Long Term Services and Supports

This manual is meant to help community-based programs assess their individual needs, plan & implement volunteer respite programs and assist state Lifespan Respite programs as they address the requirements in the Lifespan Respite Care Act to build respite capacity through volunteer training & recruitment. Review text boxes throughout the document with resources for reading further, highlights of National Volunteer Respite Initiatives plus examples of local volunteer respite programs.

The Exchange website offers busy health professionals and researchers a variety of opportunities to share, learn about, and ultimately adopt evidence-based innovations and tools suitable for a range of health care settings and populations. The site has the following components: Searchable innovations; Searchable QualityTools; Learning opportunities and Networking opportunities.

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.

This document sets forth the State of Vermont's plan on aging in accordance with Older Americans Act requirements. The plan describes the mission and strategies of Vermont's State Unit on Aging (SUA) to coordinate services for older adults. The Plan contains information on aging demographics, the mission for the duration of the plan, and sets out goals to empower older adults to be more independent, promote wellness, and expand home and community-based services.

The Affordable Care Act requires the Office of Inspector General to submit a report to Congress evaluating the law’s Nationwide Program for National & State Background Checks on Direct Patient Access Employees of Long Term-Care (LTC) Facilities within six months of the program’s completion. OIG recently conducted a survey of LTC provider administrators, & asked them about current practices regarding background checks on potential employees, & the effects of such programs on the LTC workforce.

Existing national disability-related survey & administrative data are limited in their ability to meet needs of federal programs & policy makers. One potential response to these shortcomings is the fielding of a national disability survey. This report was prepared to assess the need for developing & fielding another national disability survey data collection effort. It presents findings from one of the project’s major activities designed to review the disability-related information.

As state and federal agencies strive to meet the growing needs of people with disabilities while using fewer resources, better disability data are needed for monitoring and improving the health, economic status, and overall well-being of this population. The report identifies limitations in national survey data on disability and outlines a wide range of potential short- and long-term options for addressing them, including developing and fielding a national disability survey.

A new technical assistance brief from the Center for Health Care Strategies provides a brief outline of the Money Follows the Person, Balanced Incentives Payment Program, the Community First Choice Option, and the modified Home and Community-Based State Plan option. For each program, the authors outline the budget impact/FMAP opportunity, application process, participant eligibility, care coordination/plans, and data reporting/evaluation.

This survey contains daily private-pay rates for private & semi-private rooms in licensed nursing homes, monthly base rates for assisted living communities, hourly rates for home health aides from licensed agencies & agency-provided homemaker companion services, & daily rates for adult day services across the US. Costs for this survey were calculated for each service provider in an area & were aggregated across all providers to compute a statewide average cost.

Two new surveys recently released by the National Family Caregivers Association reveals what family caregivers fear most: first, their loved one's general health and physical decline, and second, the fear that Alzheimer's will take away their loved one's ability to communicate. A second survey tinds Family Caregivers are most concerned about respite care, personal health and finances.