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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.

COVID-19 Antibody Testing of Patients with Chronic Conditions is being led by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The purpose of the study is to determine the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as COVID-19 antibody levels in patients who receive the vaccine with the following chronic conditions: HIV, an autoimmune condition, cirrhosis, or on home dialysis.

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.

In this blog post, ACAP and CHCS share survey results that detail how Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP), including Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan (D-SNP) and Medicare-Medicaid Plans, are addressing existing and new health-related social needs of their dually eligible enrollees during the COVID-19.

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.

When COVID-19 appeared in early 2020, human services agencies across the country had to adapt overnight. The Georgia Department of Human Services’ Division of Aging Services created new partnerships with restaurants, placed emergency funds into use quickly, streamlined decision-making and more to meet the needs of seniors.

This report, led in collaboration with ASPE’s Office of Health Policy, provides potential approaches to expand and strengthen the entry-level health care workforce in the United States, with a primary focus on the following occupational categories: licensed practical nurses, medical assistants, dental assistants, hygienists, home health aides, certified nursing assistants, and personal care aides, community health workers, and peer specialists.

This issue brief from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) examines the rate of opioid prescribing and its association with the development of opioid use disorder (OUD) among women covered under Medicaid and private health insurance after childbirth.