Month: December 2017

The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects case-level information from state and tribal title IV-E agencies on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement. Title IV-E agencies are required to submit AFCARS data semi-annually to the Children’s Bureau. The AFCARS report periods are October 1 through March 31 and April 1 through September 30. Data for each report period are due no later than May 15 and November 14, respectively.

ACF uses AFCARS data for a number of reasons, including the following:

Determining awards for the Adoption Incentives program
Preparing the Child Welfare Outcomes report
Conducting the Child and Family Services Reviews
Conducting title IV-E foster care eligibility reviews
Determining the allotment of funds for the Chafee Foster Care Independence program
Conducting trend analyses and short- and long-term planning efforts
Targeting areas for initial or increased technical assistance efforts, discretionary service grants, research and evaluation, and regulatory change
Responding to request for data from federal, state, tribal, and private agencies.

Further reading:

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/research-data-technology/reporting-systems/afcars

Activities of daily living (ADLs or ADL) is a term used in healthcare to refer to people’s daily self care activities. The concept of ADLs was originally proposed in the 1950s by Sidney Katz and his team at the Benjamin Rose Hospital in Cleveland, OH and has been added to and refined by a variety of researchers since that time. Health professionals often use a person’s ability or inability to perform ADLs as a measurement of their functional status, particularly in regard to people post injury, with disabilities and the elderly. Younger children often require help from adults to perform ADLs, as they have not yet developed the skills necessary to perform them independently.

ADLs are defined as “the things we normally do… such as feeding ourselves, bathing, dressing, grooming, work, homemaking, and leisure.” A number of national surveys collect data on the ADL status of the U.S. population. While basic definitions of ADLs have been suggested, what specifically constitutes a particular ADL for each individual may vary. Adaptive equipment and devices may be used to enhance and increase independence in performing ADLs. Basic ADLs consist of self-care tasks that include, but are not limited to:

Bathing and showering
Personal hygiene and grooming (including brushing/combing/styling hair)
Dressing
Toilet hygiene (getting to the toilet, cleaning oneself, and getting back up)
Functional mobility, often referred to as “transferring”, as measured by the ability to walk, get in and out of bed, and get into and out of a chair; the broader definition (moving from one place to another while performing activities) is useful for people with different physical abilities who are still able to get around independently.
Self-feeding (not including cooking or chewing and swallowing)
One way to think about basic ADLs is that they are the things many people do when they get up in the morning and get ready to go out of the house: get out of bed, go to the toilet, bathe, dress, groom, and eat.

There is a hierarchy to the ADLs:” … the early loss function is hygiene, the mid-loss functions are toilet use and locomotion, and the late loss function is eating. When there is only one remaining area in which the person is independent, there is a 62.9% chance that it is eating and only a 3.5% chance that it is hygiene.”

Although not in wide general use, a mnemonic that some find useful is DEATH: dressing/bathing, eating, ambulating (walking), toileting, hygiene.

Further reading –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activities_of_daily_living

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.

The ADA is divided into five titles (or sections) that relate to different areas of public life.

In 2008, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) was signed into law and became effective on January 1, 2009. The ADAAA made a number of significant changes to the definition of “disability.” The changes in the definition of disability in the ADAAA apply to all titles of the ADA, including Title I (employment practices of private employers with 15 or more employees, state and local governments, employment agencies, labor unions, agents of the employer and joint management labor committees); Title II (programs and activities of state and local government entities); and Title III (private entities that are considered places of public accommodation).

Further reading –

https://adata.org/learn-about-ada

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The term “Obamacare” was first used by opponents, then reappropriated by supporters, and eventually used by President Obama himself. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system’s most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

The ACA’s major provisions came into force in 2014. By 2016, the uninsured share of the population had roughly halved, with estimates ranging from 20–24 million additional people covered during 2016. The increased coverage was due, roughly equally, to an expansion of Medicaid eligibility and to major changes to individual insurance markets. Both involved new spending, funded through a combination of new taxes and cuts to Medicare provider rates and Medicare Advantage. Several Congressional Budget Office reports said that overall these provisions reduced the budget deficit, and that repealing the ACA would increase the deficit. The law also enacted a host of delivery system reforms intended to constrain healthcare costs and improve quality. After the law went into effect, increases in overall healthcare spending slowed, including premiums for employer-based insurance plans.

The act largely retains the existing structure of Medicare, Medicaid, and the employer market, but individual markets were radically overhauled around a three-legged scheme. Insurers in these markets are made to accept all applicants and charge the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or sex. To combat resultant adverse selection, the act mandates that individuals buy insurance and insurers cover a list of “essential health benefits”. To help households between 100–400% of the Federal Poverty Line afford these compulsory policies, the law provides insurance premium subsidies. Other individual market changes include health marketplaces and risk adjustment programs.

The act has also faced challenges and opposition. In 2009, Senator Ted Kennedy died, and the resultant special election cost the Democrats their 60-seat filibuster-proof Senate majority before the ACA had been fully passed by Congress. The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in 2012 that states could choose not to participate in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, although it upheld the law as a whole. The federal health exchange, HealthCare.gov, initially faced major technical problems during its rollout in 2013. In 2017, a unified Republican government failed to pass several different partial repeals of the ACA. The law spent several years opposed by a slim plurality of Americans polled, although its provisions were generally more popular than the law as a whole, and the law gained majority support by 2017.

Further reading –

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.

Further reading –

https://www.cdc.gov/

Essential Health Benefits – A set of 10 categories of services health insurance plans must cover under the Affordable Care Act. These include doctors’ services, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, prescription drug coverage, pregnancy and childbirth, mental health services, and more. Some plans cover more services.

Plans must offer dental coverage for children. Dental benefits for adults are optional.

Specific services may vary based on state’s requirements.

Further reading –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_health_benefits

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States. The recommendations stand as public health guidance for safe use of vaccines and related biological products.

ACIP was established under Section 222 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. § 2l7a) and is governed by its charter .

Further reading –

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/about.html