Advocates

VA has expanded the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) to include caregivers of eligible Veterans of all service eras. Previously, PCAFC was only available to eligible Veterans who served on or after September 11, 2001. This expansion opens the program to eligible Veterans of all eras, including those who served after May 7, 1975, and before September 11, 2001. Over the past two years, PCAFC has added approximately 20,000 active Veteran and Family Caregiver participants. This final phase of PCAFC expansion will enhance the health and well-being of thousands more Veterans by supporting their caregivers.

People with disabilities are especially vulnerable to the impacts of disasters. To help policymakers understand the need to include people with disabilities in emergency disaster plans, Mathematica researchers created interactive disability natural disaster maps that show how many people with disabilities are living in areas at higher risk of natural disasters.

ACL is announcing a new grant award to develop a NTAC. The grant of $485,000 over a one-year period has been awarded to the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA), which will be partnering with the UMass Boston Institute for Community Inclusion, USAging, and DJB Consulting. NTAC also will work closely with people who need or use transportation services, the transportation sector, and an array of national, state and local organizations throughout the country. This award seeks to expand access to transportation for people with disabilities and older adults by increasing awareness and adoption of transportation accessibility strategies, inclusive planning, and mobility on demand transportation systems.

NATC, funded by ACL and administered by the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA), provides self-paced eLearning courses for APS professionals throughout the United States. While designed to support APS professionals, NATC is also available to allied professionals interested in learning more about adult maltreatment and APS. NATC has 24 free online courses on topics relating to APS, as well as hundreds of resources providing additional knowledge across the various topics. The eLearning courses are free and can be completed at your own pace. Some topics include: An overview of Adult Protective services; Power and control dynamics; Trauma-informed practices; The aging process and neuro-cognitive disorders.

The 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers is now available for public comment for 60 days. Comments will be used to inform the ongoing work of two Congressionally mandated caregiving advisory councils, and inform future updates to the strategy. The strategy is intended to serve as a national roadmap for better recognizing and supporting family and kinship caregivers of all ages, backgrounds, and caregiving situations. It includes nearly 350 actions the federal government will take to support family caregivers in the coming years and more than 150 actions that can be adopted at other levels of government and across the private sector to build a system to support family caregivers.

CFPB released a new report outlining the stages of recovery from elder financial exploitation and addressing why some older adults are more likely to get their money back than others. The report also identifies areas of work in policy, research, and practices that can help us improve the likelihood of recovery.

Community Care Corps has developed a new publication highlighting the accomplishments of their 2021-2022 grantees. Each grantee snapshot includes a program overview highlighting key efforts, partners and future directions. Returning grantees applied lessons learned from year one to enhance their volunteer service models while first-time grantees launched creative new volunteer program models to respond to the changing needs of their communities.

AHRQ is seeking public comments about comprehensive, longitudinal, person-centered care planning for people at risk for or living with multiple chronic conditions. The request for information seeks comments on the current state of care planning for people at risk for or living with multiple chronic conditions across settings of care.

On September 26, 2022, in an effort to improve nursing home transparency, safety, quality, and accountability, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made additional data publicly available that provides information about the ownership of all Medicare-certified nursing homes. This data will give state licensing officials, state and federal law enforcement, researchers, and the public the ability to identify common owners of nursing homes across multiple locations. This data can help to identify the performance of facilities under common ownership, including owners affiliated with multiple nursing homes with a record of poor performance.

CMS recently announced the 2023 Medicare costs, including premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance amounts. The standard monthly Part B premium will decrease three percent or $5.20 – the first time in a decade the cost was lowered. CMS attributes the decrease in the Part B premium to lower spending on the Alzheimer drug, Aduhelm, and other Part B items and services.