Medicaid's County-Specific Fact Sheets
SWPPA Advocacy Action Items
The following advocacy action items outline key strategies and steps to advance our mission and achieve meaningful impact. Please click on each item to access detailed information.
2024-2025 State Budget
OLTL PAS Rate Study
CMS’s Final Rule on Medicaid Access and the 80/20 Provision
The following advocacy action items outline key strategies and steps to advance our mission and achieve meaningful impact. Please click on each item to access detailed information.
2024-2025 State Budget
OLTL PAS Rate Study
CMS’s Final Rule on Medicaid Access and the 80/20 Provision
SWPPA 2025 Policy Priorities
Federal Level Priorities:
- Reauthorize the Older Americans Act
- Preserve, protect and adequately fund critical Medicaid programming in support of all services improving the lives of older adults and those living with disabilities
State Level Priorities:
- Preserve, protect and grow a strong lottery fund restricted for use in support of older adults
- Effectively address the Direct Care Workforce Crisis
- Suport, fund and grow a robust and fluid long-term living continuum of care
- Strengthen and adequately fund local Area Agencies of Aging as the hub for aging services at the community level
- Upgrade and enact the Older Adults Protective Services Act (OAPSA)
- Support and advance the adoption of Age-Friendly principles
Details are available here.
Part of effective action is knowing where to look.
We’ve compiled the following list to help connect our members to resources within the Southwestern Pennsylvania region and beyond. Visit our resources page.
Advocacy in Action
Please read the attached letter expressing SWPPA’s serious concern on behalf of elderly individuals and those with disabilities. It is urgent we stress this concern and how to address it to the Department of Human Services, the Governor, and our Legislators. Please call, email, or write to them as soon as you are able. Simply ask them to read the letter from SWPPA and to act to stop the shift of the assessment function from AAA’s to Maximus. Also ask them to advise you of their position. Here is a link by which you can determine who your legislator is and how to contact him/her: Find Your Legislator – PA General Assembly (state.pa.us)
We understand the impact of policy on practice.
SWPPA advocates for policies that improve the lives of older citizens and all citizens.
One success for SWPPA was its creation of the Principles of the Ideal Long-Term Living System to scorecard policy provisions. These principles, listed below, have been adopted by the Pennsylvania Council on Aging and other leadership organizations. The ideal long-term living situation for the state’s older adult community must be:
- Person-centered
- Able to acknowledge that risk exists while supporting maximum independence
- Focused on quality of life and quality of care
- Simple to understand and access
- Coordinated, with seamless transitions through a comprehensive array of services
- Focused on prevention, wellness and early connection to home and community-based services
- Vested in a viable and competent direct care workforce
- Focused on continued learning and quality improvement
- Financially feasible and encourage public/private participation
Download the full Principles of the Ideal Long-Term Living System for Pennsylvania’s Older Adults
SWPPA in the News
“Dire Warning: Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Close Rural Hospitals”
By Karen Mansfield
Observer-Reporter
June 10, 2025
“Carmichaels Forum Highlights Costs of Federal Cuts”
By Garrett Neese
Observer-Reporter
May 18, 2025
“Home Sweet Home“
by JoAnne Klimovich Harrop
Tribune-Review
July 16, 2023
“Teaching caregiving to dementia patients’ families“
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 18, 2022
“The three things the Pa. Legislature did in 2021 to help older Pennsylvanians“
by Ray Landis
Pennsylvania Capital-Star
January 4, 2022
“Older Pennsylvanians Face Social Isolation and Its Real Health Consequences“
by Anya Sostek
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 6, 2021
“How seniors in Allegheny County combat social isolation”
By Martha Rial
Public Source
January 15, 2018
“Growing older — and designing smarter”
By Laura Poskin
American Planning Association
December 18, 2017
“Age-Friendly Pittsburgh: Action plan aims to make this a better place to grow old”
By Gary Rotstein
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 17, 2017
Our Scorecard Summaries & Policy Letters
HB 1930
2019-2020 House Bill regarding the Older Adults Protective Services Act
Read SWPPA’s Legislative Scorecard Summary »
SB 819
2019-2020 Senate Bill regarding the Older Adults Protective Services Act
Read SWPPA’s Legislative Scorecard Summary »
HB 1442
Legislation allowing waivers to some of the physical site requirements, rules, and regulations for personal care homes and assisted living residences
Read SWPPA’s Legislative Scorecard Summary »
HB 2549
2017-2018 Older Adults Protective Services Act
Read SWPPA’s Legislative Scorecard Summary »
H.R. 3778
Direct CARE Opportunity Act
Read SWPPA’s Legislative Scorecard Summary »