If, like millions of Americans, you need personal assistance and run out of money, you may be eligible for long-term care under Medicaid. But in order to get those safety net benefits, you may have no choice but to move into a nursing home. This is true even though most people prefer to stay at home and most of the [...]
Take a look at this table, which AARP's Don Redfoot posted earlier this week: It is a remarkable story: Long-stay nursing home care by seniors enrolled in Medicaid has been plummeting for 15 years. It is not clear exactly why, but there are probably several reasons. First, state Medicaid programs have been shifting care from nursing facilities to home and community-based settings--a step that seniors themselves favor and one [...]
By now you know the story—or at least think you do: A nursing home nurse sees an 87-year-old resident in cardiac arrest and calls 9-11. Despite desperate pleas of the call center operator, the nurse refuses to do CPR and the resident dies. Except most of the story isn't true. Lorraine Bayless lived at a Bakersfield (CA) continuing care community called Glenwood [...]
Nearly two months ago, Congress created a commission to recommend reforms to the current long-term care system. So what has happened since? Not much. Leaders of Congress have appointed members to serve on the panel but President Obama—who has three of 15 picks-- has not yet made his choices. The commission can’t select a chairman, find a staff, or set an agenda [...]
More people over 65 are dying in hospice care and fewer are dying in hospitals. But this good news is tempered by a very different story. People are also being hospitalized more frequently in the last three months of their lives, are more likely to spend time in intensive care units, and are often receiving hospice care for just a [...]
Elder abuse is a serious and growing problem we know too little about and, worse, too often ignore. It comes in many forms—physical, financial, and emotional. Yet, even as society focuses on addressing child abuse, it has fallen far behind when it comes to responding to elder abuse. Here are a couple of examples of the right way, and the [...]
Broad-based, integrated, community-wide initiatives can help keep seniors out of the hospital, says an important new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, done by a team led by Dr. Joanne Lynn of the Altarum Institute’s Center on Elder Care and Advanced Illness is new evidence that by working together, hospitals, physicians, social workers, nursing homes, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]