Health & Medicine Policy Research Group’s Center for Long-term Care Reform and Illinois Aging Together campaign are dedicated to advancing policies and structures that improve the conditions in which Illinoisans live, work, play, and age across the life course. Through our work, it is crucial for us to stay abreast of current events, developments, and stories in the aging and health sectors–and beyond.

Below are some of the recent articles and other resources that we’ve found recently that are pertinent to our work:

The State of Age Discrimination and Older Workers in the U.S. 50 Years After the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)( Victoria A. Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) 
“This report examines the current state of age discrimination and older workers in the U.S. 50 years after the ADEA took effect in June 1968. It begins with a brief review of the history of the ADEA and its enforcement by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the EEOC. It describes the significant changes in who the older worker of today is compared to the typical older worker of 1967. Today’s older workers are more diverse and more educated than previous generations. They are healthier and working and living longer. The women and men confronting age discrimination today are in all parts of our country—in rural and urban communities, in blue and white-collar jobs, in service and tech industries, and are of all races, ethnicities and income.”

Gun deaths surged during the pandemic’s first year, the C.D.C. reports. (Roni Caryn Rabin and Tim Arango, The New York Times)
“Soaring rates were driven largely by gun-related homicides, which rose 35 percent from 2019 to 2020.”

Nursing Facility Staff Vaccinations, Boosters, and Shortages After Vaccination Deadlines Passed (Priya Chidambaram and MaryBeth Musumeci, Kaiser Family Foundation) 
“This analysis uses nursing facility-level data reported by the federal government to track the increase in vaccination rates among nursing facility staff nationally and by state between August 2021 (when the vaccine mandate was first announced) and March 27th, 2022 (after the vaccine deadline for health workers had passed in all states), building on a previous data note. Additionally, this analysis provides state-level information on booster rates among nursing home staff and the prevalence of staffing shortages after all vaccination deadlines had passed. Approximately 14,700 nursing facilities (or about 97% of all nursing facilities) are included in this analysis, and at least 95% of facilities in each state reported reliable data.”

States can again directly pay for home health aides’ insurance (MAYA GOLDMAN, Modern Healthcare) 

Medicare ACOs need financial support to promote home care, study finds (LAUREN BERRYMAN, Modern Healthcare)