Aging/Older Adults

Value-Based Payment (VBP) are alternative payment models that reward high-quality, cost-effective care. While many Medicaid state programs are developing VBP systems for physical health services, they have not made such advances in Medicaid behavioral health care services. The Center for Health Care Strategies’ (CHCS) brief, produced with the California Health Care Foundation, details how five states are innovating their Medicaid managed care organizations through VBP models.

This report provides a multidimensional look at state performance for the delivery of long-term services and supports (LTSS), based on a uniform set of performance measures and how performance has changed over time. It also includes the role that housing and transportation play in assisting older adults, people with physical disabilities and their family caregivers, as well as promising practices and emerging innovations to foster greater information exchange.

Mathematica Policy Research recently released their Money Follows the Person 2015 Annual Evaluation Report. This report provides basic information about the program, as well as how the program has grown and changed since transitions began in 2007. The Annual Evaluation Report also discusses estimates of program outcomes and is the basis for a report to congress.

This report proposes jobs for caregivers that would help alleviate two national concerns for caregivers: the need for quality employment and the need to still act as caregivers. It discusses ways to promote the well-being of older adults, individuals with disabilities, children, and their families by laying the framework for opportunities to improve the quality and increase the quality of caregiving employment to create jobs that meet family caregiving needs.

On May 26th, 2017 the Congressional Research Service released their report on H.R. 1628: The American Health Care Act (AHCA) that was passed in the House on May 4th, 2017. This report provides an overview of all the AHCA provisions. It also discusses how the bill includes a number of provisions that would repeal or modify parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In recognition of a lack of reliable and robust information on the value of state managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) nationally, this report aims to partially fill the gap with data and evidence from a survey of state agencies and a review of relevant outside research, and to also serve as a jumping off point for future study.

The report highlights the commitment of participating states toward measuring and improving the quality of their long-term services and supports (LTSS) systems that serve seniors and adults with physical disabilities.

This report from Truven Health Analytics describes Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS) expenditures. The report shows federal fiscal year 2015 data, along with updates for FY 2012 through 2014 spending. Along with discussing trends in Medicaid LTSS expenditures, the report includes numerous data tables that summarize national and state-level expenditures by service category and state.

This report examines Minnesota's home care workforce and highlights trends in the broader sector. The report offers recommendations, including interventions that "elevate the role of the aide," and calls for better wages, higher reimbursement rates in state funding, and improved training, as well as approaches tailored to rural areas, such as new technologies in home care and transportation-related supports.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the federal government’s primary way for producing affordable rental housing. LIHTC provides $8 billion in annual budget authority to state and local housing agencies to help produce new and rehabilitated rental housing for low-income households. The program has also generated over 3 million housing units since its inception.