From Expertise to Impact: Partnering With State and Federal Stakeholders to Change the Lives of Older Adults

Published: | 11:30 am | Posted in: Uncategorized

Dr. Kunkel’s talk focused on the important role that aging experts can play in shaping the well-being of older adults. She described critical problems facing older people, and policy, program, and clinical practice solutions that can lead to improved quality of life. This presentation included examples of applied research studies that Dr. Kunkel’s team conducted […]

FSU researchers use AI to prompt older adults’ participation in research

Published: | 6:38 am | Posted in: Uncategorized

In a new study, Florida State University researchers explore the challenges of recruiting and retaining older adults to participate in research.  The study also marks the first step of a broad, interdisciplinary FSU effort to increasingly use artificial intelligence in research.  In the study, published in The Gerontologist, Associate Professor of Sociology Dawn Carr identified core “motivation clusters” […]

An Ethic of Care Needed in Our Long-Term Care System

Published: | 9:58 am | Posted in: Ethics in Aging, Research

This article was originally published in 2021 by Generations Today, a publication by the American Society on Aging. By Larry Polivka The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating multidimensional impact on the world, especially among older adults, and specifically nursing home residents. More than 130,000 nursing home residents have died and for untold thousands their […]

Failures of Regulation and Policy in Medicaid-Managed Long-Term Care and Medicare Advantage

Published: | 9:50 am | Posted in: Managed LTC, Research

This article was originally published by the Public Policy & Aging Report in 2021. By Lori Gonzalez, Larry Polivka, and LuMarie Polivka-West We, like many long-term care (LTC) researchers and policy analysts, are concerned about the chronic inadequacy, from a LTC recipient perspective, of the LTC regulatory framework at the federal and state levels. Our […]

Retirement Security

Published: | 10:42 am | Posted in: Research, Retirement Security

By Lori Gonzalez Introduction Retirement security—being able to transition out of the workforce without severe financial devastation or serious risks to health—was first formed in the U.S. by the New Deal programs enacted in the 1930s which included Social Security and unemployment insurance.  Assistance for older people prior to the New Deal was largely absent save […]

Why Do Late Boomers Have So Little Retirement Wealth?

Published: | 9:11 am | Posted in: Retirement Security

Over the last 40 years, the retirement system has shifted from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, primarily 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). This shift has been accompanied by a decline in Social Security benefits relative to pre-retirement earnings as the program’s Full Retirement Age has moved from 65 to 67. Thus, the […]

Institute Talk: A Conversation with Dan Reingold on Leading a Nursing Home in America’s Worst COVID-19 Hot Spot

Published: | 1:24 pm | Posted in: Covid-19 Public Policy

Dan Reingold is the chief executive of RiverSpring Health and a prominent national figure in the field of aging services. RiverSpring includes The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, a 750-bed nursing home in the Bronx, N.Y. The New York State Department of Health reported on March 30 that more than 1,000 residents of state nursing homes, […]

Harnessing Our Humanity — How Washington’s Health Care Workers Have Risen to the Pandemic Challenge

Published: | 1:23 pm | Posted in: Covid-19 Public Policy

In early March 2020, Ms. B., a woman in her mid-70s, was admitted from her nursing home to Seattle Harborview’s medical ICU with suspected Covid-19. When she rapidly decompensated, the ICU team resuscitated her as they would any patient: central line, fluids, pressors. But when it became clear that her death was imminent, providing supportive […]

GOP-led states diverge on easing Medicaid access during COVID-19

Published: | 6:56 pm | Posted in: Covid-19 Public Policy

At least two Republican-led states want to temporarily ease their Medicaid waiver requirements and make it easier for residents to get and keep coverage under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program during the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, Arizona and Iowa sent requests to the CMS so they can make temporary changes to their Medicaid […]

American Hospital Capacity And Projected Need for COVID-19 Patient Care

Published: | 5:49 pm | Posted in: Covid-19 Public Policy

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is rapidly spreading throughout the world. In the United States, the disease is expected to infect 20-60 percent of the population before the pandemic finishes its course. The recent experience in Italy has highlighted the critical need to ensure adequate […]

Battling The Mental Health Crisis Through State Medicaid Reforms

Published: | 11:43 pm | Posted in: Mental Health

Total deaths from suicide, alcohol, or drugs, what some call “deaths of despair,” increased by 51 percent from 2005 to 2016 in the United States, and drug overdose deaths increased by 16 percent per year between 2014 and 2017. These statistics reflect the well-documented opioid crisis and what some experts have called a national “mental […]

Spousal Caregivers Are Caregiving Alone In The Last Years Of Life

Published: | 11:17 pm | Posted in: Caregiving

Caregiving in the last years of life is associated with increased depression and negative health outcomes for surviving spouses, many of whom are themselves in poor health. Yet it is unclear how often spouses are caregiving alone, how they differ from supported spouses, and whether lack of support affects postbereavement outcomes. We hypothesized that spouses […]

U.S. Nursing Home Violations of International and Domestic Human Rights Standards

Published: | 10:08 pm | Posted in: Nursing Home Care

We present a review of the international covenants and conventions and U.S. domestic laws and regulations that are designed to protect nursing home residents in the United States. Based on a review of research studies, government reports, and news reports, we found extensive evidence of widespread and systematic abuse and neglect of nursing home residents […]

The Forgotten Middle: Many Middle-Income Seniors Will Have Insufficient Resources For Housing And Health Care

Published: | 9:57 pm | Posted in: Private Pensions

As people age and require more assistance with daily living and health needs, a range of housing and care options is available. Over the past four decades the market for seniors housing and care—including assisted living and independent living communities—has greatly expanded to accommodate people with more complex needs. These settings provide housing in a […]

Half of Single Older Adults in U.S. Lack Income to Pay for Basic Needs

Published: | 8:57 pm | Posted in: Welfare, Inequality, and Poverty

Researchers tracking the economic security of America’s older adults have found that half who live alone and nearly a quarter of those living in two-person households where both are age 65 or older are unable to afford basic necessities without extra assistance. The 2019 Elder Index and a companion report, Insecurity in the States 2019, […]

Pharmacy Benefits and the Use of Drugs by the Chronically Ill

Published: | 8:59 pm | Posted in: Health Care Policy and Reform

The use of medications such as antihistamines and NSAIDs, which are taken intermittently to treat symptoms, was sensitive to co-payment changes. Other medications—antihypertensive, antiasthmatic, antidepressant, antihyperlipidemic, antiulcerant, and antidiabetic agents—also demonstrated significant price responsiveness. The reduction in use of medications for individuals in ongoing care was more modest. Still, significant increases in co-payments raise concern […]

How Do Older Workers Use Nontraditional Jobs?

Published: | 4:37 pm | Posted in: Private Pensions

Working consistently through one’s fifties and early sixties is key to attaining retirement security. However, workers also need access to retirement plans – so they can continue to accumulate resources – and health insurance – so they can avoid withdrawing assets in the event of a health shock. Workers without access to these benefits will […]

Will More Workers Have Nontraditional Jobs as Globalization and Automation Spread?

Published: | 3:08 pm | Posted in: Private Pensions

Recent research has called attention to alternative employment arrangements that often leave workers without retirement and health benefits and with income instability.  At the same time, workers are facing increasing competition from automation and globalization.  This competition is of special concern for older workers, who increasingly need longer careers to secure an adequate retirement and […]

Institute Talk: A Conversation With Vince Mor on Alzheimer’s Care and the State of Nursing Homes

Published: | 5:27 pm | Posted in: Alzheimer's Disease: Cure & Care

Vincent Mor is a leading academic expert on eldercare issues and a national authority on research related to nursing homes. The Brown University professor has been principal investigator in more than 40 grants funded by the National Institutes of Health that focus on the use of health services and the outcomes experienced by frail and […]