The Georgia Council on Aging is once again pushing for state lawmakers to expand an elder abuse registry, and it’s one of five critical pieces of legislation the advocacy group would like to see passed in 2017. The GCA also wants lawmakers to approve new funding for transportation services for the elderly and disabled to help them meet their health care needs and improve their quality of life; funding for home and community-based services; expand access to dental health care; and enable workers to use their earned sick time to care for loved ones. According to the Georgia Department of…
Federal officials are chiming in on how to balance independence and safety for people with disabilities who have a tendency to wander. In a recently-issued frequently asked questions document, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that there have been concerns as states work to implement new regulations governing Medicaid home and community-based services waivers. The regulations, which are set to take full effect in March 2019, establish new standards for what settings are considered community-based. Services paid for through Medicaid home and community-based services funds cannot be provided at nursing homes, institutions or intermediate care facilities under the…
Much of the recent attention on the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has focused on the fate of the 22.5 million people likely to lose insurance through a repeal of Medicaid expansion and the loss of protections and subsidies in the individual insurance market. Overlooked in the declarations of who stands to lose under plans to “repeal and replace” the ACA are those enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans — the primary source of coverage for people under 65. Job-based plans offered to employees and their families cover 150 million people in the United States. If the ACA is…
The Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON) and form instructions are now available online. MOON is a standardized notice to inform beneficiaries that they are an outpatient receiving observation services and are not an inpatient of the hospital or critical access hospital (CAH). Read this MOON fact sheet. Hospitals and CAHs must begin using the MOON no later than March 8, 2017. David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law…
Prompted by a state law that took effect this year, a coalition of emergency and social service providers is working to create an electronic registry for POLST forms so they will be available to first responders and medical providers when they are needed. The group is starting with a three-year pilot project in San Diego and Contra Costa counties that could serve as a model for a single, statewide registry. Paper-based POLST forms are used across the nation, but electronic registries exist only in a few states, including Oregon, New York and West Virginia. Many adults have advance directives, which…
Without congressional intervention, about 16,000 retired miners in seven states will lose their health care coverage by the end of the year. A proposal to temporarily extend the benefits is working its way through Congress. But two Senate Democrats, who have long been advocates for a more comprehensive plan, say the temporary provision isn’t enough. They are threatening to hold up a spending bill that needs to pass by Friday night to keep the government running. Coal mining is dangerous work. For many miners, a government-backed promise of lifelong health care for them and their dependents made the risk worth…
A new report from the General Accountability Office finds room for improvement in a government website meant to help consumers choose among nursing homes. The report stemmed from a request by Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and other lawmakers in the wake of reporting by the New York Times that was critical of the Nursing Home Compare web tool and its Five-Star Rating System. The Times concluded that the rating system, which includes information on more than 15,000 nursing homes, relied too heavily on self-reported data from the facilities and did not include potentially valuable information about state enforcement actions, allowing…
Where is employment for adults with autism and other neurodiverse (developmental and learning) differences heading in 2017? What employment assistance or initiatives offer the greatest promise? If you want to help someone you know who is part of the neurodiverse workforce, what should you be doing in 2017? The current year saw a range of employment initiatives, most of them extra-governmental, often driven by the energy of persons on the autism spectrum, advocates, and parents. These initiatives might be grouped among three primary strategies. “Autism at Work” and other targeted hiring and retention efforts by large employers: Microsoft’s “Autism at…
Starting on December 10, 2016, the SSA has begun accepting non-medical denial and adverse action appeals online. Applicants can appeal a wide range of decisions, including denial of benefits, date of entitlement, and overpayment. The online appeals application allows a customer to complete and submit the Request for Reconsideration and Request for Hearing by Administrative Law Judge to Social Security online. The new application incorporates appeals of non-medical denial decisions with features already available, including uploading supporting documents online. In addition, people living outside the United States can also utilize this new service. This expansion will reduce the need for…
America’s immigrant community is aging along with the rest of the population, and in many cases, with great financial difficulty. Some 15 percent of adults 60 and over were foreign-born in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Older immigrants represent a larger proportion of the elderly in major gateway cities and states. For example, in New York City, they comprise 46 percent of older adults; in California, one in nearly three older residents is foreign-born. Late-life immigrants are contributing to rising ethnic populations in rural areas and small towns in the Midwest and South, such as in Minnesota and…
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