Iowa sixth in nation for delivery of long-term care services

DES MOINES ? A new study released jointly by AARP?s Public Policy Institute, The Commonwealth Fund and the SCAN Foundation shows Iowa ranks sixth in the nation on how well it performs in the delivery of long-term services and supports to older adults and people with disabilities, but also points out areas for improvements.

The report, ?Raising Expectations: A State Scorecard on Long-term Services and Supports for Older Adults, People with Physical Disabilities, and Family Caregivers,? examines four key dimensions of states? LTSS system performance: affordability and access; choice of setting and provider; quality of life and quality of care; and support for family caregivers. It assesses each state?s performance as a whole and on 25 individual indicators, some of which were measured for the first time.

The study ranks Iowa fifth highest in two of the dimensions: quality of life and quality of care and support for family caregivers; and 22nd in two dimensions: affordability and access and choice of setting and provider.

While the state receives overall high performance marks, there are some areas where Iowa is in the bottom tier, including percentage of home health patients with hospital admission and percent of nursing home residents with low care needs, and availability of Aging and Disability Resource Centers.

?This report card validates that overall, Iowa delivers quality long-term care, but there are areas where Iowa needs to do better, especially in improving access to home and community services and choices,? said AARP Iowa Associate State Director Anthony Carroll.

Carroll said one key factor Iowa could work on is to expand the number of Aging and Disability Resource Centers in Iowa, agencies that help older adults and those with disabilities get access to information about the broad range of services and supports available to help residents age in place in their homes and communities.

The top five highest performing states for LTSS are Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Wisconsin.

The full report is available at www.longtermscorecard.org.