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USAging recently released an action guide designed to provide approaches for aging, disability, and health organizations to build partnerships with the housing sector for home modifications, repairs, and weatherization services. These partnerships aim to improve the accessibility and safety of existing housing and support community living for older adults and people with disabilities. The report highlights housing organizations that currently promote home modifications, outlines essential steps to foster successful partnerships, and provides practical strategies to identify common ground with the housing sector...

Mathematica has published a report examining the potential impact of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program (DPNP) on out-of-pocket spending for different groups of Medicare Part D enrollees. By simulating the DPNP process, Mathematica estimated what ceiling prices and out-of-pocket expenses on the 10 highest-expenditure drugs would have been in 2021, the most recent year for which complete Part D data were available. The report examines the disparities in reduced out-of-pocket spending among various racial, ethnic, and beneficiary groups, focusing on the differential impact of the DPNP policies....

The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) recently announced the release of the final Sunstorm Story for 2023. In collaboration with Foundations for Divergent Minds, Seeded Ground, and the John Hopkins’ Disability Health Research Center, Sunstorm Stories are a collection of short narrative videos that reflect on Covid’s lingering impact on the disability community, particularly those who are also Black, Indigenous, and other Leaders of Color. Throughout the series, featured storytellers offer messages of solidarity while also urging medical professionals to meaningfully improve inclusion, enhance access, and prevent discriminatory treatment.

A new set of resources from the ODEP-funded Job Accommodation Network (JAN) explores disability in the context of broader diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives. These resources discuss the critical role accommodations play in fostering a disability-inclusive workplace culture and centralize information available to help employers create a more equitable and accessible work environment. They also provide real-life examples of accommodations that were made by JAN customers...

A recently published fact sheet from the National Consumer Voice for Long-Term Quality Care offers guidance for visiting residents in long-term care facilities during the holiday season. This fact sheet outlines the importance of visits from family members in supporting residents’ emotional well-being and ensuring that residents receive quality care. It also emphasizes the rights of residents and family members to determine what visits involve and when they take place. Additionally, Consumer Voice provides practical tips and activity ideas for family visits, along with suggestions for engaging residents during the gift-giving season, including examples of suitable gifts for residents.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a fact sheet titled “Health Coverage Options for American Indians and Alaska Natives.” This fact sheet provides information and guidance that Navigators and certified application counselors (collectively, assisters) need to know in order to help American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) understand health coverage options through the Marketplace, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)....

The Center for Transition to Adult Health Care for Youth with Disabilities, a national resource center funded by ACL’s Administration on Disabilities (AoD), recently launched a new website to help young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) direct their own transition to the adult health care system. Developed for and by youth with I/DD, the site has a variety of both person-centered and culturally competent tools and resources to help support youth, their families, and health care professionals through this transition. The new website includes resources that are designed to give youth more choice and control throughout their health care transition...

The White House has released a playbook centered on addressing social circumstances and related environmental hazards and exposures impacting health outcomes, often referred to as social determinants of health (SDOH). This guide acknowledges the intricate connection between these factors and their influence on individuals' well-being and lays out an initial set of structural actions federal agencies are undertaking to break down these silos and to support equitable health outcomes for individuals and communities. The Playbook sets the stage for agencies and organizations to re-imagine new policies and actions around SDOH, both inside and outside of government....

In a recently published press release, the White House announced new actions to promote competition in health care and support lowering prescription drug costs for American families, including the release of a proposed framework for agencies on the exercise of march-in rights on taxpayer-funded drugs and other inventions, which specifies that price can be a factor in considering whether a drug is accessible to the public. This press release details new action to support lowering prescription drug costs and increase Americans’ access to life-saving medications, efforts to stop anticompetitive mergers and anticompetitive practices by dominant corporations in health care markets, and ...

On Thursday, December 7, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) issued a report to address issues related to the long-standing shortage of direct care workers. Through research, interviews with stakeholders and federal policy experts, and private roundtable discussions, BPC identified three major challenges to recruiting and retaining direct care workers...