This year’s Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting offered a powerful platform to elevate family caregivers and highlight new research shaping the future of caregiving policy and practice. The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) was proud to participate in the symposium ‘Caregiving in the US 2025: Emerging Themes and Actionable Policy and Practice Solutions’, where our Research Fellow, Dr. Lori Frank, and Programs Director, Yadira Montoya, joined partners from AARP Public Policy Institute to present key findings and innovations from the 2025 Caregiving in the US (CGUS) study.
Every five years, CGUS provides the most comprehensive national snapshot of family caregivers which includes their responsibilities, challenges, and the systems meant to support them. The 2025 data reflects a rapidly evolving caregiving landscape. Caregivers are providing more intensive support; navigating more complex health systems; juggling work and care; and facing persistent financial strain. The session at GSA underscored how these realities must inform policy design, health system transformation, employer practices, and state-level planning.
Integrating Caregivers into Health Systems
Yadira’s presentation focused on how health systems can better support family caregivers, with particular attention to Medicare’s new Caregiver Training Services (CTS) codes. These reimbursable codes, introduced in 2024, offer an important step toward recognizing and integrating caregivers as essential partners in care delivery. The presentation spotlighted the Cancer Caregiving Collaborative’s efforts and detailed the Trends in Innovation: Implementing and Refining Caregiving Training Services in Medicare, designed to raise awareness about the CTS codes and guide health systems in implementing them sustainably and equitably. As caregivers take on increasingly complex medical and care coordination tasks, these innovations are critical for building caregiver support infrastructure and improving patient outcomes.
Working While Caregiving: Persistent Strain Despite Policy Progress
Lori presented new findings on working caregivers, a group that represents roughly three-fifths of all family caregivers. The bottom line: work benefits have expanded since 2020 but the need continues to outpace available supports. The 2025 CGUS data show the positive trends: more employers today offer flexible work arrangements, and more states have enacted paid leave laws compared to 2020. Despite this, work-related impacts for caregivers remain unchanged. Access to workplace benefits varies by worker type: family caregivers in salaried employment generally have more access to these benefits than do family caregivers in hourly employment. The starkest differences in access are evident for paid sick leave, with 75% of salaried but only 52% of hourly workers having access, and for paid family leave (58% vs. 33%), and for information, referrals, counseling, or access to an Employee Assistance Program (41% salaried compared to 26% hourly), and for telecommuting options, with more than twice as many salaried family caregivers having access relative to hourly works.
This year’s survey points the way toward solutions that work for all family caregivers. Strengthen benefits available to hourly workers while continuing to expand caregiver-friendly workplace benefits for all and increase programs that reduce the negative economic and health impacts of family caregiving.
Looking Ahead: Explore the Caregiving in the US Data Hub
GSA highlighted the strong demand for actionable, accessible data on caregivers—from researchers seeking deeper insights to practitioners looking for evidence-based tools. To meet that need, NAC has launched the Caregiving in the US Data Hub, a new platform offering interactive visualizations, state-level data, key findings, and resources to support policymaking, research advancement, and system transformation.
As interest in caregiver-focused innovation grows, the Data Hub will serve as a central resource for understanding who caregivers are, what they need, and how we can build a more supportive ecosystem around them.
Explore the new Caregiving in the US Data Hub and dive deeper into the findings shaping the future of caregiving.
By: Yadira Montoya, MSPH | Programs Director, and Dr. Lori Frank | Senior Research Fellow
