Blog

Could Congress Boost Medicaid Long-Term Care Benefits For Some By Curbing Spousal Annuities?

Is Medicaid’s long-term care benefit a zero-sum game where limited resources are shifted from one beneficiary to another? For instance, could the government significantly increase long-term care benefits for some by barring people from using spousal annuities to qualify for Medicaid? Or should resources be expanded to provide all eligible seniors and younger people with disabilities the care they need? [...]

By |2017-02-01T15:01:45-05:00February 1st, 2017|Blog|0 Comments

What Medicaid Block Grants Would Mean For Seniors

The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans seem to be moving full speed towards capping federal payments for Medicaid--a design sometime called block grants. But they may be missing a key piece of the story: Two-thirds of the program’s dollars go to the frail elderly and younger people with disabilities. The stereotype of a Medicaid beneficiary is a poor mom and [...]

By |2017-01-25T14:56:12-05:00January 25th, 2017|Medicaid|0 Comments

It Costs More To Care For Frail Older Adults Than To Raise Kids

It costs families more to care for a frail older adult than to raise a child for the first 17 years of her life. Yet, while the government routinely provides a broad range of assistance and free services for children, it offers only limited benefits for those needing long-term supports and services—and mostly only for those who are impoverished and [...]

By |2017-01-18T11:41:33-05:00January 18th, 2017|family caregivers|1 Comment

Which Tom Price Will Advise Donald Trump On Medicare

Georgia Congressman Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, is a bundle of contradictions when it comes to Medicare. He certainly is not alone. Trump and congressional Republicans have sent their own very mixed signals about Medicare. The House GOP very much wants to turn the program into what it calls premium [...]

By |2017-01-09T16:47:42-05:00January 9th, 2017|Medicare|0 Comments

Nursing Homes Can Continue to Require Residents To Agree To Binding Arbitration

It looks like nursing homes will continue to be able to require residents and their families to agree in advance to arbitrate disputes with the facilities, despite an attempt by federal regulators to curb the practice. Late last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a major rewrite of its nursing home regulations. Most of those rules [...]

By |2017-01-04T14:56:44-05:00January 4th, 2017|Blog|0 Comments

How To Prevent The Challenges Of Aging Parents and Battling Siblings From Ruining Your Holidays

Your family gets together for the holidays. You expect one of those wonderful Hallmark moments but instead...disaster. There are always issues at family get-togethers (Clinton v. Trump, Sue’s gravy v. Tom’s), but when it comes to adult children and their aging parents, the landmines seem to be everywhere. Here are four ways to turn holiday challenges into opportunities—for you, your [...]

By |2016-12-21T14:18:10-05:00December 21st, 2016|Aging, family caregivers|0 Comments

What Happens To Long-Term Care If Trump Remakes Medicare and Medicaid

Washington is buzzing with speculation about how President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican majority in Congress will remake Medicare and Medicaid. But neither the incoming administration nor the Hill GOP is giving much thought to what those changes would mean for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. By failing to do so, they are creating a potential crisis [...]

By |2016-12-16T14:22:22-05:00December 16th, 2016|Blog|1 Comment

How Faith Communities And Hospitals Can Work Together To Help Older Adults

Older adults with chronic illness often need a combination of medical treatment and social and spiritual supports. Together, they can make people healthier and happier, and less likely to suffer acute episodes that result in preventable hospitalizations. The medical treatment comes from doctors, hospitals, and health systems while the spiritual support comes from faith communities. And, in many cases, so [...]

By |2016-12-07T13:07:36-05:00December 7th, 2016|Aging, Health Care|1 Comment

Genworth’s CEO On The Future Of Long-Term Care Insurance, Government Catastrophic Coverage, And Going Private

Last month, Genworth, the biggest seller of long-term care insurance policies in the US, announced it was being acquired by a Chinese investor, China Oceanwide Holdings. I spoke with Genworth CEO Tom McInerney about the deal, the future of long-term care insurance, and the role of government in covering true catastrophic risk. Here is an edited version of our conversation. [...]

By |2016-11-30T10:50:12-05:00November 30th, 2016|Blog|18 Comments

 Dementia Rates Are Falling In the US

An important new national study finds that, after adjusting for age, Americans 65 and older are less likely to get dementia than in the past. The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn (JAMA) confirms previous regional studies in the US as well as recent research in Europe. The reasons for this decline in prevalence of the [...]

By |2016-11-21T11:16:11-05:00November 21st, 2016|Blog|2 Comments