The United States needs a centralized access point for families to learn about long-term care options as well as Medicare and Medicaid, write Anne Tumlinson, David Grabowski, Ph.D., and Robert Kramer in an opinion piece in The Hill.
Kramer is founder of Nexus Insights, where he and the others are fellows.
“There are many players involved, including Medicare and Medicaid, hospitals, nursing homes and private-pay assisted living communities and, often, poor communication between them, leaving families to coordinate everything,” they wrote.
Under the current system, Area Agencies on Aging sometimes can help, “but they are too often underfunded, lacking complete information and limited in their ability to serve families,” the authors said.
They called the president’s proposal to invest $400 billion into expanding access to long-term care services under Medicaid “a step in the right direction” but proposed “a one-stop shop for ongoing services and support needs.”
