Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities

This issue brief is the second publication from the ADvancing States Aging and Disabilities Technology Workgroup, which was established in 2019 in order to drive improvements in aging and disabilities state agencies’ information technology (IT), facilitate sharing and learning among states, and assist states as they seek to implement and integrate technology that supports holistic person-centered services.

Resources for Integrated Care (RIC) invites you to explore three new resources related to engaging members in plan governance. These resources are based on feedback from participants in the 2020 Resources for Integrated Care Community of Practice.

ACL awarded the $175 million for Nutrition Services and Native American Nutrition and Supportive Services to enhance ongoing community efforts begun with the support of previous COVID-19 supplemental appropriations.

The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) has published a First Public Working Draft of W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0. They are seeking input from evaluators, developers, designers, project managers, policy makers, people with disabilities, and others — particularly on the structure and the draft conformance model.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) serves over 18,000 elderly and disabled members though its Medicaid waiver program. Oklahoma’s previous paper-based system caused wait times for consumers to enroll and to receive services. With the implementation of WellSky Human Services, Oklahoma took advantage of the system’s conditional logic capabilities to capture additional information on an assessment form when needed.

Prior work has shown that home health providers strategically provided therapy visits and recertified episodes in order to maximize payment under traditional Medicare (TM). However, Medicare Advantage (MA) has more flexibility in terms of how they pay for home health care. This mixed-methods study examines changes in patterns of post-acute and community-admitted home health care use between 2011 and 2016, focusing on differences between MA and TM and across MA contract types.

On January 19th Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Medicaid LTSS Annual Expenditures Report for Federal Fiscal Years (FFY) 2017 and 2018. This report discusses the LTSS rebalancing trends and growth in expenditures for home and community based services (HCBS) as compared to institutional spending during these select years.

The Biden Administration sent a letter to the nation's Governors renewing the Public Health Emergency (PHE) regarding COVID-19, declared under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act. The current public health emergency was renewed effective January 21, 2021, and will be in effect for 90 days. The announcement indicates that the PHE will likely remain in place for the entirety of 2021 and also commits to providing at least a 60 day notice before the end of the PHE.

This brief summarizes the available data and literature on the cross-national impact of COVID-19 in LTC settings as of October 2020 and the changes in reported death rates since June 2020. This brief was prepared through intramural research by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Behavioral Health, Disability, and Aging Policy.

In 2017, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation launched the Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model to test whether connecting Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to community resources can improve health outcomes and reduce costs by addressing health-related social needs (HRSNs)—adverse social conditions that affect health and health care. This report describes the Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries who were eligible for the AHC Model in the Assistance Track.