Family members and friends are the bedrock of our system of personal care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. Without their support, the nation’s hospitals and nursing homes would be filled to the rafters with very sick, frail seniors. And many of those older adults would die before their time. Those family caregivers often provide assistance with [...]
Patient advocates really, really want to believe that people discharged from a hospital are better off getting additional medical care and rehab at home than in a skilled nursing facility (SNF). But an important new study of 17 million Medicare claims over seven years tells a more ambiguous story. The study found that post-acute care at home resulted in significantly [...]
We’ve known for years that good transitional care programs—services aimed at helping patients make the move from a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF) back home, or even from a hospital to a SNF, can improve the health of older adults and save money. But a new study finds that even through Medicare recently began paying physicians extra for providing [...]