For the first time since 2010, Congress may be about to acknowledge that people with disabilities cannot have a decent quality of life with limited financial resources and modest government support. It is on the verge of approving the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, which would create tax-free savings accounts to assist some people with disabilities while not jeopardize their [...]
Assisted living facilities (ALFs) may be going the way of cable TV. Still around, but with a limited future. Their residents are changing. Even as their needs become more complicated, they are demanding less institutional-like care. At the same time, assisted living will have to find its place in a world where medical and social care are becoming better coordinated [...]
Last week, Genworth Financial, the dominant player in the traditional long-term care insurance market, acknowledged it is continuing to struggle to keep the product afloat. The firm announced it increased its reserves against future insurance claims by $531 million and said it is reviewing outstanding policies to determine whether it will have to take an additional charge before the end [...]
Republican control of Congress means that senior service programs—most of which have been frozen for years—will face growing budget pressures. At the same time, the GOP also may try to give states more flexibility in the way they provide Medicaid and other benefits to the elderly and disabled. And while the GOP leadership will be under pressure from Tea Party [...]
Medicare Advantage plans, the managed care programs that currently insure nearly one-third of all Americans over 65, are supposed to achieve two goals: Improving health outcomes by organizing care of older Americans and reducing costs. Those two goals can sometimes conflict, but a new study provides something of a roadmap for how plans can do both. The key, according to [...]
Infections are all-too-common in nursing homes. And all-too-often facilities treat these conditions with large doses of antibiotics. Now the Obama Administration has announced a major initiative aimed at dramatically reducing the use of these drugs. And the effort has the potential to fundamentally change the way nursing homes operate—and the way residents receive care. Today, antibiotic use is routine in nursing facilities. [...]
If you are 65 or older and living in America, your chances of getting Ebola are vanishingly small. You are far more likely to contract—and die from—everyday infectious diseases such as flu, a variety of stomach viruses, or common bacteria such as C. difficile (c. dif.) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These common infectious diseases are responsible for one-third of [...]
Nearly 18 million older adults, or nearly half of everyone 65 and older, report that they need some assistance with routine daily activities. That’s significantly more than generally believed and suggests that the burden on families and the overall care system may be much greater than previously thought. According to a new study by Vicki Freedman of the University of [...]
Medicare, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, needs to be fixed. But if backers of reform frame that change primarily as a way to reduce federal spending, they are doomed to fail. The other day, former Republican senator Judd Gregg wrote a guest column in The Hill newspaper about a gathering of policy wonks at Dartmouth College aimed at reforming [...]
In a recent article in The Atlantic, entitled “Why I Hope to Die at 75,” Ezekiel Emmanuel makes the following provocative argument: I am not interested in living beyond age 75 since I am likely to suffer from functional limitations and will no longer be able to contribute much to society. I will not accept curative medical treatment, only comfort [...]