Policy alerts, briefs, letters & papers

In order to better address health-related social needs, communities across the country have been experimenting with programs to connect health care providers with community-based organizations (CBOs) that address social needs, such as housing, food insecurity, and assistance with utilities and transportation.This brief from the Commonwealth Fund surveys the landscape of these programs, highlights common challenges, and proposes solutions.

This whitepaper discusses how interdependency between companies is increasingly important in order to provide the complete solutions customers demand.

In the Fall of 2014, the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) conducted a Nationwide Adult Medicaid Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. The survey interviewed a representative sample of adults ages 18 and older enrolled in Medicaid between October 2013 through December 2013. This survey provides baseline information on the experiences of low-income adults prior to a state’s expansion of coverage to the new adult group that took effect on 1/1/2014.

For individuals who receive services from both Medicare and Medicaid, care is often fragmented across a wide array of medical, behavioral health, and long-term care providers. Medicare and Medicaid offer otherwise uncoordinated systems of care with different eligibility criteria, benefits, provider networks, and enrollment processes. This issue brief describes key features of effective integrated care programs and presents top policy considerations driving state investment in these programs.

The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is a $400 million federal workforce investment program projected to serve over 67,000 low-income unemployed older adults in program year (PY) 2017. This is the only federally funded program to target older individuals who want to enter or reenter the workforce. The fiscal year (FY) 2018 budget eliminates all funding for SCSEP. This white paper examines the evidence on the value of SCSEP and discusses the potential effects of cutting it.

This issue brief provides an overview of state agency data systems that are utilized to collect, aggregate, and analyze data for the administration of the Older Americans Act (OAA) programs. This report provides a snapshot of current state systems in 2017, changes to which are impacted by both national and state-level factors.

This is a list of 10 proven meeting rules. In addition to having a meeting agenda that guides meeting participants towards accomplishing the meeting goals, participants of productive meetings have a clear understanding of what is expected of them to best support this process. This is where meeting ground rules come in to play.

This article describes a set of eight research-inspired ground rules, or behaviors, that can help teams improve their performance, working relationships, and individual well-being.

This brief analyzes dental service use and cost data for non-elderly Medicaid-enrolled adults by individual, community, and state-level factors. This brief is intended to help stakeholders identify opportunities to improve access to care and, ultimately, achieve sustainable oral health improvements for low-income adults.

This Spotlight from the AARP Public Policy Institute discusses the Medicare home health benefit that serves millions of Americans. The Medicare home health benefit allows many homebound older adults to get skilled care in their homes. This Spotlight includes information about Medicare rules for coverage of home health care services.