Senior service nonprofit LeadingAge called on Washington this week to provide financial support to struggling senior service providers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter to President Joseph Biden, LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan laid out a six-point plan calling for emergency funds to address the worker crisis; additional provider relief funds for COVID-19 testing and personal protective equipment; a testing supply system dedicated to aging service providers; therapeutics supplies to support seniors; support for additional senior housing; and the extension of waivers, including the expansion of home healthcare services, Programs of All-Inclusive support for the Elderly (PACE) and telehealth.
Help for those hit hardest by COVID-19
Sloan pointed out in the letter that people 65 and older represent roughly three-quarters of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. over the past two years and the cohort has the highest number of chronic conditions and functional impairments.
“Older Americans and the people who care for them have borne the brunt of this unprecedented crisis,” Sloan said in the letter. “Dedicated, mission-focused providers across the continuum of aging services are doing all they can to keep meeting the needs of the older people they serve. But we need some additional help.”
LeadingAge, which represents 5,000 nonprofit senior service providers, has been actively calling on Washington for months to funnel billions of dollars into programs and infrastructure that supports aging Americans. It has lobbied Congress to back the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better plan, which includes $150 billion to expand home-and-community-based services and spend another $2.4 billion on affordable senior housing.
Push to suspend Medicare cuts
LeadingAge isn’t alone in its lobbying efforts in Washington. On Tuesday, healthcare solutions company Vizient sent a letter to House and Senate leadership asking them to support healthcare providers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company called on Congress to suspend Medicare sequestration payment cuts to providers and provide hospitals with additional repayment flexibility to the Advanced and Accelerated Payments Program. Medicare sequestration is scheduled to kick in in March.
“Hospitals and health care professionals are burnt out and feeling the weight of these ongoing challenges,” Shoshana Krilow, Vizient senior vice president of public policy and government relations, said in a press release. “Congress has taken many essential steps to provide critical support for hospitals and caregivers, but more relief is needed to aid our nation’s hospitals and their staff as they continue to operate under enormous clinical and operational pressures.”
