Long-Term Care

To assist states designing and/or revising HCBS waivers, in this report ADvancing States analyzed how waiver language defines family caregivers and how those definitions relate to older adults without immediate family available as caregivers.

"Indicators of Healthy Aging: A Guide to Explore Healthy Aging Data through Community Health Improvement" is a resource developed by Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) with funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation. This resource aims to support age-friendly public health systems by providing a comprehensive set of healthy aging indicators. The guide complements NACCHO's Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) framework, offering valuable insights for health departments and community partners in measuring population-level health disparities and informing strategic planning...

The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston has entered the second phase of a two-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study aims to develop and test the feasibility of an intervention called "LDCare," which was designed to support long-distance caregivers of older adults with dementia who receive home care. In the second phase, researchers will examine the feasibility of conducting the LDCare intervention by sampling a group of 40 long-distance caregivers and their care recipients. At present, 17 caregivers are enrolled in the study...

KFF released a new report that shares a range of strategies states are using as they prepare to resume Medicaid disenrollment. The twenty-first annual KFF survey of state Medicaid Health Insurance (CHIP) Programs officials found that many states are using an array of strategies to promote continuity of coverage. The report shares findings from all states on their strategies to promote continuous coverage.

The National Conference of State Legislatures recently released an article exploring different steps that states are taking to address the rapidly aging population and how to keep that population in their homes longer. The article looks at approaches from across the country exploring food security, financial support, transportation, housing, the direct care workforce, social isolation prevention, and more.

Justice in Aging just released a new issue brief on the use of psychotropic medications in nursing facilities. The brief explores why reform initiatives have had limited success and the implications the use of psychotropic medications has on residents’ decision-making rights. In this installment of a series of issue briefs, Justice in Aging evaluates several proposals, and those proposals’ impacts on real-world residents.

The Commonwealth Fund has published a compilation of state successes in transforming long-term care as a resource to support policymakers. This policy guide is the result of a nine-month partnership between CSG and the Commonwealth Fund. Subject matter experts and stakeholders from Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia examine the following focus areas in long-term care: Addressing State Regulation of Long-Term Services and Supports Facilities; Optimizing American Rescue Plan Act Spending on Home- and Community-Based Services Under Medicaid; and Revitalizing the Direct Care Workforce and Supporting Family Caregivers.

The Centers for Excellence in Assisted Living has just released a paper exploring the strengths and opportunities of improving of assisted living facilities across the country. The article explores the unique challenges posed to assisted living facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides policy recommendations research on staff vaccine requirements, state-level reporting, and more.

Each edition of the AARP Public Policy Institute's Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) State Scorecard has measured state performance against an objective, data-driven set of metrics that illustrate how states were doing with their LTSS systems at a given time. This paper discusses the approach to the 2023 edition of the Scorecard, reflects on what has changed since the Scorecard was first published, and considers the possibilities of future editions.

Much innovation in the LTSS system has originated at local levels and later reached the national level after testing and support from the government, foundations and others. A new paper reviews five innovative LTSS programs to explore how they were successfully scaled up and implemented in more places. This report builds on the widely accepted model for understanding the expansion of an innovation developed by sociologist E.M. Rogers, who coined the phrase “early adopter.” Its five recommendations adapt Rogers’s framework to selecting and promoting LTSS innovations.