Short answer: STAR+PLUS is the Texas Medicaid managed care program for adults 65 and older and adults with disabilities. It covers regular health care plus long-term services and supports, and it is how most adult nursing home residents on Medicaid receive their Medicaid benefits.
To be in STAR+PLUS, a person must be approved for Medicaid and fit a group such as: age 21 or older and getting SSI; needing STAR+PLUS Home and Community Based Services; age 21 or older in a nursing home and receiving Medicaid there; or in the Medicaid for Breast and Cervical Cancer program.
Members choose a health plan in their service area. Benefits include doctor and hospital care, drugs, and long-term services and supports such as personal assistance services, Day Activity and Health Services, emergency response and Community First Choice.
Every member gets a service coordinator, who must visit within 30 days of enrollment and at least once a year.
Medicare: a person with both Medicare and Medicaid can be in STAR+PLUS and keeps getting regular health care from their Medicare doctors; STAR+PLUS does not change how Medicare works. People who get only Medicare Savings Program help (QMB, SLMB, QDWI) are not in STAR+PLUS.