Chronic Conditions

The AARP Public Policy Institute's latest report in their Rx Price Watch series highlights the impact of prescription drug price increases on consumers, employers, private insurers, and taxpayers, affecting programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The report presents annual and 15-year cumulative price changes, until the end of 2020, for a comprehensive set of 943 prescription drugs widely used by older adults, emphasizing the potential long-term consequences on health care coverage costs, taxes, and public programs.

This blog post explores how the aging network can leverage home and community based services to address needs and improve the quality of life for older adults with HIV/AIDS. The post explains what evidence-based programs are and provides examples of a few that can support this population, including Falls Prevention and Positive Self-Management programs. It also provides a list of trainings and resources to help better serve older adults with HIV/AIDS.

COVID-19 Antibody Testing of Patients with Chronic Conditions is being led by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The purpose of the study is to determine the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as COVID-19 antibody levels in patients who receive the vaccine with the following chronic conditions: HIV, an autoimmune condition, cirrhosis, or on home dialysis.

Chronic conditions are a part of many Americans’ lives, and there are valuable programs that have been demonstrated to help people with chronic conditions to self-manage their daily lives and the disease with which they live. This briefing discusses self-management programs, and focuses on programs that rely on peer leaders who educate small groups about chronic disease self-management.

This white paper examines the progress that is being made in the Aging Network. This paper covers key developments that are re-shaping the network as well as efforts to better measure the quality and value of its programs and services. The paper also includes: Case studies highlighting the work of the aging network in Florida, Massachusetts and California, discussion of quality initiatives and congressional actions, and concluding observations.