Aging/Older Adults

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has added a new section to its COVID-19-related technical assistance to clarify when COVID-19 may be considered a disability and how this can impact employers, employees, and job applicants. The new section provides examples of when COVID-19 or disabilities arising from conditions that were caused or worsened by COVID-19, may meet the definition of disability under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. It also addresses nondiscrimination protections provided to employees and job applicants under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.

Starting on Wednesday, January 26, CMS began posting new information on the Care Compare website to help consumers better understand staffing levels and concerns at nursing home facilities that can influence the quality of care being provided to residents. Information on staff turnover and weekend staff will be posted for each facility.

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.

Access to culturally appropriate respite care can support caregivers and allow people with dementia to continue aging in place. The International Association for Indigenous Aging has announced a new Indigenous respite care toolkit that aims to help build capacity for community-based respite care. The toolkit is a collaborative effort of Morning Star Lodge, an Indigenous community-based health research lab, File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council and a community research advisory committee comprised of people from 11 First Nations communities.

On Friday, January 14, 2022 the White House announced that free at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests are now available for order online. Those who do not have internet access or who need additional assistance with ordering can call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) to place their orders. The Eldercare Locator and the Disability Information and Assistance Line (DIAL) also can assist older adults and people with disabilities with placing orders, and connect people to accessible instructions.

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.