Advocates

Georgia’s Department of Human Services’ Division of Aging Services (DAS) used WellSky’s configurable platform to meet the case management, data collection, decision making, and reporting needs of the state during the pandemic. Download this case study to read about how Georgia was successful in meeting the increased needs of seniors during COVID-19.

ACL has annouced a redesign of their Nutrition and Aging Resource Center website. Content has been reorganized into key sections, including training and tools, success stories, and data and evaluation. A broad range of subsections further organize content into categories such as innovative models and events.

NCOA and the Leading Age LTSS Center at UMass Boston released two issue briefs exploring the effects of pandemic-related food insecurity among older adults. The findings highlight the positive impact of SNAP in reducing food insecurity and call on the need for SNAP benefits provided by the American Rescue Plan to be permanent and consider increased food costs moving forward.

This episode of the Medicaid Leadership Exchange podcast discusses ways to address inequities in Medicaid. Ben Shaffer, Medicaid Director at the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and Kelly Cunningham, Interim Medicaid Administrator at the Illinois Division of Medical Programs, Department of Healthcare and Family, will be sharing how effective data measurement is critical for Medicaid programs to advance equity and better understand the populations served.

Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt reflects on the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in honor of its 31st anniversary. In this blog post, she writes about her experiences advocating for disability rights as a disabled woman, and how the ADA, along with her intersectional identity has impacted her life through high school, college, and into her career.

This survey is intended to collect data on the experiences of aging and disability community-based organizations (CBOs) contracting with health care entities. This data will help the Business Institute develop resources to support CBOs at all stages of the health care contracting journey, as well as inform policymakers and health care professionals on the growing capacity of aging and disability CBOs.

This new fact sheet highlights funding and flexibilities that help increase access to competitive integrated employment (CIE) for youth and adults with disabilities. These opportunities are provided through the work of multiple federal agencies providing services to individuals with disabilities, including ACL and CMS.

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.

On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, CMS released the Quality Report to Congress identifying efforts undertaken to improve the quality of health care for children and adults enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The report provides information on activities undertaken between 2017 and 2019, including changes in performance in the quality measures included in the Medicaid and CHIP Child and Adult Core Sets.

On June 24, 2021, the Better Care Better Jobs Act, S. 2210, was introduced in the United States Senate and referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. The bill would expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS) by providing $100 M for states to expand access to Medicaid HCBS and strengthen the HCBS workforce, and provide states a 10% increase in the Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for HCBS.