Long-Term Care

This fact sheet provides strategies for identifying transportation options and eliminating transportation barriers related to the provision and receipt of respite care. It addresses the importance of transportation and how to help family caregivers, providers and Lifespan Respite programs identify community transportation resources; determine the best transportation options; include transportation in the respite planning process; and create transportation options.

This study examined (1) how intrastate funding formulas take into account older adults with greatest economic and social need, (2) options for modifying OAA title III and VII statutory funding formulas to better target older adults with the greatest economic and social need under generally accepted equity standards, and (3) what effect might these formula modifications have on states' program allotments and what transition measures could be used to ease the implementation of modifications.

Several states are experimenting with solutions to help individuals who need long term services and supports connect with available workers. One approach is a publicly-funded matching service registry (MSR) that facilitates connections between qualified home care workers and individuals who self-direct their in-home services and supports. This document explains how registries can help match supply and demand, what the benefits of MSRs are for states and how to begin creating these registries.

The availability of trained direct service workers is threatened by dramatic increase in population age 65 and older and the growing demand for long-term services and supports. This document explains why states and ADRCs need to focus on building their Direct Service Workforce to meet this growing demand.

This paper aims at testing the relationship between older Americans Act (OAA) program expenditures and the prevalence of low-care residents in nursing homes (NHs). Principal findings indicate that increased spending on home-delivered meals was associated with fewer residents in NHs with low-care needs. States that have invested in their community-based service networks, particularly home-delivered meal programs, have proportionally fewer low-care NH residents.

The Veterans Administration offers this website for caregivers of veterans of all ages, along with a toll-free support line at 1-855-260-3274. Being a family caregiver can be an incredibly demanding job, and the VA wants you to know you don't have to do it alone. Vist the website to learn more about the support and services VA offers Family Caregivers.

In light of the 26 states that have applied to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for permission to integrate Medicare and Medicaid for dual eligibles, the webinar explained the processes involved in the demonstrations, with a focus on how the new systems will affect both assisted living and long-term services and supports. Visit the website to download a recording and slides from the presentation.

This review is part of a new series of reports, “Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science.” The series provides a critical analysis of existing literature on quality improvement strategies and issues for topics identified by the 2003 Institute of Medicine report, “Priority Areas for National Action: Transforming Health Care Quality.” To continuously assess progress toward quality, AHRQ identified people with disabilities as a priority population in this report.

The Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) body of work examining Medicaid personal care services (PCS) has found significant and persistent compliance, payment, and fraud vulnerabilities that demonstrate the need for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to take a more active role with States to combat the issues. This document summarizes OIG’s PCS work and, on the basis of the analysis of this work in the aggregate, offers recommendations to improve the integrity of Medicaid PCS.

This report aims at comparing long-term care for older adults delivered through Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) with care provided in nursing homes (NHs) by evaluating 1) the characteristics of older adults served through HCBS and in NHs; 2) the impact of HCBS and NH care on outcome trajectories of older adults; and 3) the per person costs of HCBS and NH care, costs for other services such as acute care, and family burden.