News About Aging

To learn more about CHC, you are invited to a community meeting to hear about the program and have an opportunity to ask questions.

• Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report:  Medicaid Assisted Living Services: Improved Federal Oversight of Beneficiary Health and Welfare is Needed. 
• ‘‘It was then that I thought ‘What? This is not my Dad’’:  The implications of the ‘still the same person’ narrative for children and young people who have a parent with dementia.

Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA), a member of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) , joins in n4a advocacy opposing a tax-cut bill that poses major risks to aging programs. A Senate vote is imminent.

The start of CHC has been delayed for Southeastern Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, until January 1, 2019.

• Resilience in context: the special case of advanced age.  Karen J. Hayman, Ngaire Kerse & Nathan S. Consedine.  Aging & Mental Health,  Volume 21, 2017 – Issue 6, Pages 577-585.  Published online: June 22, 2016.
• U. S. GAO: MEDICAID MANAGED CARE: CMS Should Improve Oversight of Access and Quality in States’ Long-Term Services and Supports Programs.  GAO-17-632: Published: August 14, 2017. Publicly Released: September 13, 2017.  Access to full report and highlights.

If Pennsylvania’s $2.2 billion budget gap isn’t filled soon, Gov. Tom Wolf has indicated, the commonwealth could be heading for a major freeze on spending on non-essential services. Exactly which funds will freeze is not known, but it is not expected to include federal human services funds or Lottery funds.

On Thursday, August 3, Lance Robertson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as assistant secretary for aging and administrator of the Administration on Community Living.

The Senate Republican leadership’s latest efforts to repeal the ACA came to a dramatic conclusion when three Republican senators voted against the “skinny” bill released only hours before.

Opposition has effectively doomed Congress’ ACA repeal efforts, for now. But Senate Majority Leader McConnell still intends to bring up the repeal-without-replace measure on the Senate floor next week. Advocates must continue to remain vigilant to save Medicaid.