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LeadingAge

Submitted by ddailey on Thu, 04/01/2021 - 12:45

April 1, 2021, Washington, DC—A top aging services organization released a plan to build the national aging services infrastructure needed to keep up with America’s growing older population.

Author: 
Lisa Sanders
Contact: 

Contact: Lisa Sanders, lsanders@leadingage.org 202-508-9407

Boilerplate About: 
About LeadingAge:
Boilerplate Body: 

We represent more than 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-minded organizations that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside our members and 38 state partners, we use applied research, advocacy, education, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old. Our membership, which now includes the providers of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America, encompasses the continuum of services for people as they age, including those with disabilities. We bring together the most inventive minds in the field to lead and innovate solutions that support older adults wherever they call home. For more information visit leadingage.org.

The range of need among the not-for-profit providers varies from as little as $10,000 for an adult day services program to as much as $20 million for a full continuum aging services provider delivering services in multiple states. And yet, if the adult day service program closes because it doesn’t receive funds, it may impact fewer people but the effect will still be profound for those families struggling to care for their loved ones with dementia, while trying to hold down a job.

On March 30, President Biden signed legislation extending the application period for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans through May 31. In addition, banks now have until June 30 to process PPP applications. Without this extension, the program deadlines would have been March 31. 

This extension received broad bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. 

LeadingAge members who were considering PPP loan applications now have until the end of May to apply if they so choose. 

On March 26, LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan sent a letter to housing authorizing committees on our wish-list for affordable housing within any infrastructure package. President Biden is expected to release an outline of his infrastructure proposal, Build Back Better, the week of March 29 and congressional hearings have begun on the topic.

LeadingAge’s housing priorities for an infrastructure bill include:

The House Committee on Financial Services is circulating a discussion draft of the Supporting Seniors and Tenants in Subsidized Housing Act. The draft bill, a version of 2020’s Emergency Housing Assistance for Older Adults Act introduced in the House (as HR 6873) and Senate (as S 4177). The draft bill is sponsored by Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), the chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance.

The Medicare Accelerated and Advanced payment program is a tool that CMS can use to offer to increased cash flow to providers whether due to a disruption in claims processing or due to public health or other emergencies. CMS began offering this option to providers related to the COVID-19 emergency and the terms of the program were expanded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) related to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Submitted by ddailey on Wed, 03/24/2021 - 16:17

March 24, 2021, Washington, DC—A top aging services organization urged the Senate to follow the House of Representatives’s lead and head off billions of dollars in imminent Medicare cuts—which could hurt millions of older Americans and care providers still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The cuts would affect funding for quality care at skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) organizations that provide care for older adults.

Author: 
Lisa Sanders
Contact: 

Contact: Lisa Sanders, lsanders@leadingage.org

Boilerplate About: 
About LeadingAge:
Boilerplate Body: 

We represent more than 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-minded organizations that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside our members and 38 state partners, we use applied research, advocacy, education, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old. Our membership, which now includes the providers of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America, encompasses the continuum of services for people as they age, including those with disabilities. We bring together the most inventive minds in the field to lead and innovate solutions that support older adults wherever they call home. For more information visit leadingage.org.

On March 19, the House passed bipartisan legislation (H.R. 1868) that would prevent reimbursement rate cuts for Medicare providers, including several types of aging services providers that bill Medicare.

Previous legislation suspended the 2% sequester cut to Medicare through the end of March 2021. If further legislation does extend the suspension, Medicare providers will see the 2% cut reinstated beginning April 1.

On March 17 the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing entitled “A National Tragedy: COVID-19 in the Nation’s Nursing Homes”. Witnesses addressed the out-sized impact of the pandemic on nursing home residents – more than 170,000 dead, 40% of total deaths – and staff, and made recommendations about how to protect residents and improve quality. It was very clear from the statements by the members of the Committee as well as testimony, that attention must be paid to workforce, improving how we identify, measure and report on quality, and transparency.

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