Many experts have written about the importance of making covid-19 vaccines available to family caregivers of frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. But how can states do this? It turns out to be really complicated. Massachusetts shows what happens when one state decides to vaccinate not only older adults, but also the people who bring them to get [...]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted living facilities near the top of the list for receiving a covid-19 vaccine. That is the right call. But public health officials should not forget about the millions of frail older adults living at home who are at risk of dying from [...]
The covid-19 pandemic has increased the burden on family caregivers and made Americans more insistent than ever on receiving their own care at home, rather than in a long-term care facility. Yet, they are in more denial than before the pandemic about the likelihood they or a loved one will need personal assistance at some time in their lives. As [...]
Changes in technology, new government payment models, managed care, and consumer preferences all are shifting services for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities from facilities to home. These models will create new options for consumers and threaten to disrupt the business models of hospitals, traditional nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. These care models come with a [...]
Likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is, very slowly and cautiously, acknowledging the need to reform the way we support frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. In recent days, a task force created by his campaign made several proposals to expand home and community based care under Medicaid and support both family and paid caregivers. Since covid-19 has killed more [...]
Nothing I have written lately has generated more heartfelt response than my articles about family members who, due to the covid-19 pandemic, are unable to visit their loved ones in long-term care facilities. And the writers are consistent: They want to visit, no matter the risk. Here are just some of the emails I’ve received in the past few weeks: [...]
The way we care for older adults in the US is, self-evidently, not working. In just the past three months, at least 44,000 residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19. Hundreds of thousands have been sickened. And millions have been isolated from family and friends for months. Yet, this crisis did not [...]
“When will I be allowed to visit my mother again?” That’s been the question on the minds of the families of millions of residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other senior communities who effectively have been locked down since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold two months ago. Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) put out [...]
The headlines are eye-opening: On Friday, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that, as of as of April 23, there were more than 10,000 reported deaths from COVID-19 in long-term care facilities—in just the 23 states that publicly report this information. That may be shocking. But it should not be surprising. COVID-19 has exposed and amplified our profoundly flawed system of [...]
The Trump Administration has finally said it would require nursing homes to report cases of COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and, eventually, to families of residents. The move is welcome, but it is far too little and, for many families, far too late. On Friday, The New York Times reported that more than 36,500 residents [...]