“The Nation’s Fiscal Health: After Pandemic Recovery, Focus Needed on Achieving Long-Term Fiscal Sustainability,” Government Accountability Office “Congress and the administration have responded in an unprecedented manner to address the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting severe economic repercussions. Since March 2020, pandemic response has cost trillions of federal dollars. Until the country better contains the virus, the pandemic will likely remain a significant obstacle to more robust economic activity. After the pandemic recedes and the economy substantially recovers, Congress and the administration should quickly pivot to developing an approach to place the government on a sustainable long-term fiscal path. In fiscal
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“The Boom in Out-of-State Telehealth Threatens In-State Providers,” by Matt Volz, Kaiser Health News “A year into the pandemic, telehealth has become widely accepted. Some states are now looking to make permanent the measures that have fueled its growth. But with it have come some unintended consequences, such as a rise in fraud, potential access problems for vulnerable groups and conflicts between out-of-state and in-state health providers. … Before covid, remote doctor visits by computer or phone were rare: Just 2.4% of enrollees in large-employer health plans used a telehealth service in 2018, according to KFF. That was due in part
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“2021 Poverty Projections: Assessing Four American Rescue Plan Policies,” by Laura Wheaton, Sarah Minton, Linda Giannarelli, and Kelly Dwyer, Urban Institute “Four key elements of the American Rescue Plan Act would reduce the projected poverty rate for 2021 by more than one-third. In an earlier analysis, we projected that without this legislation, the 2021 annual poverty rate would be 13.7 percent.  We project that key elements of the American Rescue Plan would reduce that annual poverty rate to 8.7 percent. The policies would reduce poverty by more than half for children and for people in households experiencing job loss. Poverty would
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“Amazon Care reportedly to launch telehealth offering in all 50 states,” by Joe Jancsurak, McKnight’s Senior Living “Amazon’s app-based healthcare service for employees, Amazon Care, soon will launch throughout the country, according to a Healthcare IT report.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: What’s next? Amazon LTC? What’ll that look like?        
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“Long-Term Care Insurers Reveal Early COVID-19 Effects,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “The first two U.S. waves of the COVID-19 pandemic may have hit some U.S. long-term care insurance issuers’ customers hard and missed the customers of other issuers. A team from Milliman Inc. has described the early effects of the pandemic on U.S. LTCI issuers in a new report prepared for the Society of Actuaries, with funding from the Senior Health Care Oversight Trust.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: All in all, not exactly devastating, but wait until D.        
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“Home Equity Continues To Soar,” Advisor Magazine “CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released the Home Equity Report for the fourth quarter of 2020. The report shows U.S. homeowners with mortgages (which account for roughly 62% of all properties) have seen their equity increase by 16.2% year over year, representing a collective equity gain of over $1.5 trillion, and an average gain of $26,300 per homeowner, since the fourth quarter of 2019.”     LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: This is a rare bit of good economic
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Maggots, Rape and Yet Five Stars: How U.S. Ratings of Nursing Homes Mislead the Public,” by Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Robert Gebeloff, New York Times   “Among The Times’s findings: Much of the information submitted to C.M.S. is wrong. Almost always, that incorrect information makes the homes seem cleaner and safer than they are. Some nursing homes inflate their staffing levels by, for example, including employees who are on vacation. The number of patients on dangerous antipsychotic medications is frequently understated. Residents’ accidents and health problems often go unreported. In one sign of the problems with the self-reported data, nursing homes
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“Demystifying Cash Buyouts of Long-Term Care Insurance Policies,” Morgan Lewis   “Partner Harold Horwich teams with global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal in a webinar highlighting the benefits of cash buyouts, the primary impediments to their broader adoption, and their perspective on why those impediments—whether financial, philosophical, legal, regulatory, or tax-related—are either more imagined than real, or can be effectively mitigated.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Last week we highlighted this webinar in an “LTC Clipping.” Now you can watch it online and view the slides here.        
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“‘Absolutely astonishing’: 90% drop in COVID cases shocks Parkinson, industry leaders,” by Danielle Brown, McKnight LTC News   “Leaders of the nation’s largest nursing home association knew there would be decreases of coronavirus deaths and cases at facilities following the availability of the COVID-19 vaccines. But the rate at which the numbers have plummeted across the country has come as a huge shock to providers. ‘A peak of 30,000 [new] cases per week just three months ago, now just 3,000 cases per week — a 90% drop,’ Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, said during a CNN interview
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“Can we keep Medicare from being insolvent by 2024?,” by Chris Farrell, MarketWatch   “Even as America’s Balkanized healthcare system struggles to deal with the pandemic, the coronavirus lurks behind another looming crisis. Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is projected to become insolvent in 2024 or 2026 — just three to five years from now.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Medicare? Who worries about that anymore? The whole government is insolvent, printing and borrowing more than it takes in from taxes.      
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