In a new experimental program, Medicare soon will pay participating doctors to provide better preventive care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. Among the initiatives, it will encourage greater support aimed at avoiding falls. The program, called Long-term Enhanced ACO Design, or LEAD, is an important step toward encouraging medical providers to help prevent falls before they [...]
It is impossible to have a conversation about caring for older adults (or most anything else for that matter) without pivoting to AI and related tech. It may be especially important when it comes to frail seniors, given the shortage of both paid aides and family caregivers—a situation likely to worsen as more Baby Boomers reach their 80s and draconian [...]
Critical food programs for older adults, such as Meals on Wheels, avoided major reductions in federal support when Congress finally approved a spending plan last month. But for the third year in a row, lawmakers froze funding for these efforts. And after taking into account rising costs and a growing population of frail older adults, no increase in funding inevitably [...]
In his State of Union address, President Trump said he’d propose expanding an existing federal government contribution to retirement savings plans. But what would that really mean? While the White House offered no details, Trump said this, “I’m announcing that next year my administration will give these oft-forgotten American workers, great people, the people that built our country, access to [...]
You’ll Need To Save An Average of $135,000 For Long-Term Care. But Many Will Pay Much More On average, 65- year-olds need to put aside $135,000 to pay for long-term care in their old age, according to a new report by the actuarial firm Milliman Inc. But beware of the average: About 43% of older adults will need no paid [...]
The fiscal 2026 spending bill approved by Congress this month preserves federal funding for most senior service programs. Perhaps surprisingly, the GOP majority on Capitol Hill rejected many deep program cuts proposed by the Trump Administration. However, the measure excludes Medicaid, which Congress cut deeply in a separate budget package last summer. The spending bills, passed four months after the [...]
To the shock of the big insurance companies that run most Medicare Advantage managed care plans, the government has proposed boosting payments to plans by just 0.09% in 2027. That would be a fraction of the annual increase plans received in the past and far below what they, and their investors, expected. Share prices plummeted and plan executives darkly warned [...]
Twenty-five years ago, there were about 35 million Americans age 65 or older and about 10,000 board certified specialists in geriatric medicine to care for them. Today, there about 60 million older adults in the US. And the number of geriatricians has fallen to about 7,300. Perhaps more troubling, it appears that physicians are going into other specialties, such as [...]
Medicare’s new hospital payment experiment, which it calls TEAM (Transforming Episode Accountability Mode), may have profound effects on patients, their families, and providers such as nursing homes and home health agencies. While the acronym signals the virtues of collaboration and shared goals, its outcomes are far less certain. At its best, TEAM will encourage hospitals to improve the quality of the [...]
Our deeply fragmented health system is especially dangerous for older adults, younger people with disabilities, and their families. In an effort to improve their care, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is rolling out several experimental payment models aimed at better coordinating care and, perhaps, saving Medicare money. The demonstrations, described by a growing cacophony of acronyms, work [...]