“Medicaid: CMS Should Assess Effect of Increased Telehealth Use on Beneficiaries’ Quality of Care,” Government Accountability Office   Quote: “Telehealth has helped people get the health care they need while reducing their COVID-19 exposure risk. At the start of the pandemic, Medicaid data from 5 states showed exponential increases in the number and percentage of services delivered via telehealth, the number of Medicaid beneficiaries receiving telehealth. For example, from March 2020-February 2021, 32.5 million services were delivered via telehealth vs. 2.1 million services the prior year. But, Medicaid hasn’t collected or assessed data on the quality of care beneficiaries received
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“Are You Receiving, Providing or Paying for Long-Term Care?,” New York Times   Quote: “Reporters from The Times and Kaiser Health News are writing about the toll on families and individuals dealing with the costs of long-term care. We would like to hear about your experiences. Please fill out the form below and a reporter may reach you to follow up. We won’t publish any part of your submission without contacting you first.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: I’m not sure we need more evidence about the toll of caregiving as much as we need
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“Risk of Alzheimer’s linked to cholesterol, blood sugar levels at age 35,” by Annie Lennon, MedicalNewsToday Quote: “Researchers recently investigated the link between cardiovascular measures and Alzheimer’s disease. They found that low high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol), high triglycerides, and blood glucose levels from age 35 are associated with increased Alzheimer’s risk. The authors conclude that early intervention to maintain healthy HDL, triglyceride, and glucose levels may lower Alzheimer’s risk.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: More evidence for the shotgun (unhealthy behavior) explanation for dementia instead of the rifle (plaques) explanation.  
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“Parkinson offers ‘obvious solution’ to staffing problems, occupancy outlook and financing answers,” by James M. Berklan, McKnight’s LTC News Quote: “Two ‘critically important’ issues will determine long-term care providers’ near-term fate over the next month and a half, the nation’s top nursing home leader said Tuesday. One is to achieve another extension of the federal public health emergency (PHE) designation before it expires April 15. The other will be achieving a favorable proposal for the 2023 Medicare payment rule next month, said Mark Parkinson, the president of the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living.”   LTC
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“Can a Reverse Mortgage Pay for Long-Term Care?,” by Rachel Murphy, Investopedia Quote: “Key Takeaways: Home equity conversion mortgages can be used for any purpose, including long-term care. Once the borrower has left the home for more than 12 consecutive months, the house will be sold to repay the mortgage and interest. Joint borrowers have more leeway, as the reverse mortgage doesn’t have to be repaid until the last borrower leaves.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Reverse mortgages could be a great source of LTC financing, including generating funds to pay LTC insurance
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“Beware the growth of Medicare Advantage, Harvard professor says,” by Liza Berger, McKnight’s Home Care Quote: “Medicare Advantage (MA) is growing too fast, putting the Medicare program in jeopardy. The government needs to put speed bumps in place to curb its trajectory and bolster traditional Medicare (TM). That is the opinion of a Harvard professor and senior adviser to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, who wrote an article about the issue late last week in Health Affairs. MA, a private form of Medicare insurance, is expected to surpass 50% of eligible Medicare lives within the next year and 69% of the Medicare population
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“We can turn the caregiver crisis around, but fast action is needed,” by Katie Smith Sloan, The Hill Quote: “The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare how decades of state and federal underinvestment in our aging services infrastructure has created a crisis for families trying to access long-term care services—and historic challenges for aging services providers who serve millions of older adults. … A bold, all-of-government approach is needed to get us out of this crisis—and ensure consistent access to quality care that older adults and their families deserve.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: It
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“Kennedy, Inhofe introduce bill to protect Medicaid recipients,” Senator John Kennedy (R, LA) Quote: “The Protecting Medicaid Beneficiaries Act would expand the Asset Verification Services (AVS) program, which helps ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries are legally eligible to receive benefits, to all Medicaid applicants. AVS currently only applies to aged, blind and disabled Medicaid applicants.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: A step in the right direction if it passes. But the irony is that fraud is not Medicaid’s only problem. As important are all the legal ways people qualify for Medicaid’s most expensive benefit,
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“Don’t Look Up? Medicare Advantage’s Trajectory And The Future Of Medicare,” by J. Michael McWilliams, Health Affairs Quote: “After a 9 percent increase from 2021 to 2022, enrollment in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program is expected to surpass 50 percent of the eligible Medicare population within the next year. At its current rate of growth, MA is on track to reach 69 percent of the Medicare population by the end of 2030. The subsidies fueling MA’s rapid expansion are well-documented. … MA’s rapid growth has stirred controversy, focused primarily on its exploitation of a manipulable risk-adjustment system. This has allowed MA to appropriate growing, unintended
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