LeadingAge Policy Update Member Calls

Monday August 7, LeadingAge hosted a call and welcomed Steve Moran, Publisher, Senior Living Foresight. He discussed leadership, employee engagement, development, and other strategies and insight on maintaining and growing senior living and the workforce. On a member call held on August 9th, Mary Munoz, Senior Managing Director, Senior Living Finance Practice shared comments on trends in business transactions, affiliations, and other factors impacting long term sustainability and survivability.  

Members and other interested individuals can sign up to join LeadingAge’s Policy Update calls here. You can also find previous call recordings of every 3:30 LeadingAge call here. Note that to access recordings of the calls you need a LeadingAge password. Any staff member of any LeadingAge member organization can set up a password to access previous calls and other members-only content. LeadingAge Indiana members can contact Tina Bowman, tbowman@leadingageindiana.org, to request an account set-up guide, to create an account on to access the LeadingAge information.

HUD Posts Guidance on Solar Program Benefits for Assisted Residents. On August 3, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs published guidance on the treatment of financial benefits for HUD-assisted tenants resulting from community solar programs. Specifically, the notice addresses whether and how financial benefits are factored into utility allowance and income calculations for HUD-assisted households. The notice applies to several of HUD’s Multifamily Housing programs, including project-based Section 8, Section 202, and Section 811. Many community solar programs and on-site solar incentive programs stipulate that financial benefits must be distributed to tenants as a condition of program eligibility, which can impact tenant income calculations. HUD’s new, comprehensive notice builds on previous HUD guidance that indicated support for the use of community solar programs and tenant distributions. More information is available here. 

LeadingAge Hosts HUD Leaders for NSPIRE Training and Reception. On July 27, LeadingAge and LeadingAge DC hosted HUD's Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) for an in-person training on HUD's new housing inspection protocol under NSPIRE, followed by a networking reception. Hosted at the LeadingAge headquarters in Washington, DC, the LeadingAge event helped prepare HUD-assisted senior housing providers for the major new NSPIRE implementation, which will change HUD's housing inspection standards, scoring, and administrative rules effective October 1, 2023.  More information about the event, as well as HUD’s slides, are available here. 

CFPB Guides on Housing Decisions for Older Consumers Available for Download

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office for Older Americans recently released educational guides designed to assist older consumers as they address housing decisions at certain times or in connection with certain events.  Members may find these materials useful when working with certain clients or customers.  The Guides include: Making Housing Decisions After Losing a Spouse or Partner; Making Housing Decisions When Your Health Changes; and Using Home Equity to Meet Financial Needs. 

Notable: CMS contractor data breach means new Medicare identification numbers being issued for some beneficiaries

CMS sent letters to people with Medicare who may have been affected by a recent data breach. They are mailing approximately 47,000 new Medicare cards with a new MBI to those affected. Learn what to do if your resident or patient’s MBI changes. Ask your resident/patient for their new Medicare card if you get “invalid member ID” when checking Medicare eligibility. Access your Medicare Administrative Contractor’s secure internet portal to use the MBI look-up tool if your resident/patient didn’t get a new Medicare card yet. 

HHS webinar series on Medicaid unwinding includes August 17^th webinar on Medicaid unwinding and older adults

HHS is having a series of webinars on Medicaid unwinding for special populations. The Aug 17^th webinar is focused specifically on older adults. This webinar series will provide partners with strategies to reach out to diverse communities and audiences to share information about Medicaid and CHIP renewals. Each webinar will also include a “train-the-trainer” presentation, during which CMS will walk-through a set of downloadable slides that partners can use to educate others in their communities about Medicaid and CHIP renewals. All webinars are from 3-4pm ET. Register here and you will receive a Zoom link upon registration.