At ACL, we believe that every person should be able to make choices and to control their own decisions, regardless of their age, disability, or illness. ACL, in consultation with stakeholders from the aging and disability communities, has drafted a set of principles to guide our work in this area, and to enhance existing programs and services related to serious or advanced illness for older adults and people with disabilities.

The annual summary of the latest statistics on the older population, A Profile of Older Americans: 2016, is now available. This profile covers 15 topical areas including population, income and poverty, living arrangements, education, health, and caregiving. A description of the highlights of this document is below and the full document is attached. The profile has proven to be a very useful statistical summary in a user friendly format.  =============================================================== Highlights*

On March 8, 2017, ACL released the proposed revisions for the Centers for Independent Living Annual Program Performance Report (CIL PPR). The Notice of the Proposed Revisions (PDF) is now on display in the Federal Register and will be open for public comment until May 5, 2017. The CIL PPR will not take effect until after all comments are reviewed and a final information collection instrument is released.

The Older Americans Act of 1965, as amended through P.L. 114-144 in 2016, included a provision requiring the Assistant Secretary for Aging to issue guidance to the Aging Services Network on serving Holocaust survivors.

The Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence is now accepting applications for its Community of Practice (CoP) on Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Developmental Disabilities. The CoP seeks to transform state/territorial developmental disabilities systems by:

In 2014, regulation was issued by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services which finalized the criteria for home and community-based services (HCBS) for the purposes of Medicaid funding. The criteria require settings receiving HCBS funding to facilitate beneficiary independence and decision-making in defining desired community-based living.

In a new handbook from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services entitled "Coordination of Benefits and Third Party Liability (COB/TPL) in Medicaid," guidance is provided that services provided under the Older Americans Act are an exception to the "Medicaid is payer of last resort" rule.

ACL's Administration on Aging collects annual performance data from State Units on Aging about the Older Americans Act Title III and Title VII (Chapters 3 and 4) programs through the State Program Report (SPR). The agency has been working with the Aging Network to redesign the SPR.

Today, the final rule for Independent Living (IL) programs went on display in the Federal Register. The rule was developed in close coordination with the independent living network and addresses the requirements of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Specifically, the final rule:

Good oral health is critical for older adults and younger adults with disabilities. Poor oral health is largely preventable and linked to a person’s overall health and serious chronic diseases. Unfortunately, older adults and adults with disabilities are at high risk of having poor oral health due to inadequate access to services and certain disabilities that make oral hygiene tasks hard to complete and obtaining services even more difficult.