The Congressional Long-Term Care Commission met for the first time on Thursday, just two days after naming an executive director. But members acknowledge they have no choice but to finish in barely 90 days. That’s an absurdly short amount of time for the panel to meet the ambitious goal Congress gave it—to recommend ways to improve the way we deliver [...]
Everybody wants to do a better job coordinating care for the frail elderly and younger adults with disabilities who have extensive medical and personal care needs. But just how to do it is becoming increasingly controversial—especially on Capitol Hill. The current flashpoint is an aggressive new Obama Administration initiative aimed at improving care and cutting costs for those who are [...]
The overuse of antipsychotic drugs “is one of the most common and longstanding, but preventable practices causing serious harm to nursing home residents today,” Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy told the Senate Aging Committee last week. She said these drugs are often used off-label (that is: for purposes other than the ones for which the FDA approved [...]
My best guess is that Congress will formally repeal the CLASS Act in 2012. Already abandoned by the Obama Administration, CLASS has no champion on Capitol Hill and is likely to fall victim to implacable Republican opposition and a lack of Democratic support. Thanks to technical budget rules, Congress can now kill the national, voluntary long-term care insurance program without [...]
The Senate Aging Committee held an important hearing today on Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) where the panel's chairman, Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), urged that both state regulators and the CCRCs themselves provide more information about their financial risks to residents, as well as other consumer protections. This is what Kohl said: The fact is that while CCRCs are a good residential option [...]