Texas

This policy brief from Georgetown University, produced with support from The SCAN Foundation, reviews Medicaid's importance and current funding limitations for long-term care and makes the case for strengthening Medicaid two possible ways - full federal responsibility for Medicare beneficiaries who also rely on Medicaid or an enhanced federal match for Medicaid long-term care services. Each approach carries with it a federal commitment to bear the brunt of a growing elderly population.

Both of these large state waivers affect hundreds of thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries, involve billions of federal Medicaid matching funds, and are designed, in part, to promote changes in the health care delivery system that will result in better care for individuals, better population health, and reductions in costs through system improvements. They have a number of key similarities and differences as summarized in the side-by-side table within this fact sheet.

How many older adults in your state have experienced a fall—and who is working to improve those numbers? The following documents were created to assist in education activities supporting falls prevention initiatives for older adults.

How many people have participated in federally supported evidence-based health promotion programs in your state—and who is involved in these efforts? Find out in our new state profiles compiled by NCOA’s Center for Healthy Aging. The downloadable profiles provide facts about health challenges facing seniors, as well as state efforts to improve older adult health.

In the context of “rebalancing” efforts, the authors describe flexible accounting as budgeting practices and contractual language that incentivize the use of less expensive noninstitutional programs and use savings to expand lower-cost services to further reduce the state’s use of institutional care. The authors offer recommendations for California and pay special attention to flexible accounting in Medicaid managed LTSS and identify examples of flexible accounting practices.

This survey aimed to increase the understanding of the extent to which ADRCs have worked to ensure their services are LGBT-friendly, engaged in special LGBT outreach activities, and worked to identify community organizations and service providers in their resource databases that are LGBT-friendly. Thirty organizations from at least 15 different states responded. From the responses it can be seen that ADRCs are still at the beginnings of specifically serving LGBT individuals.

Each year, AoA compiles a summary of the latest statistics on individuals 65 years or older across 15 topical areas including income, poverty, employment, health, disability, and caregiving. This report has now been updated to reflect the most recent year for which data is available, 2010.

This brief reviews Medicaid’s importance and limitations when it comes to long-term care and makes the case for strengthening Medicaid’s safety net in one of two ways—assumption of full federal responsibility for Medicare beneficiaries who also rely on Medicaid (so-called “dual eligibles”) or an enhanced federal match for Medicaid long-term care services.

NCI is a voluntary effort by public developmental disabilities agencies to measure and track their own performance. The core indicators are standard measures used across states to assess the outcomes of services provided to individuals and families. Indicators address key areas of concern including employment, rights, service planning, community inclusion, choice, and health and safety.

Many states are undergoing long-term services & supports (LTSS) transformations. The lagging economy & increased demand for publicly funded LTSS are placing pressure on state policymakers to find solutions. As a result, many states either have or plan to implement Medicaid Managed LTSS, with 12 states having existing programs & another 11 with plans for implementation. Many states used the economic downturn as an opportunity to balance services from institutional to non-institutional settings.