Final findings from the national evaluation of Systems Transformation Grants: How states' community long-term support service delivery systems have changed

Between FY2005 and FY2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded Systems Transformation (ST) Grants to 18 states to support states' efforts to transform their infrastructure to promote more coordinated and integrated long-term care and support systems that serve individuals with disabilities of all ages.

With ST Grantees' five-year grant periods completed, this presentation will highlight the final results of a national evaluation. Building on interim findings from the mid-point evaluation, these findings reveal:

• The ability of grantees to maintain progress with completing their objectives and spending grant funds close to the rate of time elapsed in the grant period; • The degree to which endogenous factors, such as integration with other grants, positively influenced implementation throughout the grant period while other factors, such as lack of enduring leadership, consistently challenged grant progress; • The circumstances under which grantees withdrew certain strategies during the second half of their grant period, while continuing to implement others; • The extent to which stages of state transformation varied across the goal areas being targeted by the grant – and why some goals (i.e., improving access to long-term supports, increasing choice and control, and developing comprehensive quality management systems) developed more than others by the end of the grant.

The presentation will feature a series of tools used to conduct the national evaluation and how those tools facilitated linkages to grantee-specific efforts and their local evaluations. The session will conclude with an open discussion of lessons learned for grantees and funders.