ALFA Working With Feds
ALFA Director of Public Policy Janet Forlini recently met with officials at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) to discuss the department's pending assisted living research. A draft of the 240-page Residential Care and Assisted Living Compendium 2004 is now available on the ASPE Web site (http://aspe.hhs.gov). This project, a compendium of the regulatory provisions and Medicaid policy for residential care settings in all 50 states is an update of an earlier report released in 2002. The final report has yet to be approved. Additionally, ASPE has commissioned a research report on the use of negotiated risk agreements in assisted living, which will likely be released in late summer.
HHS has also formed the American Health Information Community (AHIC), whose main objective is to facilitate nationwide transition to electronic health records. The AHIC will provide input and recommendations to HHS on making health records digital and interoperable while ensuring the privacy and security of individual records. The group will include up to 17 commissioners who will represent consumers, privacy interests, states, payers, providers, vendors, and purchasers. HHS plans to have the group in place by next month. More information is available at http://www.os.dhhs.gov/healthit/
Ms. Forlini has also been meeting with legislators on Capitol Hill. She has been working with the senior members of the Senate Committee on Aging, including ranking minority member Sen. Herb Kohl, on long-term care financing. She has also met with Committee on Finance chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has informed her that his committee will be looking at Medicaid reform in the near future.