Policy alerts, briefs, letters & papers

This article examines whether disability is a correlate of poverty when poverty is measured using (1) the official poverty measure; (2) the supplemental poverty measure (SPM); and (3) two multidimensional poverty measures created by the authors. The findings support the hypothesis that disability is associated with poverty in the United States, irrespective of the poverty measure under use.

With medical advancements, a new generation of youth with pediatric chronic health conditions and disabilities are now surviving to adulthood, and that means thousands are aging out of the pediatric system annually. This article examines the results of the Shared Care Initiative in British Columbia in developing transition planning processes.

This report is a write-up of priorities and recommendations developed from a pre-White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA) event hosted by the Washington Association of AAAs (W4A) and the Washington State Council on Aging in October 2014. All four WHCOA issue areas were discussed with a group of about 125 people made up mostly by State Council on Aging members, AAA Advisory Council members and staff invited from all of the AAAs.

Healthcare providers, payers, and CBOs have historically operated as separate care delivery systems in which the responsibility for communicating and sharing information among providers has been on the client. A follow up to N3C's symposium at the 2014 ASA's Aging in America conference, this brief presents insights and actionable approaches that attempt to close the gap between fragmented and patient-centered care to evolve with the market and better provide for our communities.

This letter released by the Department of Labor states the 2015 Federal Poverty Guidelines for Senior Community Service Employment Program Grants.

As part of PHI's One Vision: Moving Forward project, Michigan long-term care stakeholders discussed the potential use of Medicaid financial incentives to encourage person-centered care in nursing homes.The resulting publication outlines the ideas and recommendations produced by the discussion. The stakeholders primarily considered metrics, such as resident and staff satisfaction, that could be used to quantify nursing homes' commitment to person-centeredness.

This report examines pilot programs in three states designed to expand access to SNAP for low-income elderly people and people with disabilities. The multiyear, multimode study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, found that all of the pilot projects had positive effects on SNAP applications and approvals among the target population; however, some effects were very small in a practical sense.

The U.S. recession of the late 2000s, which began in December 2007 and officially ended in June 2009, had profound effects on the economy. This data brief describes how the employment, work expectations, and economic well-being of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries changed following the Great Recession. Authors examined changes in beneficiary employment and household income over this period compared with nonbeneficiaries.

This letter from several Congress members from the state of Ohio to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services expresses concern for the January 10, 2014, rule from CMS that amends regulation of the type of settings in which states can use federal Medicaid funds to pay for home and community based services. The members detail concern that the rule could inhibit the availability of specific residential settings.

As almost half of the States have implemented MLTSS programs, community-based organizations, will be significantly impacted. At the 2013 HCBS conference, ADvancing States, with support from the SCAN Foundation, held a day-long intensive to discuss these impacts. This report outlines 5 discrete roles that CBOs are well-suited to play in MLTSS programs using as a reference point CMS’ 2013 guidance on MLTSS program design and implementation. To request a hard copy version, email Ali Diaz at adiaz@advancingstates.org.