Long-Term Services & Supports (LTSS)

This study examined how people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) use hospice compared with patients who have other terminal diagnoses, as well as how hospice characteristics shape those care patterns.

This study examines the use of medical services and long-term services and supports by the population over age 65 over time.

This issue brief looks at changes in the utilization of personal care services among Medicaid beneficiaries from 2019 to 2020.

Shifting spending and delivery of long-term services and supports (LTSS) from institutions to the home and community is often referred to as rebalancing. This report and brief describe variation in LTSS rebalancing between 2016 and 2019 by enrollee age, health condition, and demographic factors.

While the likelihood of needing any long-term services and supports (LTSS) is roughly a coin flip, the cost if one needs assistance for a long period of time can be catastrophic. For example, about one-in-five Americans turning age 65 today will have long-term care costs exceeding $200,000.

This study explores duties and activities that distinguish the DSP occupation from other direct care workforce occupations to inform the consideration of a DSP SOC code and other workforce data collection efforts. This study also identifies information beyond what is needed to create a DSP SOC code that states need on the DSP workforce to address policy and workforce planning activities.

Between 1988 and 1998, Congress established the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs). MSPs are Medicaid programs that subsidize the cost of Medicare premiums, deductibles, co-insurance, and other cost sharing for Medicare beneficiaries with low incomes.

Over one million Americans rely on nursing homes for care, yet nursing homes face challenges in recruiting and retaining staff. Nursing homes rely on registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and nursing assistants (NAs) to provide care, but staff shortages that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic have persisted.

This New Jersey case study provides insights into the daunting challenges states face in seeking to address the home care worker shortage, which has become more acute as New Jersey and other states have striven to “re-balance” Medicaid long-term services and supports use and spending away from institutional care toward home and community-based services.

Direct care workers (DCWs) such as nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal care assistants play an essential role in the health and well-being of over 20 million Americans. Yet DCW wages are not enough to make jobs competitive with entry level positions in other industries with similar job requirements which exacerbates the challenges in recruitment and retention of these workers.