New Jersey Medicaid Long-Term Care

New Jersey calls its public Medicaid program NJ FamilyCare, administered by the Department of Human Services' Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (DMAHS). That includes coverage for aged, blind, and disabled residents, as well as anyone who needs long-term services and supports (New Jersey DMAHS; NJ FamilyCare overview).

For adults who need long-term care specifically, the program that matters is Managed Long Term Services and Supports, or MLTSS. Rather than running a separate fee-for-service nursing-home track, New Jersey delivers long-term services and supports directly through the NJ FamilyCare managed-care system (New Jersey MLTSS overview).

That means managed-care organizations — the health plans or HMOs already familiar to most Medicaid enrollees — are the ones coordinating everything MLTSS covers, whether that's care in a person's own home, an assisted-living residence, a community residential setting, or a nursing home. It's the same framework across all of those settings, which is why MLTSS shows up repeatedly whether you're reading about institutional care or home care in New Jersey (New Jersey MLTSS overview).