All States/Territories

This episode of the Medicaid Leadership Exchange podcast discusses ways to address inequities in Medicaid. Ben Shaffer, Medicaid Director at the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and Kelly Cunningham, Interim Medicaid Administrator at the Illinois Division of Medical Programs, Department of Healthcare and Family, will be sharing how effective data measurement is critical for Medicaid programs to advance equity and better understand the populations served.

Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt reflects on the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in honor of its 31st anniversary. In this blog post, she writes about her experiences advocating for disability rights as a disabled woman, and how the ADA, along with her intersectional identity has impacted her life through high school, college, and into her career.

This survey is intended to collect data on the experiences of aging and disability community-based organizations (CBOs) contracting with health care entities. This data will help the Business Institute develop resources to support CBOs at all stages of the health care contracting journey, as well as inform policymakers and health care professionals on the growing capacity of aging and disability CBOs.

This new fact sheet highlights funding and flexibilities that help increase access to competitive integrated employment (CIE) for youth and adults with disabilities. These opportunities are provided through the work of multiple federal agencies providing services to individuals with disabilities, including ACL and CMS.

On Monday, July 12, 2021 three ACL grantees released a digital book titled, 30 Years of Community Living for Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities. The book shares personal perspectives on community living and inclusion shared by people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (ID/DD) who served as advisors to the project. The book was written by the directors of three longitudinal studies funded by ACL’s Projects of National Significance program.

Ranking Member Tim Scott (R - S.C.) sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) calling for improvements in Medicaid HCBS. The letter asks CMS to describe their efforts to combat fraud and their efforts to create a set of standard quality measures.

The New York Academy of Medicine, with support from ACL, has created the Older Adults Equity Collaborative Resource Library to help advance equity in aging services. This digital library collects resources for diverse populations of older adults, their caregivers, and aging service providers. It also provides technical assistance and training to the aging services network to better serve a diverse population of older adults.

This publication from Health Management Associates analyzes the approaches that Medicaid programs in DC, Idaho, Maine, Washington and Alabama used to coordinate Medicare and Medicaid services without standalone Medicaid MLTSS programs. The paper focuses on Medicaid and Aging agencies overseeing programs that provide long-term services and supports fee for service and explores effective methods to coordinate and integrate care with Medicare Advantage Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans.

On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, CMS released the Quality Report to Congress identifying efforts undertaken to improve the quality of health care for children and adults enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The report provides information on activities undertaken between 2017 and 2019, including changes in performance in the quality measures included in the Medicaid and CHIP Child and Adult Core Sets.

On June 24, 2021, the Better Care Better Jobs Act, S. 2210, was introduced in the United States Senate and referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. The bill would expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS) by providing $100 M for states to expand access to Medicaid HCBS and strengthen the HCBS workforce, and provide states a 10% increase in the Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for HCBS.