This policy brief describes how State VR agencies are using and can use benefits planning services, as a VR agency-funded service, to help SSDI and SSI beneficiaries address concerns and fears about the potential loss of cash benefits and healthcare benefits (i.e., Medicaid and/or Medicare) as they move into jobs paying substantial wages. The…

Purpose: We examined the rural-urban disparity of screening for breast cancer and colorectal cancer (CRC) among the elder Medicare beneficiaries and assessed rurality's independent impact on receipt of screening. Methods: Using 2005 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, we applied weighted logistic regression to estimate the overall rural-urban…

The Medicare prescription drug benefit (Medicare Part D) is the biggest change to Medicare in decades. Knowledge of the plan among social work undergraduate students and older adults in the community was assessed. Sequential cohorts of students completed a short questionnaire assessing knowledge about Medicare Part D. Among social work students,…

Context: Quality measures focused on outpatient settings are of increasing interest to policy makers, but little research has been conducted on hospital outpatient quality measures, especially in rural settings. Purpose: To evaluate the relevance of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) outpatient quality measures for rural hospitals,…

In 1997, American Evaluation Association member George Grob, now retired from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and currently President of the Center for Public Program Evaluation, made a testimony on Medicare home health care fraud and abuse before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. The occasion was to announce the…

Dropping out of high school is related to a number of negative outcomes. For example, the median income of persons ages 18 through 67 who had not completed high school was roughly $26,000 in 2013. By comparison, the median income of persons ages 18 through 67 who completed their education with at least a high school credential (i.e., a regular…

As the American population ages, the need for more long-term care services will increase. The elderly who are afflicted with a number of chronic illnesses predominantly use long-term care services. By 2020, 12 million older Americans will need long-term care services, and those 65 and older have a 40% chance of entering some type of long-term care…

Meeting the educational demands of the future will be expensive; however, in most states, public schools from kindergarten through the university level already experience budgetary challenges. Policymakers face the challenge of motivating taxpayers to provide the funds needed to meet mounting education needs. In this volume, Carroll and Erkut…

Health care of the 21st century is undergoing major changes due to a myriad of social factors affecting every level of society. From financial desperation due to the high cost of health care to the increased awareness of a generation asking for better services, the importance of patient satisfaction is paramount. The Centers for Medicare and…

Children's access to Medicaid dental services is a long-standing concern. The tragic case of a 12-year-old boy who died from an untreated infected tooth that led to a fatal brain infection renewed attention to this issue. He was enrolled in Medicaid--a joint federal and state program that provides health care coverage, including dental care, for…

An educational CD-ROM/video program was developed to educate nursing home staff about two research-based techniques for reducing agitation and aggression during bathing of persons with Alzheimer's disease, including person-centered showering and the towel bath. This educational program was distributed free of charge to all 15,453 US nursing homes…

The ongoing debates about the future of social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare raise questions about the public's knowledge of the history of social insurance and about the impact these programs have on millions of Americans. In general, public conversations about social policies in the U.S. tend to focus on whether or not…

In this statement, Katherine M. Iritani, Acting Director, Health Care reports that dental disease remains a significant problem for children in Medicaid. Although dental services are a mandatory benefit for the 30 million children served by Medicaid, these children often experience elevated levels of dental problems and have difficulty finding…

As the population of older Americans rapidly increases and the costs of institutional health care rise, there is much concern about how to satisfy the future care needs of older Americans. As these demographic and socioeconomic trends are coupled with limitations on federal funds for public health care programs, policymakers are focusing on…