Advocates

This blog post from the Better Care Playbook discusses Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that support family caregivers, specifically hightlighing UCare in Minnesota and UPMC Health Plan in Pennsylvania. The blog post explains the importance of supporting caregivers and explores the considerations around offering caregiver support as a supplemental benefit.

Do you want updated, consumer-friendly handouts about the COVID-19 vaccine or booster recommendations, COVID-19 testing availability, or Medicare coverage during a public health emergency? The SHIP National Technical Assistance Center maintains fact sheets about these issues. The fact sheets have been updated to explain the following: 1) COVID-19 boosters are now recommended for people aged 12 and older, 2) How Original Medicare covers COVID-19 tests, but it does not cover at-home test, 3) Ways people with Original Medicare can access free at-home COVID-19 tests.

Through the Better Care Playbook, CHCS has organized a virtual panel of innovators to discuss challenges in applying evidence when designing and refining complex care program. This blog post shares key themes from the panel's discussion at the 2021 “Putting Care at the Center”conference, hosted by the Camden Coalition’s National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs. During this discussion, panelists shared their experience translating research findings into decision making for complex care program design and improvements.

In November 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that ACL would receive $150 million to expand the public health workforce within the aging and disability networks. Over this past week, ACL began distributing these funds to its grantees and grantee networks.

On January 12, 2022, CMS released the Medicaid LTSS Annual Expenditures Report for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2019. This report discusses the LTSS rebalancing trends and growth in expenditures for home and community-based services as compared to institutional spending during the time period reviewed.

ACL has summarized the CDC's latest COVID-19 vaccination and booster reccomendations on their resources page. The webpage includes a section of resources for the Aging and Disability Networks and guidance for people who are immunocompromised.

As part of its ongoing efforts across many channels to expand Americans’ access to free testing, the Biden-Harris Administration is requiring insurance companies and group health plans to cover the cost of over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests, so people with private health coverage can get them for free starting January 15, 2022.

The CMS Office of Minority Health (OMH) has published a new report, Trends in Racial, Ethnic, Sex, and Rural-Urban Inequities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage: 2009-2018. Since 2015, CMS OMH has published annual reports highlighting inequities in the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide. Until now, these reports have focused on comparisons within a single year. This new report analyzes historical trends in inequities by race, ethnicity, sex, and geography among Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans nationwide.

This scan highlights examples of strategies in 11 states, including Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee, Washington State, and Wisconsin, that have been aimed at strengthening the direct care workforce through legislation, American Rescue Plan Act funding and training.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is working with states to promote access to Medicaid services for people with mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) crises. Authorized under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP), states have a new option for supporting community-based mobile crisis intervention services for individuals with Medicaid. This option will help states integrate these services into their Medicaid programs, a critical component in establishing a sustainable and public health-focused support network.