GRRP Legal Win: Appeals Court Protects HUD’s Green Preservation Program. Following more than a year of advocacy by LeadingAge, an appeals court ruled to protect the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), which funds preservation projects for affordable housing communities located in climate-vulnerable areas. The court order blocks the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from freezing the congressionally-approved investments in housing communities assisted through HUD’s Multifamily Housing programs in dire need of energy efficiency or climate resilient upgrades. The ruling, issued on August 7, upholds a previous preliminary order issued by the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, which LeadingAge had also supported. The GRRP was established through the Infrastructure and Jobs Act in 2021 and funded critical housing preservation projects through 270 awards nationwide, including approximately 50 awards to LeadingAge housing provider members serving older adults with low incomes. In early 2025, however, the Trump Administration ordered a freeze on the funding for the already-issued awards, despite the fact that the funds had been legally obligated to awardees. Following a preliminary injunction on the freeze in 2025, LeadingAge worked with our housing members to restart their preservation projects under new guidance from HUD that altered but continued the GRRP; the decision by the appeals court permanently protects the program, pending further appeal by the Trump administration. LeadingAge applauds the work of Democracy Forward, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of nonprofit groups, to protect the critical program and safeguard the congressionally-designated funding awards. New on the LeadingAge Learning Hub: Affordable Housing Resources. One of LeadingAge’s core services is providing our members with sources for practical knowledge. These recent and upcoming educational resources from LeadingAge’s Learning Hub address a range of affordable housing issues pertaining to developing, preserving, and managing housing for older adults. Affordable Senior Housing: Tenant Compliance Must-Dos — Practical guidance on tenant compliance for senior housing providers participating in HUD’s Multifamily Housing programs. (Recorded in August 2026) AgingWell: Building Empathy, Communication, and Teamwork — A training resource to prepare frontline housing staff for an expanded role in supporting resident well-being through everyday interactions. (Added to the Learning Hub in August 2026) Closing the Affordable Housing Gap — In this 27-minute QuickCast, learn how the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit can be used to expand affordable housing opportunities for older adults. (Recorded in August 2026) Medicaid Eligibility: Preparing for New Requirements — Practical guidance on new eligibility restrictions and what they mean for aging services providers, their workforce, and the older adults they serve. (Live event scheduled for October 2026.) HUD Narrows Window for Bringing Disability Discrimination Claims Relating to Design and Construction Under the FHA. On August 31, 2026, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity issued a memo that would significantly constrain the ability of individuals to bring disability-based discrimination claims based on the failure of housing providers to “design and construct” certain multifamily dwellings, including rental properties serving older adults and the aging services workforce, built after March 13, 1991, with certain accessible features (design and construction claims) under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). In particular, the memo provides a new interpretation of how the statute of limitations applies to design and constrain claims. A statute of limitations generally bars a party from filing a claim after a certain period of time after an injury or event occurs. Under a previous 2013 memo, which HUD rescinded, HUD and the Department of Justice considered the one-year statute of limitations that applies to administrative claims to begin to run when an “aggrieved person” is injured as a result of the failure to design and construct housing to be accessible, as required by the FHA. However, under this most recent memo, HUD now considers that one-year statute of limitations to begin to run when the allegedly unlawful design and construction practice terminates – i.e., upon completion of construction. While this change in interpretation may relieve subsequent owners from having to make accessibility modifications to property that they may not have been responsible for designing or constructing, this change leaves people with disabilities with very little recourse when it comes to obtaining administrative relief from HUD for fair housing access related to design and construction claims and represents a concerning continuation of HUD’s efforts to roll back longstanding civil protections in housing, such as its proposed removal of gender identity and disparate impact protections, which LeadingAge opposes. UPDATE: Proposed Rule Rolling Back Community Reinvestment Act Obligations Published. As we reported last week, a multi-agency proposed rule seeks to roll back the Community Reinvestment Act and could weaken investment in affordable housing and community development. This proposed rule has now been published in the Federal Register on August 12 kicking off a 60-day comment period that will end on October 13, 2026. The full article can be read here . Here is your weekly Affordable Housing Weekly Recap.
Department of Justice Requests Court to Vacate Integration Mandate in HHS's 504 Regulation
New Guidance from IRS on No Tax on Overtime. Last week, the Internal revenue Service issued updated FAQs on the No Tax on Overtime provision under HR 1, which added a new tax deduction for qualified overtime compensation. The deduction allows individuals to deduct up to $12,500 of qualified overtime pay annually ($25,000 in the case of a joint return) but may be reduced if a taxpayer's modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds $150,000 ($300,000 for joint filers). Developed in coordination with the Department of Labor and Office of Personnel Management, the updated FAQs replace previous FAQs issued in January 2026 and provide more extensive guidance on overtime eligibility and exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, reporting qualified overtime compensation, and federal income tax withholdings from wages. The FAQs also include a guidance for employers on calculating qualified overtime compensation to be paid to an employee for purposes of the deduction. This includes instructions for alternative methods of computation are used to compute overtime, which may apply to employees of certain residential care facilities. Here is your weekly Workforce Weekly Recap
COVID “Up to Date” Definition Will Not Change
There are no new Assisted Living updates to share this week. Please check back next week for the latest news and information. Here is your Life Plan Community Weekly Recap .
Updates from DHHS Survey Department This week we received several updates from DHHS survey department. This information will be shared with the department in greater detail on our Associations call on September 9th. RN Waiver- There have been a few SNFs that have applied or asked questions regarding an RN waiver. This would allow the SNF to deviate from the 8 consecutive hours per day of RN coverage. Providers need to understand this is a long process, often taking months before a response is received. It will require the provider to provide a significant amount of information during the application and will require submission of documents supporting the efforts to recruit. It will also require a recertification survey to be completed prior to approval. The chances of CMS approving this waiver are very low. Providers should proceed with caution on this method to ensure staffing requirements are met. Department will provide information on “FYI” that are documented during the survey process for areas that may not reach a citation. Citations may be issued even if there is a PIP in place if evidence does not show a decrease in the deficient practice or if the PIP was just recently implemented. Past non-compliance can also be cited if they have reached harm levels or for other reasons. New MDS Resource Available from CMS The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering a web-based training that provides an overview of Chapter 2 of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI). The course reviews RAI requirements for OBRA and PPS assessments, including assessment types, timing and scheduling requirements, discharge assessment determination, interrupted stay considerations, and combined assessments. This training can be accessed through the SNF QRP Training webpage. UHC Prior Authorization Reductions Will Have Little Impact on SNFs and HHAs UnitedHealthcare announced September 1 that it will make a 30% reduction in the number of items and services requiring prior authorization across its Medicare Advantage and Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs), Community Plans (Medicaid managed care), and commercial insurance products. However, LeadingAge’s review of the more than 1,700 affected codes found that few apply to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) or home health agencies (HHAs)—a disappointing, though perhaps unsurprising, result for members. There are three CPT Codes -- 92597, 92508 and 92526 that address speech-language pathology services and treatment of swallowing dysfunction and/or oral function for feeding. There are also some codes for home-based durable medical equipment like patient lifts and hospital beds that will no longer need to be pre-approved. These new prior authorization policies will take effect October 1, 2026. UHC is one of the insurers that signed a June 2025 pledge to reduce prior authorizations across all of their insurance products but to date, these efforts typically ignore offering any relief for post-acute care(PAC) providers like SNFs and HHAs. This latest proposal and other announcements made earlier in the year appear to be their attempt to follow through on their public commitment. Based upon an April 20, 2026, announcement , UHC plans to implement a rural provider prior authorization waiver starting November 2 to ease the administrative burden of this process on rural health providers. Few details about the waiver have been provided but it appears it will be limited to rural hospitals and their associated rural practitioners. It is not clear if this would also absolve these hospitals and practitioners from seeking initial prior authorizations for SNF or HHA admissions. If prior authorizations aren’t required to initiate a SNF stay or HHA admission, one can’t help but wonder if this will place a new burden of proof on SNFs and HHAs to prove medical necessity when they submit a claim for payment and/or lead to higher rates of claims denials. If that is the case, eliminating prior authorizations will merely shift provider burden from prior authorization to the point of seeking payment. UHC acknowledges the “cost and staffing strains” that prior authorizations pose for rural providers but fails to recognize these requirements are equally burdensome for PAC providers especially given the frequency that requests for continued care must be submitted by SNFs and HHAs. LeadingAge members in 2024-2025 reported each SNF episode of care requires, on average, between 2-5 requests or authorizations to continue care beyond the initial prior authorization to ensure the beneficiary receives needed services. The recent Office of the Inspector General report on MA prior authorization practices related to PAC services underscores high overturn rates of initial denials of prior authorization requests. These appeals are often supported by PAC providers taking direct care staff away from the beneficiary to obtain the needed approval from a plan. LeadingAge is continuing its advocacy push to Congress and the Administration for standardization of prior authorization processes across plans and speeding up the decision making by the plans. We will be encouraging the House and Senate to vote on the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act (H.R. 3514/S. 1816) when they return for their September session.
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UPDATE: Proposed Rule Rolling Back Community Reinvestment Act Obligations Published. As we reported last week, a multi-agency proposed rule seeks to roll back the Community Reinvestment Act and could weaken investment in affordable housing and community development. This proposed rule has now been published in the Federal Register on August 12 kicking off a 60-day comment period that will end on October 13, 2026. The full article can be read here . Here is your weekly Affordable Housing Weekly Recap.
Home Health Value Based Purchasing Annual Payment Percentage Adjustments Posted.
