South Carolina

The National Association of State Budget Officers has a semi-annual report, with data gathered from all 50 state budget offices, that provides a narrative analysis of the fiscal condition of the states and data summaries of state general fund revenues, expenditures, and balances. The spring edition of the survey of the states details governors' proposed budgets.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of senior population health on a national and state-by-state basis across 34 measures of senior health. The 2017 edition is the fifth publication of this report, which continues to serve as a benchmark of senior health for individuals, community leaders, policymakers, media and public health professionals.

This new brief, made possible by The Commonwealth Fund and The SCAN Foundation, highlights insights from states that are fine-tuning their integrated care programs. Formal evaluations of some integrated care programs are underway; however, until these results become available, the refinements made by states described in the brief -- all participants in the Implementing New Systems of Integration for Dually Eligible Enrollees (INSIDE) project.

The Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) and Community Catalyst released an issue brief regarding the Financial Alignment Demonstrations. This issue brief discusses key findings from research on the demonstrations and proposes recommendations in two areas: operational or practice changes for health plans and program adjustments for policymakers.

Justice in Aging published an issue brief that offers an analysis of the findings from the evaluation of the Financial Alignment Initiative (FAI), commonly known as the dual eligible demonstration. Research Triangle Institute was contracted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to conduct this evaluation, which focused on the first six months of operation of the demonstration in each of the seven states where it was rolled out.

The purpose of this tip sheet is to provide promising practices to help agencies increase the number of Medicare Savings Program and Low Income Subsidy applications. This tip sheet features an ADRC in South Carolina that uses two different practices internally to ensure that all of their staff is aware of the income eligibility numbers for MSP and LIS programs.

The University of California San Francisco published a report about dementia care coordination for duals populations with a specific look at the inadequate workforce of dementia-capable care coordinators.Currently, there are twelve states in the process of implementing demonstrations projects. This report examined three-way contracts from seven states that were selected for their expertise in care coordination.

This year, the Older Americans Act (OAA) celebrates its 50th year—a golden jubilee for seniors and communities across the country. For this occasion, ADvancing States and Altarum Institute’s Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness (CECAI) honor outstanding older adults who both volunteer for and benefit from the law’s programs. This booklet highlights the myriad ways that seniors make the United States a great place in which to live, work, and grow old. Email adiaz@advancingstates.org for a hard copy.

The results of the annual survey represent a snapshot of the current status of state government employees, the agencies that administer the programs, and the services that are provided. The 2015 survey revealed that states are continuing to address the same underlying challenges discussed in the previous reports.The report also includes summary tables that outline specific information about each individual state agency and LTSS program. Email adiaz@advancingstates.org to request a hard copy version.

Justice in Aging, in collaboration with the Alzheimer's Association, released a new survey of dementia training requirements in each state. The number of Alzheimer's and other dementia diagnoses is on the rise, but there is often little to no training for staff and professionals that work with these populations. This survey was conducted to identify the holes in state law and to find promising practices to inform improvements in the future. The findings are available in a five-paper series.