LeadingAge NY Calls for Renewed Focus on Older Adults/Aging Services in Comments on 1115 Waiver
(Aug. 25, 2026) In comments submitted last week on the State's request for an extension of its Medicaid 1115 waiver, LeadingAge NY urged policymakers to leverage Medicaid funds and the waiver to address the needs of older adults and the providers that serve them. The association praised the State's efforts to preserve access to home and community-based services through the Managed Long-Term Care program and its creation of Social Care Networks (SCNs) to provide health-related social needs (HRSN) screenings and services.
At the same time, LeadingAge NY reiterated concerns raised in previous comments regarding the waiver's lack of attention to the social care needs of older adults, its omission of key long-term care staff titles from the Career Pathways Training (CPT) program, and its lack of investment in the long-term care system.
The association noted that older adults represent the fastest-growing segment of NY's population and emphasized Medicaid's potential to support implementation of the State's Master Plan for Aging (MPA). To strengthen the waiver's impact on older adults, LeadingAge NY recommended that the Department of Health:
- Work with stakeholders to identify MPA recommendations that could be supported by Medicaid, either under this waiver or through other programs.
- Analyze and publish data on the utilization of HRSN services by older adults and consider ways to deploy SCNs to support older adults living in the community. The data published to date do not include the numbers of older adults served or the services they have received.
- Expand the covered HRSN services to address the specialized needs of older adults.
- Expand access to enhanced HRSN services for older adults.
- Publish data showing the types of providers selected by CPT graduates for their service commitment sites.
- Allow home care and nurse aide training programs to qualify for participation in the CPT program, if there is an opportunity to renew it.
LeadingAge NY's full comments are available here.
Contact: Karen Lipson, klipson@leadingageny.org