Policy Supports to Aging in Place

Janson Silvers  0:00  
Welcome to Healthcare Policy Pop, I'm Janson Silvers. It's Thursday December 21, 2023, and we're here with one more pop before we break for the holidays. Today's pop topics: aging in place is something most older adults want. And studies show it works, but benefit design has to support it. When we say aging in place, that essentially means staying where you are and getting older in your own home. According to AARP in a 2021 survey, if given the choice 77% of adults over 50 would prefer to age in place. Dan Weinrieb, the head of strategic partnerships at Jukebox Health says we have to start thinking about aging differently.

Dan Weinrieb  0:48  
From a industry perspective, facility care, institutional care is far more expensive than homecare, right? So that shift really needs to take place not just from a policy perspective, but also from a human perspective.

Janson Silvers  1:02  
To age at home, you may need to take advantage of what Medicaid has to offer, which for many is a maze.

Dan Weinrieb  1:09  
On the managed Medicaid side, you know states and Medicaid specifically they have all of these home and community based services available to their beneficiaries. But it's really difficult for those beneficiaries to get access to those services because they have to do it all themselves, right? And these are folks that have either had an event, there might be health literacy issues, they're struggling as a caregiver.

Janson Silvers  1:36  
Weinrieb says benefit design also has a lot of work to do to support aging in place.

Dan Weinrieb  1:41  
I think benefit design is critical. And with CMS's proposed changes for supplemental benefits for government sponsored programs, this is really giving those health plans an opportunity to reevaluate what they're putting into their products and their benefits for 2025 to align with what CMS is requiring of them. So it's a roadmap.

Janson Silvers  2:06  
And last but not least, Weinrieb says the system does survey after survey about falls and risks of living at home, but doesn't identify who needs the help. This needs to change.

Dan Weinrieb  2:17  
I would make the identification process far more robust, right? Because you have opportunity to do that. And then I would also then make sure that you're offering the services as a solution when the need is identified instead of sending brochures about how to move loose rugs and you know the value of a grab bar.

Janson Silvers  2:37  
In the new patients rising podcast episode out in January hear the full interview with a Weinrieb about aging in place and what it would take to make it happen. We have a link to jukebox Health's website in the show notes.

In the news today, Stealth Biotherapeutics which is developing a therapy for Barth syndrome has had an especially trying time seeking FDA approval, and stat is reporting the company may even give up altogether on getting full approval from the FDA. This would have terrible implications for many highlighted by the story of one family featured in a recent stat article. One year old Declan was diagnosed with Barr syndrome and stealth Biotherapeutics treatment has completely turned his life around. However, he is only able to access the drug through compassionate use, and that could be taken away at any time, highlighting several of the issues Patients Rising has been talking about when it comes to FDA approval. A petition pleading with the FDA to review the drugs data has nearly 20,000 signatures. You can read the full story by using the link in the show notes. That's all for today. We'll be back in 2024 with more healthcare policy news. I'm Janson Silvers have a safe and healthy New Year.