AARP Shares Promising Practices and Emerging Innovations through the Long-Term Services and Supports State Scorecard

In our seminal 2017 Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) State Scorecard, we issued a call to action to “pick up the pace of change.” To help accelerate LTSS reforms, we have released a series of Promising Practices and Emerging Innovations reports that provide real-world solutions.

Promising practices papers feature LTSS programs and policies from states that perform well or have improved over time on a Scorecard measure. Scorecard emerging innovations papers highlight what LTSS solutions states and organizations are developing, piloting, or testing.

The five reports include:

• Taking It to the Next Level: Using Innovative Strategies to Expand Options for Self-Direction, which describes how four states used innovative strategies to develop and expand programs to help individuals self-direct their LTSS;
• Emerging Innovations in Managed Long-Term Services and Supports for Family Caregivers, which highlights examples of how progressive managed care plans are supporting family caregivers who are caring for plan members with LTSS needs (this paper is the first ever to provide insights directly from managed care leaders about family caregiver supports);
• No Wrong Door: Supporting Community Living for Veterans, which describes promising practices on how aging and disability agencies, Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, and Veteran Benefits Offices have forged partnerships to better support Veterans in community living;
• State Strategies to Reduce the Risk of Long-Term Nursing Home Care after Hospitalization, which explains strategies used in four highly ranked or significantly improved states to reduce the risk of long-term nursing home care following a hospitalization; and
• No Wrong Door: Person- and Family-Centered Practices in Long-Term Services and Supports, which provides concrete examples of how seven No Wrong Door Systems—sometimes called Aging and Disability Resource Centers—are promoting person- and family-centered practice.

 

Our blog in Health Affairs details how the LTSS State Scorecard and these accompanying promising practices reports are giving states a tool to improve LTSS.  Through these reports, we are providing the insights of administrators, policymakers, and private sector experts on the programs, policies, and budget strategies that can drive LTSS performance.

With collaboration and funding from The Commonwealth Fund, The SCAN Foundation, and the AARP Foundation, we are now hard at work on our fourth Scorecard, which will be published in June 2020. As an integral part of this project, we are committed to publishing more promising practices and emerging innovations on a rolling schedule throughout the next two years in order to advance action.

 

 

Wendy Fox-Grage has provided policy research, analysis, and guidance for the AARP Public Policy Institute since 2004. Her areas of focus are state long-term services and supports reforms, Medicaid managed long-term services and supports, and home- and community-based services.