President's Latest Executive Order Takes Aim at Grant Reviews

• By: USAging
• On: 08/15/2025 09:28:08
• In: Policy & Advocacy

On August 7, President Trump issued a new Executive Order (EO) on grant-making by the federal government. While the EO does NOT apply to formula grants such as Older Americans Act (OAA) or block grants such as the Social Services Block Grant, other grants issued by the Administration under their discretionary authority and funding will now be subject to political review.
 
The EO directs agencies to set up a new system to ensure that funding announcements have prior approval by the senior political appointee of the agency before being issued. It further states that any awards granted “must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities.” This could apply, for one instance, to competitive grants issued by ACL to the field, such as current efforts around falls prevention, ADRCs and other discretionary grants.

Further, the EO references earlier EOs of this President’s, noting that:  
USAging will continue to update our members on any forthcoming details on this latest EO, but to reiterate, funding from the OAA and block grants are exempt. 

CMS Requests Feedback on FY 2026 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule

• By: USAging
• On: 08/15/2025 09:25:38
• In: Policy & Advocacy

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its annual Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, requesting public comments on proposed policy changes for Medicare payments. The proposed rule recognizes the role of the Aging Network and is requesting information on existing or new codes and payment that could better support practitioner provision of successful interventions through partnerships between health care entities, AAAs and community care hubs; inaccurate capturing of services being performed to address physical activity and social isolation and loneliness of Medicare beneficiaries; and other provisions related to Aging Network services.
 
Of note, CMS is proposing to replace “social determinants of health (SDOH)’’ with the term ‘‘upstream driver(s)” and delete a billing code (HCPCS G0136) that covers the administration of an SDOH risk assessment tool. USAging is developing a comment letter in response to this proposed rule, and we encourage members to submit comments as well to further highlight the critical role of the Aging Network—or to send any input to us at policy@usaging.org to inform our remarks. The deadline to submit comments is September 12 at 5:00 PM ET.