Medicaid: What to Watch in 2022
As 2022 kicks off, a number of issues are at play that could affect coverage and financing under Medicaid. This issue brief examines key issues to watch in Medicaid in the year ahead.
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As 2022 kicks off, a number of issues are at play that could affect coverage and financing under Medicaid. This issue brief examines key issues to watch in Medicaid in the year ahead.
The covid pandemic has provided more visibility for longstanding ageist attitudes and practices that run through the health care system, at times undermining the care and well-being of older adults in this country. KFF’s Kaiser Health News and The John A. Hartford Foundation held a 90-minute interactive web event on ageism in health care -- a frank, practical and empowering conversation about this pervasive, systemic problem of bias, discrimination or stereotyping based on age --…
In recent focus group interviews, 32 paid direct care workers and unpaid caregivers who assist seniors and people with disabilities with self-care and household activities describe daily work defined by low pay, physical demands and mental stress that has been made worse by the pandemic. KFF conducted the four focus groups in July and August 2021 with 24 direct care workers and eight unpaid caregivers to help provide context for the ongoing debate in Congress…
To help inform the ongoing debate, KFF conducted four focus groups in July and August 2021 with direct care workers and unpaid caregivers who provide HCBS, assisting seniors and people with disabilities with daily self-care and household activities. These focus groups are not necessarily generalizable to all caregivers, but can provide insight into their experiences to help inform current policy debates.
During the pandemic many states have experienced worsening direct care workforce shortages that have affected providers of home- and community-based long-term care services (HCBS), according to early findings of a new KFF survey of Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Most states reported workforce shortages as the pandemic’s primary impact on HCBS provided in an enrollee’s home and in group homes. The pandemic has brought new attention among policymakers…
This issue brief presents early findings from the most recent KFF survey of Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It focuses on state policies adopted in response to challenges posed by the pandemic, the pandemic’s impact on Medicaid HCBS enrollees and providers, and states’ initial plans for the new American Rescue Plan Act 10 percentage point temporary increase in federal Medicaid matching funds for HCBS available from April 2021…
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, residents and staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities accounted for a huge share of COVID deaths, but a new KFF analysis finds that they were relatively rare events across the country in June. The analysis finds that 13 states and the District of Columbia in June reported either no COVID-19 deaths, or virtually no deaths compared to the state’s population, at long-term care facilities. Most other states…
This data note examines state-level data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities through June prior to the recent rise in cases and deaths nationally linked to the spread of the Delta variant. It finds long-term care deaths down 96% from their peak in December as the nation's vaccination effort began.
States are currently developing plans to access an increased federal matching rate (“FMAP”) for Medicaid HCBS spending established in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. In the future, states may also be able to access increased HCBS funds proposed in the Biden Administration’s American Jobs Plan and the Better Care Better Jobs Act recently introduced in Congress. This brief highlights examples of Medicaid HCBS policy changes authorized through Section 1115 demonstration waivers in…
This issue brief places the American Jobs Plan in the context of current Medicaid HCBS spending and considers how policymakers might allocate the new funding, as the proposal to date includes little detail.
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