Aging

The reports from covid-19 patients are disconcerting. Only a few hours before, they were enjoying a cup of pungent coffee or the fragrance of flowers in a garden. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, those smells disappeared. Young and old alike are affected — more than 80% to 90% of those diagnosed with […]

A principios de julio, mientras la pandemia de covid-19 azotaba la América rural, el presidente de un pequeño hospital de Kansas se sentó, un viernes por la tarde, para escribirle al presidente de los Estados Unidos y pedirle ayuda. “No pretendo aumentar su carga”, escribió Brian Williams, teniente coronel retirado del ejército y veterano de […]

In early July, as the covid-19 pandemic slammed rural America, the president of a small Kansas hospital sat down on a Friday afternoon and wrote the president of the United States to plead for help. “I do not intend to add to your burden,” said Brian Williams, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Desert Storm […]

Switching seniors to Medicare Advantage plans has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars more than keeping them in original Medicare, a cost that has exploded since 2018 and is likely to rise even higher, new research has found. Richard Kronick, a former federal health policy researcher and a professor at the University of California-San […]

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization announced a global campaign to combat ageism — discrimination against older adults that is pervasive and harmful but often unrecognized. “We must change the narrative around age and ageing” and “adopt strategies to counter” ageist attitudes and behaviors, WHO concluded in a major report accompanying the campaign. Several […]

President Joe Biden’s mammoth domestic spending bill would add hearing benefits to the traditional Medicare program — one of three major new benefits Democrats had sought. The Biden administration appears to have fallen short of its ambition to expand dental and vision along with hearing benefits. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other progressives have long […]

window.addEventListener(‘message’, function(event) { if (typeof event.data[‘datawrapper-height’] !== ‘undefined’) { var iframes = document.querySelectorAll(‘iframe’); for (var chartId in event.data[‘datawrapper-height’]) { for (var i=0; i<iframes.length; i++) { if (iframes[i].contentWindow === event.source) { iframes[i].style.height = event.data['datawrapper-height'][chartId] + 'px'; } } } } }); Preventable rehospitalization of the nation’s older adults has proved a persistent health and financial challenge […]

William Stork needs a tooth out. That’s what the 71-year-old retired truck driver’s dentist told him during a recent checkup. That kind of extraction requires an oral surgeon, which could cost him around $1,000 because, like most seniors, Stork does not have dental insurance, and Medicare won’t cover his dental bills. Between Social Security and […]

The federal government’s effort to penalize hospitals for excessive patient readmissions is ending its first decade with Medicare cutting payments to nearly half the nation’s hospitals. In its 10th annual round of penalties, Medicare is reducing its payments to 2,499 hospitals, or 47% of all facilities. The average penalty is a 0.64% reduction in payment […]