Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities

The Juanita C. Grant Foundation, in partnership with the National Council on Aging, is convening for a virtual Town Hall Meeting to develop strategies and initiate a Call to Action for communities of color to connect at the local level through trusted sources, in preparation for a COVID-19 vaccine prioritizing older adults. This flyer offers helpful resources for advocates in preparing communities of color for the COVID-19 vaccine.

AARP has released its fourth iteration of the Long-term Services and Supports Scorecard. This scorecard ranks states and DC in order from 1 to 51 on a wide range of issues pertaining to older adults and people with disabilities. The LTSS scorecard has five domains that states are ranked within, and each of those domains has multiple indicators that are used to derive the overall score.

During the Friday September 25, 2020 MACPAC meeting, MACPAC presented on the Management of HCBS Waiver Waiting Lists. The talk included background information on Medicaid and HCBS Waivers, data on HCBS Waiver waiting lists, and strategies for reducing or eliminating waiting lists. The slides from this presentation are included here.

CMS has released a new report on community transitions that occurred under the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program from 2008 to the end of 2019. The report states that during this time, states transitioned 101,540 people to community living through MFP. In the most recent year (2019), MFP grantee states transitioned a total of 4,173 individuals. The report includes additional information on transitions broken down by population and state.

This issue brief explores adjustments that states have made to processing eligibility and enrollment for benefits access, including changes to application and supporting document requirements. Examples of opportunities and adjustments that states have made to ensure older adults and persons with disabilities have access to critical benefit programs during the pandemic are highlighted. Data and findings are drawn from the ADvancing States 2020 COVID-19 Membership Survey.

This compendium includes select information on waiver capacity and waiting list management. The compendium highlights over 200 approved Section 1915(c) and Section 1115 waivers across all 50 states and DC. As an accompaniment to this compendium, MACPAC has also released an issue brief. This issue brief includes a description of the waiver analysis conducted in the compendium. It also features information from stakeholder interviews.

This new report is an update to a SEED report published in 2016 and includes legislation and executive actions enacted since the 2016 report. These updates are organized into five policy themes for inclusive employment: laying the groundwork, preparing for work, getting to and accessing work, staying at work; and self-employment and entrepreneurship. The updated report also highlights success stories from recent disability-inclusive policy efforts and actions in the states.

This report examines how states can help finance LTSS. It analyzes emerging LTSS social insurance strategies in six states: Washington, Hawaii, Maine, California, Michigan, and Minnesota. The report includes information from 42 stakeholder interviews in these states and outlines lessons learned during the policy change process.

This report provides a summary of changes that states have made to their systems for connecting individuals to benefits and explores state agency changes, challenges, and opportunities related to benefits access and enrollment during the COVID-19 crisis. Data and findings are drawn from the ADvancing States 2020 COVID-19 Membership Survey.

This week, the Senate Finance Committee released the language and summaries of legislation to help nursing home efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. The Act would call on nursing homes to ensure that a portion Federal relief funds, made available on or after July 1, for responding to COVID-19 would be used for personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing in long-term care facilities. The Act also has language for expanding resources for elder justice activities.