Aging/Older Adults

Special Needs Plans (SNPs), authorized by the Medicare Modernization Act, offer state Medicaid programs a new potential vehicle for coordinating Medicare and Medicaid benefits for dual eligibles. This report investigates the degree to which states (and plans) are using this option to develop more fully integrated Medicare-Medicaid models for dual eligibles needing long-term care services.

Forty-three states and territories have received three-year competitive grants since the ADRC program was launched. This report details findings at the overall ADRC level and the pilot level on the outcomes, accomplishments, and contributions of the ADRC program over the grant period, including more immediate results related to key consumer and program outcomes. It also documents lessons learned and program and policy implications at the pilot, state, and national level.

ADRCs can be affected by both external and internal changes in leadership. Organizations that plan for and carefully manage a leadership transition, however, can minimize disruption and even use the change to shift direction and strengthen organizational capacity. This issue brief offers suggestions for ways ADRCs can manage transition and position themselves to take advantage of opportunities to strengthen collaboration and advance the goals of the ADRC program.

Creating a single assessment tool to be used across age and disability has been an interest of states, policy makers, and providers for years. An interest also exists to develop a consumer-driven participatory assessment where consumers take a more active role. Following review and input from a diverse work group, this tool was piloted for 16 months and a qualitative evaluation was conducted to determine its utility. The development process yielded key findings and recommendations.

Is there a growing recognition that loneliness, helplessness, and boredom plague long-term care? This report examines six issues facing policymakers: financing and insurance, supporting and educating caregivers, the challenges of changing the physical and organizational environments in which services are delivered, recruiting and retaining a qualified workforce, designing a more effective regulatory control system, and adapting and integrating health information technology to long-term care.

This report describes examples of more narrowly focused state legislation that is setting the policy and infrastructure for consumer direction, expanding the direct care workforce, and supporting persons who return to the community after living in institutions. The Appendix includes the specific legislative language of selected bills covered in the report.

Rutgers Center for State Health Policy convened national and state thought leaders in nursing practice and regulation to develop consensus principles to guide the profession's collaboration with people who want to live in their homes and communities. The 2004 draft principles were revised and endorsed by the American Academy of Nursing's Expert Panel on Aging in November 2005. They are offered as a foundation for further dialogue within and across states.

The US is experiencing a severe shortage of qualified direct-care workers to provide personal care services (PCS). Evidence from a number of studies reveals that wages and benefits paid to PCS workers play a fundamental role in determining the quality and quantity of workers. Read this in-depth analysis of state and local practices that reviews the pros and cons of seven strategies for enhancing PCS-worker wages and benefits for direct-care workers delivering Medicaid personal care services.

Popular with journalists, this guide is useful for those interested in health policy issues. Chapters contain key facts, an overview, expert sources with telephone numbers, story ideas and helpful websites. Topics presented for current policy discussion include: the uninsured, private health coverage, children's health coverage, Medicare, Medicare prescription drugs, Medicaid, long-term care, health care costs, quality and health information technology, disparities, mental and public health.

This new web site developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides information and resources to help families plan for future long-term care (LTC) needs. This site provides a wide range of information and options to help individuals who don't yet require long-term care plan for future needs. Information about understanding, planning and paying for long-term care can be downloaded including a new resource titled Own Your Future Planning Kit.