Aging/Older Adults

This report reflects on Medicaid’s accomplishments and challenges and considers the issues on the horizon that will influence the course of this major health coverage and financing program moving forward. The report follows Medicaid’s evolution, including major legislative changes and other inflection points in the program’s history and analyzes how Medicaid threads through our health care system today and the measure of its impact.

Person-centered planning encompasses the idea that the individual is at the heart of all decisions about services, supports, and care. This report analyzes how well states are implementing a 2014 rule that creates the right to person-centered care planning for Medicaid consumers of Long-Term Services and Supports. The report is a tool for health care providers, plan administrators, and advocates to help them understand the scope of the rules and be able to identify provision shortfalls.

This report details results of a survey administered to Adult Service providers to learn more about the locations, funding sources, and supports that these programs provide to seniors and people with disabilities. The report demonstrates how Adult Services include a wide array of services, including a combination of social and medical supports. ADvancing States is concerned that new CMS regulations may reduce the number of available providers in the Medicaid program.

The Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration aims to give Medicaid beneficiaries living in long-term care facilities more choice about where they live and receive services and to strengthen state systems of LTSS to serve more people in community settings. This report examines how six MFP grantees (MO, LA, NE, NJ, OH, IL) are serving populations with diverse needs in the community and the factors that have contributed to their strong performance on key outcome measures.

This report provides an overview of the extent and distribution of food insecurity in 2013 among seniors, along with trends over the past decade using national and state-level data.The report finds senior hunger is on the rise, and in 2013, 15.5% of seniors (or 9.6 million) faced the threat of hunger. If you would like to request a hard copy version, please email Ali Diaz at adiaz@advancingstates.org

The fifth in a series of annual reports from the national evaluation of the MFP rebalancing demonstration, the report presents three sets of analyses that show the overall progress and effects of the MFP demonstration: progress made by grantees on their statutory transition and expenditure goals; the extent to which states are rebalancing their LTSS systems; and 3) changes in expenditures patterns and utilization of select services following an individual's transition from institutional to HCBS.

This report discusses how the public workforce system developed, how it operates today, significant programs and target groups, common employment services and job training strategies, and what is known about program effectiveness. In some instances, the report speculates on how the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA) might influence such programs. Particular attention is given to services benefiting dislocated workers.

This is the official White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA) Toolkit that organizations and individuals can use to host their own events and submit to the official 2015 White House Conference. The four focus areas of the 2015 WHCOA include retirement security, healthy aging, long-term services and supports, and elder justice.

In light of a rapidly aging population, increasing costs, and funding that is not keeping pace, programs like Meals on Wheels face unprecedented challenges to meet the growing need for meal and nutrition services. Decision-makers at all levels of government and community-based organizations within the Aging Network are increasingly seeking lower cost solutions to stretch constrained budgets. This report investigates the impact of meal service delivery on the health and well-being of adults 60+.

Working together, housing and health care partners can launch initiatives that lead to improved health, safety, and quality of life for low-income older adults facing multiple health and social challenges. This guide outlines how housing and health providers can work together to make life better for older adults.