Health policymakers love the idea of hospice. Yet Medicare seems to be learning exactly the wrong lessons from the success of the program, which provides well-integrated patient-centered comfort care to people with terminal illness. Instead of trying to understand why hospice is growing in popularity, Medicare is instead making it harder to enroll. As often happens in its regulation of [...]
A new insurance company survey of financial advisers reports that four-in-ten have clients who ask about giving away their assets so they can become eligible for Medicaid long-term care. Oddly, though not surprisingly, the same advisers report their clients say that a key goal of their long-term care planning is “maintaining control.” The online survey, by Nationwide Financial, questioned a [...]
Slowly but surely, more people who receive Medicaid benefits for long-term supports and services are getting their care at home rather than in nursing facilities. Still, only about 3.3 million seniors and younger people with disabilities who require long-term care get such help at home—about 1 million more than in 2000. Overall, the program now spends about $50 billion or [...]
Too often, we stash our elders away in institutional residential care facilities. And, sadly, even many active seniors choose to separate themselves from the broader world, opting for what they see as the safety and security of gated communities. This week, I spent a couple of days in Rochester, N.Y., where the St John’s Living Community has developed two [...]
Medicaid is in the budget bull’s eye. But many lawmakers aiming to cut the program have no idea what it does, and how important it is to frail seniors who need help with daily living. The popular image of Medicaid: health care for a poor mother and her children. The all-too-common reality: long-term supports and services for an 85-year old [...]
With the election behind him, Barack Obama's first item of business will be dealing with the fiscal cliff--that toxic combination of tax increases and automatic spending cuts that are due to kick in on Jan 2, unless Congress acts to delay or replace them with a long-term deficit reduction plan. Going over the cliff would mean deep cuts in a wide range of government programs. [...]
Last week, Medicare agreed to expand its skilled nursing care and rehabilitation therapy benefit for some people with chronic disease, including many elderly. This added care, which came in a settlement of a lawsuit brought by a Vermont woman named Glenda Jimmo, the Center for Medicare Advocacy, and others is potentially very important for some Medicare beneficiaries. But the settlement [...]
With the presidential election in less than two weeks, consumers, advocates, and providers should pay attention to what Barack Obama and Mitt Romney would do about long-term supports and services for the frail elderly and younger people with disabilities. It is hard to know for sure, because neither man has said much. Yet, between the lines, there are important messages. [...]
Being a family caregiver is a lot harder than it used to be. Providing personal assistance, such as help eating or bathing, is tough enough. But now, many family caregivers are acting more like nurses. They have to manage medications, change dressings on wounds, and even monitor and operate medical equipment, from home dialysis to mechanical ventilators. According to a new survey by the AARP Public Policy Institute [...]
While many seniors and their families may not be aware of it, consumer groups, hospitals, and nursing homes are fighting a major battle with Medicare over how the federal program pays for patients who are cared for in a hospital, but not admitted to the hospital. Seniors caught in this regulatory purgatory may have to pay thousands of dollars for [...]