A bipartisan deficit reduction plan proposed by the so-called "gang of six" Democratic and Republican senators would repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. CLASS, a national, voluntary long-term care insurance program, was included as part of the 2010 health law. The new budget plan, which President Obama called a "very significant step" also proposed significant, but unspecified [...]
A new study released today by AARP estimates the economic value of family caregiving was $450 billion in 2009. In other words, if those family members were paid for the personal assistance they provided their loved ones, it would have cost $450 billion. That is twice the cost of paid assistance by home health aides, nursing facilities and the like. It is almost four [...]
I am a huge fan of efforts to increase awareness of palliative care among physicians, health systems, patients and their families. And I wanted to pass on information about three major efforts to do that. The first is a landmark study by the prestigious Institute of Medicine on the importance of managing pain. The report, Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint [...]
We Americans often fall into the trap of looking at our problems in isolation. But every nation in the world faces its own challenges when it comes to caring for the elderly and younger people with disabilities. An imporant new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides an important international context for caregiving and caregivers in the developed [...]
Next week, I'll be speaking to faculty and others at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine on the importance of fully integrating long-term care services and supports with medical care. On May 23, I'll be delivering the same message to a large non-profit health system that includes more than two dozen hospitals. Physicians and health system adminstrators are beginning to get it: [...]
New federal legislation would make it easier for states to deny Medicaid health and long-term care benefits to the frail elderly and younger adults with disabilities. The new rules would also apply to low-income women and kids who rely on Medicaid for their medical care. The proposal, introduced yesterday by Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), would repeal an obscure piece of federal [...]
As if we needed it, this week has provided yet more evidence that the world of both medical and long-term care services for seniors is changing in profound ways. It is complicated and hard to follow, but the bottom line is this: There will be increasingly less government support for the services frail seniors and their families need. And senior services [...]
Powerful Republicans are pushing the twin ideas of capping the federal contribution to Medicaid and eliminating federal regulation of the program. These changes would do profound damage to the Medicaid benefit for long-term care, whether it is provided at home or in nursing facilites. This plan would turn Medicaid from a federal entitlement into a block grant. Over time, states would be responsible [...]
In an important speech for those interested in the future of the CLASS Act, federal Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that the program must be self-supporting but conceded that, as designed, it may not meet that goal. "The program must be able to pay for benefits over the long-term with the premiums it takes [...]
The news for critical long-term care services and supports provided by the states--either through Medicaid or other funding--keeps getting worse. The toxic combination of a still-slow economy, huge structural budget pressures on all levels of government, and growing demands for aging and disability services is leading to ongoing cuts in both critical benefits to individuals and payments to providers. The latest evidence comes from [...]