The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced several weeks ago new Affordable Care Act initiatives aimed at keeping more chronically ill patients at home for care.

The Community First Choice program, increases the federal Medicaid funding match by 6 percentage points for states that provide home attendants and other forms of support to Medicaid enrollees who would otherwise need to be in a nursing home. The services provided by the states will help Medicaid enrollees accomplish “activities of daily living and health-related tasks,” according to the HHS.

To participate in the program, states must meet several requirements, such as designing the program benefits with input from stakeholders; developing a quality assurance process; and collecting data on the program for HHS oversight.