skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Scorecard: Better Long-Term Care Needed in Hoosier State

play audio
Play

Wednesday, July 5, 2017   

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana has some improvements to make in the way seniors and adults with disabilities are taken care of, according to a new report.

The latest Long-Term Services Supports State Scorecard gave the state a 51, while other nearby states fared better. Indiana scored low for affordability and accessibility, choice of settings and providers, and support for family caregivers.

On a positive note, said Evan Reinhardt, executive director of the Indiana Association of Home and Hospice Care, Indiana has increased its number of home health-care workers. He said he also believes it's hard to compare one state to another.

"It's very difficult to say that you're making apples-to-apples comparison between Indiana and Ohio or Indiana and Michigan," he said, "even when you try to control for population factors or other factors that might influence the data."

Michigan got a rating of 22 overall, Illinois got a 30, Ohio received a 34 and Kentucky's score was a 50. The report was issued by AARP, the Commonwealth Fund and the SCAN Foundation.

Laura Holscher, executive director of the Area 13 Agency on Aging and Disability at Vincennes University, said she expects Indiana will have a better score in the next report because the state has made some progress recently, including more training for providers, case managers and counselors. Plus, there's been a change in the long-term care pre-admission process.

"It was outdated, it was over 30 years old, and we hadn't made any changes to it," she said. "So we really modernized what we were doing for pre-admission screening and the eligibility - screening people as to whether they should be in the nursing home or whether we could find other services for them."

Reinhardt said another area that could be improved is consumer feedback. He said family caregiver voices need to be heard.

"The family's experience is often influenced to a certain degree by the provider that they receive services from," he said, "so it's difficult for them to say this is how we perceive the state to be performing."

The report suggested that to make improvements, another 110,000 adults with disabilities would have Medicaid coverage, and $1.2 billion would be spent on home-based services rather than nursing homes.

The scorecard is online at longtermscorecard.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021