Money Follows the Person: how it works

Money Follows the Person (MFP) is a federal Medicaid program that helps people who live in a nursing home or other institution move back to a home or community setting, with long-term services paid for at home. States apply for it; people ask their state.

Last verified October 22, 2026 against the statute text and Medicaid.gov pages listed in the cite box.

What Money Follows the Person is

Congress created the MFP Rebalancing Demonstration in section 6071 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The statute says its aim is to “increase the use of home and community-based, rather than institutional, long-term care services” and to remove barriers that keep Medicaid money from following a person into the setting they choose. Medicaid.gov describes it as a demonstration that supports state strategies to rebalance their long-term services and supports systems.

It is run by states under a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). It is not a separate benefit you apply for from the federal government, and it does not replace your state's Medicaid rules.

Who qualifies

The statute defines an “eligible individual.” In plain terms, all of these must be true right before the person starts the program:

1. Lives in an inpatient facility — a hospital, a nursing facility or an intermediate care facility, and in some cases an institution for mental diseases — for at least 60 days. The 2020 appropriations law (Pub. L. 116-260, sec. 204) changed the earlier 90 days to 60.
2. Gets Medicaid benefits for the inpatient services the facility provides.
3. Needs that level of care without home and community-based services, as determined under the state's process.
4. Moves to a qualified residence on the first day of participation.

The statute defines a qualified residence as one of three things: (A) a home owned or leased by the person or a family member; (B) an apartment with an individual lease, lockable access, and living, sleeping, bathing and cooking areas the person or family controls; or (C) a residence in a community-based setting where no more than 4 unrelated people live. States add their own details, so check the state program.

How it is paid for

• CMS awards grants to states. For each quarter, the Secretary pays the state the “MFP-enhanced FMAP” (an enhanced federal Medicaid matching rate defined in the statute) of the state's qualified expenditures, up to the grant amount left.
• Qualified expenditures are the state's spending on home and community-based long-term care services for a participant during the 12-month period beginning on the day the person leaves the facility.
• Congress appropriated $450,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2027 (Pub. L. 117-328, sec. 5114). Unspent grant money not used by the end of the fourth following fiscal year is rescinded and added to the fifth year's appropriation.
• CMS reported that, as of December 1, 2020, it had obligated about $3.7 billion in grants to 45 grantee states and the District of Columbia, and that grantees had transitioned about 101,540 people as of December 31, 2019 (state-reported). These are older figures from the CMS table below, not current totals. Adding the cumulative award column in that table gives $3,680,593,949.

State participation

Medicaid.gov says that since the demonstration began, 45 states, the District of Columbia and two territories (American Samoa and Puerto Rico) have received funding. A separate Medicaid.gov page lists a project director for 41 jurisdictions today; those are the programs to contact. The table joins that 2026 list with the CMS award table from December 2020. A “No” does not mean a state has no way to help: it means the state is not on that contact page.

How to start

1. Find out whether your state is on the list above. If it is, open the Medicaid.gov State MFP Project Directors page and contact your state's MFP office.
2. Ask the facility's social worker or discharge planner whether they work with the state MFP or transition program.
3. Call your local Area Agency on Aging or Aging and Disability Resource Center. How to find yours.
4. Ask what the state calls its program, whether you meet its 60-day rule and residence rules, and which home services would be covered after you move.

Method and limits

Statute text was read from the govinfo.gov versions of the three public laws on October 22, 2026. The jurisdiction list was read twice from the Medicaid.gov contact page, both reads gave the same 41 names. The award dates and totals are the CMS table as published, dated December 1, 2020; the code checked that it has 46 rows (45 states plus DC) and joined it to the 2026 list by name (39 names are in both). We left out contact names and emails; use the Medicaid.gov page. Benefit details differ by state and change, so verify with the state.

Cite this page

The Retirement Literacy Foundation is a nonprofit and sells nothing here. Programs and rules change; confirm details with the agency named on the linked page. This page is general education, not legal or medical advice.