Technology

On January 11, Mathematica published a blog titled “A Quick Guide to Choosing Federal Medicaid Authorities to Address Health-Related Social Needs.” This blog explores the three most common federal Medicaid authorities that enable states to offer health-related social needs (HRSN) services to Medicaid-enrolled individuals: Section 1915 HCBS waivers, Managed Care In Lieu of Services (ILOS), and Section 1115 demonstrations. It also discusses key factors to contemplate as a state Medicaid official when choosing how to cover HRSN services, emphasizing considerations such as the intended population, types of services, and program features.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has launched the Community Connected Health Initiative, with the intention of integrating innovation, technology, and human connection to support communities in achieving better health. OSTP released a Request for Information (RFI) on Strengthening Community Health Through Technology. This RFI is open to all stakeholders and will likely remain open until March 31, 2022.

On Monday, July 12, 2021 three ACL grantees released a digital book titled, 30 Years of Community Living for Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities. The book shares personal perspectives on community living and inclusion shared by people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (ID/DD) who served as advisors to the project. The book was written by the directors of three longitudinal studies funded by ACL’s Projects of National Significance program.

The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) has published a First Public Working Draft of W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0. They are seeking input from evaluators, developers, designers, project managers, policy makers, people with disabilities, and others — particularly on the structure and the draft conformance model.

This report explores innovations that have the potential to improve quality of life for Americans who live with physical or cognitive burdens due to aging or disability. The report identifies six opportunities for emerging technologies to help Americans live longer, healthier, and more independent lives. These six areas are: Key activities of daily living, Cognition, Communication and social connectivity, Personal mobility, Transportation, and Access to healthcare.

This whitepaper focuses on the potential of technology to improve mobility for older adults living in rural settings. It discusses ways technology may help to advance transit for this population, including by reducing gaps in transit services, improving access to information, and bolstering safety and accessibility for those who drive. The paper concludes with a list of twelve considerations for industry and philanthropy professionals working to advance rural transit for older adults.

ADvancing States’s National Information and Referral Support Center has published a set of promising practice profiles stemming from the Technology in Practice: Contest to Identify Promising Practices in the Use of Technology in Aging and Disability I&R/A Programs. The contest was designed to identify promising practices in the use of technology in information and referral/assistance (I&R/A) programs serving older adults, people with disabilities, and family and friend caregivers.

This report captures the current state of I&R/A service provision, including trends and developments, challenges and opportunities, and promising practices, through survey responses provided by representatives from state agencies on aging and disability, Area Agencies on Aging, Aging and Disability Resource Centers, Centers for Independent Living, non-profit human service organizations and national organizations.

Hospital readmissions are a large source of wasteful healthcare spending, and current care transition models are too expensive to be sustainable. One way to circumvent cost-prohibitive care transition programs is complement nurse-staffed care transition programs with those staffed by less expensive nonmedical workers. A major barrier to utilizing nonmedical workers is determining the appropriate time to escalate care to a clinician with a wider scope of practice.