The SCAN Foundation sponsored a webinar on the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Plan.
The one-hour webinar, originally held on May 25, is the third in a series entitled Marketing CLASS: Key Issues and Supply Side Perspectives. It can be viewed free, without registration, on the SCAN website.
During the webinar, PHI Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey presents slides (pdf) on the role that matching service registries will play in creating a viable infrastructure for the CLASS Plan.
Matching service registries are databases of independent home care workers. They provide information for consumers to help them find a caregiver who will best meet their needs — and for home care workers to find employers who are a compatible match.
According to a PHI analysis, statewide matching service registries exist in 16 states, while six other states have registries that serve a particular region within the state.
Lisa Shugarman, SCAN’s director of policy, and Eileen Tell of Univita, an organization that promotes the concept of “aging with independence,” also presented during the webinar.
Shugarman briefly introduced The SCAN Foundation and the CLASS Plan, while Tell presented long-term insurance best practices that could inform the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services‘ (HHS) efforts to develop the CLASS Plan.
CLASS Background
The CLASS Plan is a component of the Affordable Care Act, the health-reform bill signed into law by President Obama in March 2010.
It is a voluntary, publicly administered federal insurance program to help elders and people with disabilities pay for long-term home care.
HHS is scheduled to introduce the CLASS Plan in 2012.
SCAN Series Focuses on CLASS
In addition to its webinar series, The SCAN Foundation has published a series of technical assistance briefs examining the CLASS Plan from multiple perspectives.
One of the briefs, Building Infrastructure to Support CLASS: The Potential of Matching Service Registries (pdf), was written by PHI’s Seavey and Policy Research Associate Abby Marquand.
Seavey and Marquand’s research was recently cited in a post on The New York Times‘s “New Old Age” blog, written by Times reporter Paula Span.
– by Matthew Ozga






