Long-Term Care

Only 10% of Americans have long-term care insurance and many insurance companies have terminated, or significantly raised the cost of their long-term care insurance offerings. Within this context, the author examines the CLASS program and compares its various features to currently available long-term care insurance policies, focusing on benefit eligibility, enrollment procedures, scope of benefits, ease of acquisition, program solvency, premium stability, and other features.

Future life planning is a growing concern among families with children with disabilities. This article presents a needs assessment evaluating feasibility of a new model for future life planning for family caregivers, Lifetime Assistance, which will provide ongoing planning and monitoring for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Findings show that caregivers overwhelmingly identified the need for the program and many were willing to pay for it themselves.

States are confronting challenging budgets along with the need to implement health reform. Many are looking to improve long-term care as a way to control costs and serve seniors and people with disabilities in settings they prefer. This newsletter describes provisions in the Affordable Care Act that assist states in expanding HCBS, the growing movement to improve facility-based care, and innovative programs in three states that seek to provide consumer-directed long-term care.

A Geriatric Care Manager can maximize independence and autonomy for care recipients while supporting families and caregivers. This resource discusses the various roles that this professional can play. A number of useful technologies are also suggested, including web-conferencing, monitoring and assistive devices. According to the author, despite the costs of these technologies, keeping older adults in their homes is still less expensive than placement in nursing homes.

What are the factors that influence the kind of long-term services patients choose over time? This was examined through a study that interviewed individuals with LTC insurance policies over a two year period. Having someone available to assist when needed, and feeling safe were found to be the most important considerations. 93% responded that home care was their first choice, however 71 % indicated that there were no options for LTC other than nursing homes in their area.

MDS 3.0 has been designed to improve the reliability, accuracy and usefulness of the MDS, to include the resident in the assessment process and to use standard protocols used in other settings. This website offers a number of resources regarding this tool, including videos, fact sheets, presentations and CMS training materials.

High caregiving stress has been associated with poor physical and psychological health, and with increased mortality among spouse caregivers. This study examined the differential effects of stress on stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk by race and sex. Caregiving strain was significantly associated with higher estimated risk for men, particularly African American men, providing caregiving to their wives.

Are you looking for state data on people who are simultaneously enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid? Find a number of useful interactive tables, charts, and graphs including Medicaid spending by service, spending per dual eligible, dual eligible enrollment, duals as a percentage of Medicaid enrollees, and more.

People receiving long term supports and services are frequently at risk for repeated hospital admissions, and patient care after a hospital stay is often fragmented and uncoordinated. Several types of technologies that have potential to support post-acute care transitions are discussed in this position paper. Studies suggest that the use of such technologies can lead to fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits, high patient satisfaction and acceptance, and reductions in cost of care.

Five innovative states (Arizona, Hawaii, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin) with demonstrated expertise in managed care approaches for individuals with long-term care needs are featured in this report. The resulting “roadmap” outlines 10 critical mileposts for successfully designing models for managed LTSS. It also identifies key ACA provisions that support state efforts to improve long-term care delivery.