Living with memory loss and other cognitive limitations is hard. But when you can’t remember or can’t process information well enough to make important decisions, and you have no one by your side to support you, life can be extra tough. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco ((UCSF) estimate that about 4.3 million older adults with cognitive impairment [...]
While many states have expanded their Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) for frail older adults, others continue to steer many enrollees into nursing homes. One big reason: They fear that enhancing home supports will encourage more older adults to enroll in Medicaid long-term care services (LTSS) and increase state costs. But a new study published in the Journal of [...]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted final approval to the anti-Alzheimer’s drug lecanamab, marked as Leqembi by drugmakers Eisai and Biogen. Here is what you need to know: What does it do? In a formal phase 3 trial, Leqembi was shown to slow the progression of memory loss and cognitive impairment in patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease by [...]
Enormous attention is being given to controversial drugs aimed at slowing the progression of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Yet, a very different set of clinical innovations holds the promise of helping far more people living with dementia and their families in more immediate—and perhaps more effective—ways. These care delivery models are aimed at breaking down the often-impenetrable barriers between health care [...]
California’s evolving effort to build a public long-term care insurance program includes an important, and potentially far-reaching, feature: The insurance fund would be allowed to invest some assets in stocks. This would be a dramatic change for both social insurance and long-term care insurance. For example, Social Security is allowed to invest only in Treasury bonds. Regulators require private long-term [...]
The drug industry and its supporters are blasting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for proposing to limit Medicare payments for the new anti-Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab to patients who participate in a trial or a special registry aimed at tracking their experience with the drug. CMS says the record-keeping will help provide important, real-world information about the benefits [...]
The sponsors of the House Republican debt limit bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, say its goal is to encourage low-income people to work. But it may have exactly the opposite effect, especially for people with disabilities. And, at the same time, it may throw family caregivers into an impossible situation—having to choose between caring for their loved ones or [...]
The powerful Alzheimer’s Disease lobby is fighting a multi-billion-dollar battle on two fronts. It is quietly trying to limit restrictions the Food and Drug Administration puts on the use of new drugs aimed at slowing the progression of the brain disease. And it is publicly pressing Medicare to pay for the widespread use of the monoclonal antibodies FDA already has [...]
As the Covid-19 public health emergency ends, many older adults who need a post-hospital stay in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) will be in for an unpleasant surprise: Traditional Medicare may not pay. The change, one among dozens that affect older adults, restores rules from before the pandemic. But they are complicated and will shock many patients and their families, [...]
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has moved to increase pay for home care aides and others who provide personal care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. It has proposed new rules requiring Medicaid home care agencies to direct at least 80 percent of program payments for personal care services to compensation for care [...]