· Topic
Policy
40 briefs
Justice Department memo tests Florida case over children in nursing homes
A June 18 Justice Department opinion challenges the ADA's integration mandate; its first test is the federal case over medically fragile children placed in Florida nursing homes.
PolicyDisabilityChild Care
North Carolina bill would set $18-to-$24 wage floors for direct-care workers
House Bill 1045 would set occupation-specific minimums from $18 an hour for home care aides to $24 for licensed practical nurses, starting January 2028 if approved.
PolicyWorkforceElder CareDisabilityMental Health
Kentucky families rally as 4% Medicaid waiver cut nears its Aug. 1 start
About 100 families, caregivers and providers rallied in Frankfort against a 4% Medicaid waiver reimbursement cut set for Aug. 1, as nearly 19,000 Kentuckians wait for waiver slots.
PolicyDisabilityElder Care
HHS watchdog opens review of Medicare hospice payments in nursing homes
A new HHS Inspector General review will estimate savings from reducing the hospice routine home care rate, which covers personal care that nursing homes are already required to provide.
PolicyElder Care
Judge orders Oklahoma Medicaid to restore Mirabelle Care's payments
A judge ordered Oklahoma's Medicaid agency to resume Mirabelle Care's SoonerCare payments and lift its November fraud suspension, the company says. The underlying investigation remains active.
PolicyBusinessDisabilityMental Health
Georgetown: CMS work-reporting rule is harsher than the statute
The interim final rule narrows the medical frailty exemption and leaves key definitions to states, so identical circumstances may be judged differently by state.
PolicyDisabilityGeneral
DHS finalizes public charge rule effective Sept. 18
The rule drops the 2022 seven-factor test for a totality-of-circumstances review that weighs receipt of means-tested benefits against an immigrant's legal status.
PolicyWorkforceElder CareGeneral
Kentucky cuts Medicaid waiver payments 4% starting Aug. 1
A June 8 letter told providers reimbursement drops next month, hitting the home and community-based waivers nearly 19,000 Kentuckians are already waiting on.
PolicyDisabilityElder Care
Nurse threatens court fight over Cattaraugus County home care closure
Jessica Shaffer told county lawmakers she may sue over the closure of the health department's home care program, which has shrunk from 225 patients in November to 88 in June.
PolicyElder Care
Oklahoma autism provider says seven centers close this month without Medicaid
Mirabelle Care is preparing to file for injunctive relief after the state froze its SoonerCare payments over a fraud investigation into the company's former owner.
PolicyBusinessDisabilityChild Care
California moves to name large employers whose workers rely on Medi-Cal
A revived disclosure bill would identify companies with 100 or more employees that have workers on Medi-Cal, as a January work-requirement deadline approaches.
PolicyWorkforceGeneral
Maryland delays $126 million in disability cuts; families brace anyway
Gov. Wes Moore's budget cut $126 million from the Developmental Disabilities Administration. Because state funds are matched by Medicaid, the agency's shortfall tops $250 million.
PolicyWorkforceDisability
Washington high court ends sub-minimum-wage exemption for live-in caregivers
The state Supreme Court called the decades-old carve-out unconstitutional, extending wage, overtime, and sick-leave protections to adult family home staff.
WorkforcePolicyElder CareDisability
Newsom defends paying for housing and food with Medicaid as GOP calls it fraud
California's whole-person Medi-Cal spending is now the center of a Washington fight over what Medicaid should cover.
PolicyGeneralElder Care
Minnesota's Medicaid provider crackdown hits small home-care agencies
The state is revalidating 5,600 'high-risk' providers and freezing payments; some clients have lost home care or been hospitalized.
PolicyBusinessElder CareDisability
Federal policy converges on a fragile direct care workforce
Medicaid cuts, a wage-rule rollback, and stripped immigrant protections converge on home care as dementia costs climb.
PolicyWorkforceElder CareDisabilityGeneral
Minnesota's Medicaid provider crackdown reaches federal court
A state revalidation and payment-freeze drive lands on small home care agencies as CMS presses the model nationally.
PolicyBusinessWorkforceElder CareDisabilityGeneral
Medicaid work requirements move from statute to paperwork
Michigan starts twice-yearly checks as advocates warn CMS is narrowing exemptions for people with substance use disorders.
PolicyDisabilityMental HealthGeneral
Federal policy changes converge on the direct care workforce
A KFF analysis, a proposed wage rollback, and a Supreme Court TPS ruling all press on the workers who provide U.S. long-term care.
PolicyWorkforceElder CareDisability
Minnesota's high-risk Medicaid revalidation lands in federal court
The state's off-cycle screening of 5,600 providers now runs alongside a home care agency's due process fight over a frozen payment.
PolicyBusinessElder CareDisability
Michigan sets Medicaid work rules, with a carve-out for family caregivers
About 678,000 expansion enrollees face 80-hour reporting from January 2027, as CMS narrows the medically-frail exemption Congress wrote.
PolicyGeneralDisabilityMental Health
England Asks the Public Who Should Pay for Elder Care
Baroness Casey's commission calls England's social-care system 'impossible' and will ask the public who should receive care and how to pay for it.
PolicyBusinessElder CareDisability
CMS Pays Home Health More, and Moves to Revoke Faster
The 2027 home-health rule offers a $420 million raise, the first since 2022, bundled with authority to make all Medicare enrollment revocations retroactive.
PolicyBusinessElder Care
The Home-Care Workforce Walks Out as Its Wage Floor Is Cut
450 Mass General Brigham clinicians begin the state's largest healthcare strike as a federal rule moves to cut wage protections for 3 million home-care workers.
WorkforcePolicyElder CareChild CareDisability
The Rule Decides Who Counts as Too Sick to Work
Ms. Magazine argues the administration is narrowing Medicaid's 'medically frail' exemption beyond what Congress wrote, hitting sick and disabled enrollees first.
PolicyElder CareDisabilityChild Care
Ohio Writes a Home-Care Fraud Crackdown Into Law
A bipartisan Medicaid home-health fraud bill, prompted by a Daily Wire investigation, clears both chambers and heads to Governor DeWine.
PolicyWorkforceDisabilityElder CareChild Care
Naming the Emotional Weight of the Sandwich Generation
A psychologist reframes the midlife care squeeze as emotional labor and parentification, and names self-care and policy change as the way through.
PolicyBusinessCultureElder CareChild Care
Social Security's Own Trustees Now Score a 22% Cut for 2032
The 2026 trustees report projects a benefit cut for 70 million recipients, and the shortfall grew because the trustees cut their immigration forecast.
ResearchPolicyElder CareChild CareDisability
Congress Cut Medicaid. Guess Who Picks Up the Tab.
The sandwich generation was already stretched. Federal policy just made it worse.
PolicyElder CareGeneral
Medicaid Work Requirements Are Coming. Caregivers Are the Collateral.
New rules demand work to keep Medicaid — but caring for a disabled child or aging parent doesn't count the way you'd think.
PolicyElder CareDisabilityGeneral
The VA Cut 30,000 Jobs. Now It Says It's Hiring.
Veterans' caregivers are caught between a staffing purge and a promise that the worst is over. The data says otherwise.
PolicyWorkforceElder CareDisability
A New Bill Says Prisons Can't Ignore Pregnant Women. That This Needs Saying Is the Story.
Rep. Kamlager-Dove's legislation would ban shackling and require prenatal care in federal custody. Current practice is worse than you think.
PolicyCultureGeneral
Texas Has a 10-Year Wait for Disability Services. A Hotline Won't Fix That.
A proposed national IDD caregiver hotline meets a Medicaid system where families wait a decade for help that may never arrive.
PolicyDisabilityElder Care
America Needs Millions More Caregivers. It Has No Plan to Find Them.
The elderly population is surging, nurses are burning out, and states are refusing to raise home care wages. The math is brutal.
WorkforcePolicyElder CareGeneral
Connecticut Passed a Caregiver Tax Credit. Congress Is Still Talking.
While federal bills stall in committee, Hartford slipped a caregiver tax credit into its budget — and AARP is cheering.
PolicyElder CareGeneral
Dingell's Home Care Bills Have Industry Backing. They Still Need Money.
PHI endorsed two landmark bills to expand home care access. LeadingAge is asking the hard question: who pays?
PolicyWorkforceElder CareDisability
Federal Child Care Funding Helps a Million Kids. Millions More Wait.
New CCDBG state fact sheets show how far federal child care dollars stretch — and where they fall short.
PolicyResearchChild Care
The Social Security Fix Caregivers Actually Need Is Finally on the Table
A new bill would credit caregiving years toward Social Security benefits. It could reshape retirement for millions.
PolicyElder CareGeneral
Child Care Costs Are a Mental Health Crisis Now, Not Just an Economic One
New research links child care access directly to parent mental health — reframing the debate beyond affordability.
PolicyResearchChild CareMental Health
Congress Just Introduced More Care Bills in Two Weeks Than Most Sessions See in a Year
A legislative flood is remaking the care economy debate — but volume alone doesn't mean victory.
PolicyElder CareChild CareGeneral