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The room at the Kaiser Family Foundation was packed on Tuesday for the forum, The Sleeper in Health Reform: Long-Term Care and the CLASS Act. AAHSA’s Larry Minnix was one of the respondents on an impressive panel of experts. After struggling for so long to bring attention to the issue of long-term care in health reform, I found it gratifying to see the esteemed foundation help fuel the conversation about CLASS.
Perhaps the most interesting comment came from Richard Frank, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy, at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He said, “We in the Department have modeled this extensively, perhaps more extensively than anybody would want to hear about. We are entirely persuaded that reasonable premiums, solid participation rates, and financial solvency over the 75-year period can be maintained. And so, it is on this basis that the Administration supports it and that the bill continues to meet the standards of being able to stand on its own financial feet.”
I hope that some of that modeling becomes available for the public to see. The issue of solvency has been contentious as CLASS makes its way through extensive Congressional negotiations. If HHS could shed some light, the sleeper might wake up to some bright sunshine.
Today, AAHSA members are calling targeted members of both the House and Senate to encourage them to include the CLASS Plan provisions in health care reform. The targets are likely “zippers,” those legislators who will most likely be involved with merging different committee bills into final legislation. There’s about 40 legislators in all receiving calls. And by our best account, their phones are ringing off the hook. I’ve had several emails already from members in Michigan, New York and New Jersey, who have been calling. Some are already getting voice mail and long wait times, an indicator that we are flooding Congress with our messages. Many of the targeted legislators are from California and other Pacific time zone states so I’m expecting to hear their feedback in the next couple of hours.
I continue to be so impressed with how AAHSA members have embraced these call-in days. People have been passionate about marrying their roles as service providers with advocacy. Their voices are making a difference in the health care debate.
After much waiting and speculation, the Senate Finance Committee today issued its America’s Healthy Future Act.
We at AAHSA were pleased that it preserves the Medicare “cost of living” increase for nursing facilities and, at long last, requires staffing expenditures to be broken out separately on nursing homes’ Medicare cost reports, so there can be a proper accounting under Medicare for the resources nursing homes commit to nurse staffing, which is the best evidence of quality.
The bill makes no mention of the CLASS Plan, which includes creation of a national insurance program for long-term services and supports, but we were not expecting that. The Finance Committee does not have jurisdiction over the issues that CLASS covers.
Our next (very large) job is to work to make sure that CLASS is included in the “zipping” of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill with the Senate Finance bill. We didn’t intentionally time it this way, but it was fortuitous that our Roll Call ad urging enaction of the CLASS Plan ran on the back page of today’s issue, opposite the story about the debut of Senator Baucus’s bill.
Stay tuned for more call-in, email and meeting campaigns as the debate heats up.
Sharon Sullivan talks with designers of the AAHSA House
Yesterday, I learned what it takes to design, build, dismantle and move a house. The answer: dramatic attention to detail.
Several of us traveled to Atlanta to visit the AAHSA House, which is under construction for our Annual Meeting and Exposition in Chicago, Nov. 8-11. The house is just incredible to see. It has large, spacious rooms with elements to help an elder or person with disabilities live comfortably and independently. It was incredible to watch the construction workers in a vast warehouse attach custom-made modular walls in minutes to create the guest or caregiver’s bedroom while we toured. As we walked, we learned where the different technologies will be displayed throughout the house.
But what struck me so strongly as I walked around was the intersection of bold vision and tiny detail. Margaret Wanca-Daniels, our director of sales, has been working daily if not hourly with THW Design, the architects, and Freeman, the convention construction company, to coordinate delivery of cabinets, furniture, bedding, televisions, lighting and flooring that various vendors will exhibit in the house.
Eric Krull and his team from THW have revised plans numerous times to accommodate the need for the house to be portable for shipping, yet always reflect the vision of a place that integrates universal design, sustainability and a commitment to facilitating a meaningful existence for individuals who might live in a house like this.
I am sure that AAHSA members attending the Annual Meeting will be awed by the sheer scope and beauty of the AAHSA House. But I hope they will also notice the enormous number of details that can make such a difference for an elder. Most of the technology and furnishings that will be in the AAHSA House are currently available. They can be integrated into a residential facility like a nursing home or retirement community.
The AAHSA House represents how aging services providers, architects, business firms and AAHSA create the future of aging services everyday. It is not too late to exhibit and it is certainly not too late to register to attend.
