All States/Territories

Altarum recently published a special report highlighting the impact COVID-19 restrictions has had on nursing home residents. The report is the result of a survey that directly polled residents about their pandemic experience in 365 nursing homes in 36 states.

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.

Justice in Aging published a new brief centered on the dual eligible population and programmatic recommendations to support equity. The recommendations are measures advocates and health plans can use to ensure equity is at the center of the response to COVID-19. Examples of recommendations in the brief include: Expanding/targeting outreach for COVID-19 and routine care based on information plans have about their members; Prioritizing HCBS and support for caregivers; Enhancing data collection

The Center for Health Care Strategies published a brief highlighting six states – Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Virginia – who have participated in innovative work to boost the support network for family caregivers. The brief includes lesson learned from each of the states’ programs and policies that support family caregivers. Additionally, the brief describes four elements that are essential to making effective changes to family caregiver support programs.

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.

This brief draws from interviews with states operating new and long-standing MLTSS programs to identify six major trends in the refinement of MLTSS and underlying LTSS delivery systems nationally. The states examined in this brief are strengthening their Medicaid MLTSS programs to serve more LTSS beneficiaries and facilitate the development of integrated care programs that reduce service fragmentation for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees, particularly through Medicare Advantage D-SNPs

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.

US Senator Bob Casey (ranking member, Special Committee on Aging) has released a new report on how COVID-19 has exacerbated the challenges facing older Americans. The report outlines a blueprint for addressing the problems older adults face and highlights the services necessary to ensure Americans can age with dignity. This report contains policy recommendations that address three main areas: health care, economic security, and social supports.

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 independent study describes SSA's current processes for selection of representative payees for adults. As part of the study, Pamela Teaster and Laura Sands (Virginia Tech Center on Gerontology), and Erica Wood (formerly American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging) conducted in-depth interviews and surveyed field office managers. The authors identify a number of recommendations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Social Security's payee appointment and selection.