LeadingAge needs your help in finding some effective story tellers to participate in media interviews and a possible telepresser event for national, local and aging services media.
We are looking for members who provide HCBS care and are reimbursed through Medicaid could tell a compelling story about the challenges they face and how they could benefit from the administration’s proposed legislation (which would allocate $400 billion toward expanding access to quality, affordable home- or community based services)?
I. FOLLOWING THE NARRATIVE: A quick summary of national media trends last week.
(*LeadingAge is featured in the story.)
Home and community based services remain on reporters’ radar as the Biden Administration kicked off Older Americans Month by releasing $1.4 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan for home and community based services provided in the Older Americans Act and exploration of the $400 billion funding for home health proposed in the American Jobs Plan continues. Vaccines remain a focus — including hesitancy among long-term care workers, vaccination rates among older adults, and vaccine waste at major pharmacies — and discussion about financing LTSS got some play.
Home and Community Based Services:
- *Reuters: Analysis: How Biden plans to add $600 billion to the U.S. ‘care economy’
- *Home Health Care News: Biden Administration Releases $1.4B for HCBS, Senior Health Programs
- *ABC: Long-term care industry facing changes as pandemic pushes more families toward home care
- Home Health Care News: CMS Medicare Provider Enrollment Requirements Could Drive Home Health Agencies Out of Business
- McKnight’s Senior Living: Adopting next-gen care collaboration technology is critical for home health, hospice and long-term care organizations
- Forbes: Americans Want Government To Help Them Age At Home, Buttressing Biden’s Medicaid Long-Term Care Agenda
- McKnight’s Senior Living: Two Senate leaders call on Congress to support expanded home- and community based-services
- Home Health Care News: Shorter SNF Stays Could Mean More Room for Home-Based Care
- Home Health Care News: Hoping to Age in Place, Americans Want Long-Term Care Help from Medicare
- The Hill: Time to ensure infrastructure makes care for older adults a priority
- Home Health Care News: Senior Care Innovator Bill Thomas: America Needs to Change How It Talks About ‘Home Care’
- Home Health Care News: ‘A Unique Opportunity for Home Health Providers’: CMS Extends CJR Model
- McKnight’s Senior Living: Biden administration official calls for more coordinated approach to home- and community-based services
- *Home Health Care News: Visiting Nurse Health System Cementing Identity Amid Ground-Up Restructuring
- New York Times: Covid Forces Families to Rethink Nursing Home Care
- *McKnight’s Senior Living: White House recognizes assisted living’s ‘critical importance’ as aging services provider
Vaccines:
- *McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: Providers ‘fully committed’ to new COVID vaccination reporting requirement
- Buffalo News: Nearly 40% of state’s nursing home workers declined COVID-19 shots
- Topeka Capital Journal: Vaccinations are vital for Kansas long-term care facilities. But only half of staff have gotten shots
- McKnight’s Senior Living: Providers see slight increase in COVID vaccine uptake among staff
- MPR News: Nursing home staff lag in COVID-19 vaccinations, but role models help
- North Jersey.com: Some get COVID shots. One who didn’t died. The uneven effort to vaccinate NJ’s homebound
- Tampa Bay Times: About 800,000 Florida seniors still aren’t vaccinated
- Associated Press: Hogan announces steps to urge nursing home vaccinations
- NBC News: CVS, Walgreens have wasted hundreds of thousands of Covid vaccine doses, data show
- Associated Press: Nursing home workers can skip COVID-19 tests if vaccinated
- McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: Nursing home study is first to affirm fed’s choice to prioritize residents, staff for vaccines
Long-term care financing, care services and the future of care:
- The National Law Review: New Washington Payroll Tax to Pay for ‘Free’ Long-Term Care Benefits from the State
- The Hill: COVID-19 and long-term care reform
- McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: This state is strongly considering a 10% Medicaid pay boost, and officials likely will dictate precisely how providers spend it
II. Other Clips That Influenced the Week: LeadingAge is a sought-out, reliable source for multiple trade and national media outlets (see that coverage on our Driving the Conversation page). Other key clips shaped the narrative last week:
- Skilled Nursing News: Think Tank to Congress: Ban Private Equity Investment in Nursing Homes
- The Tribune Democrat: WATCH VIDEO | ‘Takes an enormous toll’: Area nursing home leaders seek state dollars to emerge from COVID
- McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: Mission impossible? Not for nonprofits that act swiftly amid growing sellers pool
- Health Affairs: Nursing Home Staffing Levels Did Not Change Significantly During COVID-19
- *McKnight’s Senior Living: HUD announces return to senior housing physical inspections
- Skilled Nursing News: To Address Staff Shortages, Nursing Homes Should Follow Home Care’s Recruiting Lead
- McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: Difficult workload created ‘perception’ of nursing home staffing shortages during pandemic: study
- *McKnight’s Senior Living: Proposed legislation seeks to provide path to citizenship for immigrant workers in long-term care
- Health Affairs: Outcomes After Shortened Skilled Nursing Facility Stays Suggest Potential For Improving Postacute Care Efficiency
- *Senior Living News: Volara Enables Video Calling and More on the Google Nest Hub Max in 300+ Senior Living Communities and 9,000 Residents’ Apartments Across the US and UK
- McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: Support needed to improve health outcomes in nursing homes that serve Black residents, experts say
- *McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: ‘High stakes’ as providers still face brisk infection control surveys, brace for return of standard inspections
III. What’s On Our Radar–This week’s likely priorities:
- Infrastructure
- Older Americans Month continues
IV. National Statements & Products (all posted on ‘Driving the Conversation’ page):
V. State Resources Rundown:State Association COVID Media Materials: A folder of helpful resources, sample op eds, fact sheets, and more.
- Placed Op Eds: Add yours!