Alaska

Injuries are the third leading cause of death nationally, and the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 1 and 44. This report concludes that millions of injuries could be prevented each year if more states adopted additional research-based injury prevention policies, and if programs were fully implemented and enforced.

This brief examines Medicaid's key role in meeting the long-term care needs of seniors in the United States, particularly those with limited incomes. Medicaid is the nation's primary payer of long-term services and supports, and state Medicaid programs provide a range of long-term care services. The brief includes state-by-state data on Medicaid enrollment and expenditures for elderly beneficiaries.

As 2014 approaches, many states are preparing for implementation of the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) law, including a new streamlined Medicaid enrollment system and, at states' option, the expansion of Medicaid. It has been found that nearly all states are pressing forward with information technology and process improvements to develop faster, streamlined Medicaid enrollment systems, whether or not the state elects to expand Medicaid coverage under the law.

This compilation includes information about state 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Medicaid waivers, which provides the largest federal source of funding assistance for respite. New waiver tables have been added to this compendium for the following states: DC, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Individual tables were also added to the Search Results pages for each of these states in the National Respite Locator under Respite Funding and Eligibility.

This report profiles enrollment statistics on Medicaid managed care programs on a plan-specific level. It provides national-level summary tables relating to trends, breakout of managed care entities, managed care enrollment by state, regional breakout and states with comprehensive health care reform demonstrations. The information was collected from State Medicaid agencies and CMS Regional Offices.

This survey reports on trends in Medicaid spending, enrollment and policy initiatives for FY 2012 and FY 2013. The report describes policy changes in reimbursement, eligibility, benefits, delivery systems and long-term care, as well as detailed appendices with state-by-state information, and a more in-depth look through four state-specific case studies of the Medicaid budget and policy decisions in Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon and Texas.

The affordability of private pay services is an important component of LTSS system performance. This Insight on the Issues presents data on private pay affordability for every state and more than 400 markets in the U.S. There is wide variation in affordability between states and markets. Private pay nursing home care is not affordable for middle-income families. While less costly than nursing homes, home health care is still unaffordable for middle-income older people at typical levels of use.

This web link is an online, searchable menu of policies and programs -each with a rating based on strength of evidence for factors that can help make communities healthier places to live, learn, work and play. Each of the policies, such as increased alcohol taxes, for example, and programs, such as early childhood interventions, included in What Works for Health is given evidence rating to help guide users toward choosing proven strategies.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is the largest source of federally-funded employment and training services. WIA allows states to apply for waivers of WIA regulations to provide greater flexibility in serving the needs of local populations. The Department of Labor approved more than 750 state-requested waivers of statutory and regulatory requirements between 2008-2010. This report evaluates selected waivers during the time period to examine the possible effects of waiver implementation.

The Senate Finance Committee asked GAO to analyze states' requirements and practices for assessing the financial eligibility of applicants for Medicaid long-term care coverage. This report presents findings on the extent to which states (1) require documentation on assets from applicants, (2) obtain information from third parties to verify applicants' assets, and (3) obtain information about applicants' assets that could be used to implement eligibility-related DRA provisions.