top of page

What is HCBS?

What is HCBS?

Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) are an array of long-term services and supports delivered in a person's home or community, rather than in an institutional setting, that help people live, work, and participate in the most integrated setting consistent with their needs and preferences. These services include, but are not limited to, personal care and assistance with activities of daily living, home health, homemaker and chore services, respite for family caregivers, adult day services, case management, non-medical transportation, home-delivered meals, home modifications, and durable medical equipment.

Why HCBS matters

When people can receive care at home, they keep more than their comfort — they keep their independence, their dignity, and their place in daily life. An elder can grow old among family. Someone recovering from a stroke or surgery can heal in familiar surroundings. A person with a disability can take part in community life on their own terms. And the family members who provide care are protected too — from burnout, from lost income, from having to choose between a job and a loved one. For many low-income families, HCBS can be the difference between receiving this support and going without it. This is why strengthening home- and community-based care matters for American Samoa: it helps our people live full lives, safely, close to the ones who love them.

Family Centered Planning

For many families here, serious illness or disability has meant a hard choice: leaving home to get care, or stretching an 'aiga thin to provide it — working multiple jobs, or risking job loss, to care for a loved one. When the support someone needs isn't available nearby, they may end up in a facility — sometimes off-island, far from the their family and natural support systems.

HCBS exists to widen that choice. Whenever it is safe and possible, people should be able to receive care in their own home and community. This is the meaning of the "most integrated setting" — the principle at the heart of the Olmstead decision and of Executive Order 13217, which directs governments to help people with disabilities live in their communities.  For American Samoa, this is not a new idea — it is already part of our way of being. It strengthens our relational bonds rather than straining them, and that closeness is itself a protective factor for the wellbeing of the person and the family alike. HCBS does not introduce this; it strengthens what our people already live.

HCBS_How_It_Works_Flow (1).png
HCBS_Gold_seal_option_edited.png
 
HCBS Commission
Office of the Governor
Utulei, American Samoa.   
Contact Us

American Samoa’s Home and Community‑Based Services (HCBS) program provides services without discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, religion, or any other status protected by applicable federal or territorial law.​ The HCBS program complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as applicable, and all other nondiscrimination requirements attached to federal financial assistance. The HCBS program is committed to ensuring equitable access to long‑term services and supports for all eligible residents of American Samoa, including individuals who have historically faced barriers to care.In pursuing this commitment, the program does not provide  preferential treatment or restrict eligibility based on race or color, and it does not segregate individuals in services or activities based on protected characteristics; all policies and practices are designed to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws.

​

The Home & Community-Based Services Commission of American Samoa website is supported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under financial assistance award 1LICMS331881-01-00 totaling $266,880, which is 100 percent funded by CMS/HHS. The contents are solely the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, or imply endorsement by, CMS, HHS, or the U.S. Government.

AS Islands.png
bottom of page