“States face looming crisis over Medicaid growth, which could trigger changes for providers and payers,” by Robert King, Fierce Healthcare Quote: “States are about to face a major budget crisis due to exponential growth in Medicaid enrollment and a decline in tax revenue, which experts say could lead to provider payment cuts or other measures to contain costs.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Very true, but the remainder of this article focuses on Medicaid’s acute care side. That’s not where the biggest financial shortfall will come. Long-term care users, who are 5.9
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  “Masks change everything,” by Gary Tetz, McKnight’s LTC News Quote: “What will COVID-19 do to Social Security’s finances? “Now that small respiratory droplets created by human speech have been found to hang out in the air for more than eight minutes, requiring masks in long-term care and any other setting where people congregate seems like a no-brainer. In fact, at the time of my inevitable demise, please slip one onto my face and leave it there. I don’t want to take any chances of spreading COVID-19 to the afterlife.”   LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care
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“Seniors turn to reverse mortgages as a cash lifeline during the coronavirus crisis,” by Ilana Polyak, CNBC   Quote: “What will COVID-19 do to Social Security’s finances? “More seniors turn to reverse mortgages as a cash lifeline during the coronavirus pandemic. A reverse mortgage can be used in correlation with other retirement income strategies to lessen what’s known as ‘sequence of return risk.’ Applications for reverse mortgages were up 15% in March, according to Reverse Mortgage Insight.”   LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): I’ve long predicted that reverse mortgages would fill the LTC
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“For Most States, At Least A Third Of COVID-19 Deaths Are In Long-Term Care Facilities,” by Vanessa Romo, NPR Quote: “Coronavirus fatalities in long-term care facilities have surpassed a grim threshold in much of the country, accounting for at least a third of the deaths in 26 states and more than half in 14 of those. The data, which was published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, reports tallies from a variety of care facilities, including nursing homes, adult care residences, and other skilled nursing care settings. However, it does not break out those categories separately.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses,
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“The Grim Post-COVID-19 Future For Nursing Homes,” by Howard Gleckman, Forbes Quote: “There has been a lot of focus on the impact of COVID-19 on people in nursing homes, but less attention so far paid to seniors and people with disabilities receiving long-term home and community-based services (HCBS), who also face serious issues. Some news reports recently have emerged about outbreaks in group homes for people with developmental disabilities and the impact on people who receive and those who provide home care. HCBS help with tasks such as bathing, dressing, and preparing meals. Medicaid is the primary payer for these services, financing 59% of HCBS
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“How Are States Supporting Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services During the COVID-19 Crisis?,” by MaryBeth Musumeci, Kaiser Family Foundation Quote: “There has been a lot of focus on the impact of COVID-19 on people in nursing homes, but less attention so far paid to seniors and people with disabilities receiving long-term home and community-based services (HCBS), who also face serious issues. Some news reports recently have emerged about outbreaks in group homes for people with developmental disabilities and the impact on people who receive and those who provide home care. HCBS help with tasks such as bathing, dressing, and preparing meals. Medicaid is the primary
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