shortages
Service access issues by geography and recipient population
Lack of support for informal caregivers
Challenges with HCBS quality measurement
The impact of COVID-19 on HCBS
Conflicting Medicare and Medicaid policies regarding coverage for HCBS
Limited access to grant-funded and non-medical HCBS
Growing need for condition-specific HCBS, including Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Administration for Community Living (ACL), and other federal clients are focusing on HCBS expansion and improvement as a way of reducing health care costs, while providing a more person-centered approach to care. Increasingly, health coverage has been expanding to include non-medical HCBS, such as through Medicare Advantage Plans and via Medicaid waivers, to support the matrix of structural and social needs that may affect health. Moving into HCBS quality measurement also has been a new growth area, as defining quality for such a diverse array of services can prove challenging.

How RTI is Addressing Innovative Approaches to HCBS

RTI’s experts in health policy, aging, disabilities, and care models are uniquely positioned to understand and address these challenges by leveraging decades of experience evaluating the facilitators and barriers of innovative approaches to HCBS. Key areas of RTI research include:

Developing critical assessments of HCBS payment, including Medicaid (e.g., Section 1915 (c) and Section 1115 waiver programs, Katie Becket waivers, and state plan services)
Supporting the design of and assessing quality measures for an array of health services, including HCBS
Implementing home-based primary care, integrated care/care coordination, and care delivered via CMS alternative payment models
Exploring Medicare Advantage plans and other means of providing HCBS for various communities
Conducting surveys, literature reviews, and needs assessments for ACL-administered grant programs that provide HCBS for older adults and people with disabilities
Sharing our deep knowledge of Nuanced HCBS models delivered outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (e.g., programs for home modification through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) through publications and presentations

Learn more about how RTI is supporting HCBS access for older adults and people with disabilities.