Improvements Needed in VA Long-Term Care, Congress Told

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On Monday, July 30th, the Health Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee held a field hearing, VA Long-term Care: What’s Working, What’s Not, and How to Best Serve Our Aging Veteran, in Camarillo, California. Led by Committee Chairman Neal Dunn (R-FL) and Ranking Member Julia Brownley (D-CA), the hearing focused on the […]

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Home and Community-Based Services Dominates Growth in Medicaid LTSS Spending

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Spending on home and community-based services continued to account for the vast majority of all Medicaid long-term services and supports spending in Fiscal Year 2016, announced the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday, June 5, 2018. Home and community-based services (HCBS) increased by 10 percent in FY 2016, easily outstripping the annual […]

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Money Follows the Person Demonstration Gets a Boost in House of Representatives

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The Money Follows the Person (MFP) Demonstration, a program that allows elderly and disabled patients to move from institutional care to home-and-community-based services (HCBS), got a shot in the arm on Friday, March 16, with the introduction of the EMPOWER and Care Act, which would reauthorize and expand the MFP Demonstration. The Money Follows the […]

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NAHC Urges Administration for Community Living to Support Technical Assistance on HCBS Settings Rule

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Late in February, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) and a group of like-minded organizations wrote a letter to the Administration for Community Living, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, supporting the important technical assistance and guidance they have been providing on implementation of the HCBS Settings Rule, […]

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Home and Community-Based Services Webinar Series on Promising State Approaches to Implementing Federal Criteria

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL) have partnered with other national organizations to host a technical assistance webinar series highlighting innovative strategies and approaches states are taking to effectively implement the federal settings criteria for home and community-based services (HCBS). The webinar series is intended to help […]

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LeadingAge, Bayada Urge Congress to Invest in Aging Services Infrastructure

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Leaders across the senior care sector have banded together and are urging Congress to back legislation that will increase access to care services. And help is long overdue, they argue. For decades, aging services have been underfunded in the U.S., according to Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based LeadingAge, the association […]

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Seniors’ Desire to Age in Place Remains Overwhelmingly Popular

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The COVID-19 emergency has only strengthened the desire seniors have to age in place — an already favorable position among older adults. In fact, over 90% of seniors prefer to remain in their homes as opposed to moving into an assisted living facility, a new survey from American Advisors Group (AAG) found. “For seniors, the […]

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Congress likely to scale back HCBS funding as part of budget compromise

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Home- and community-based services are in the crosshairs as top Democrats look to pare down their ambitious healthcare proposals in the massive $3.5 trillion proposed budget. Politico reported late Monday that lawmakers are looking to dramatically scale back the Biden administration’s call for $400 billion for HCBS. That should not come as a huge surprise to […]

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Biden’s $400B plan to overhaul home care is ‘more of a repair effort than a new direction’

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If the scope of President Joe Biden’s social spending plan is too large to grasp, then consider Nancy Slomba of Western New York state. She spends 84 hours a week caring for her son Joe Slomba, who has cerebral palsy and needs assistance to bathe, get in and out of bed and leave the family’s house. The 59-year-old resident […]

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