Federal spending on nursing home and home health accelerated in 2007, even as overall healthcare spending grew at the slowest rate since 1998, according to a new spending report issued today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Inconsistent state laws and low federal standards have resulted in varying qualification and certification standards for nursing home social workers, according to a recently released report.

A recently proposed economic stimulus package containing billions of dollars in healthcare funding could still take several weeks to craft, according to recent news articles.

Seniors may be suffering most as a result of the recession. But who's talking about it?

Members of Congress could vote on an economic stimulus package as early as this week. Lawmakers have been laboring to prepare a package by Jan. 20, when President-Elect Barack Obama takes office.

States may not have the infrastructure to support a potential increase in home- and community-based services, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The agency released a report highlighting the projected costs and ramifications of more than 100 healthcare policies, including many proposed for long-term care.

Card-check legislation is expected to surface this Congress, and the Obama administration appears to be leaning in favor of such a bill.

Nonprofit nursing homes provide a higher quality of care than for-profit facilities, according to an analysis by USA Today of the first ratings of nursing homes by the government's five-star rating system.

New details are emerging from Washington this week about a proposed economic stimulus package that some are saying could cost up to $850 billion and contain $100 billion in state Medicaid funding. Medicaid is the biggest payer of nursing home care in the United States but is facing increasing pressure from the economic downturn.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did not unveil the new five-star rating system for nursing homes in the most professional manner.