Aging
Insurance Commissioners Reject Calls To Limit Seniors’ Medigap Policies
Updated on Dec. 6. The nation’s insurance commissioners have some stern advice about proposals to shrink Medicare spending by asking seniors with supplemental Medigap policies to pay more out of pocket for their health care: Don’t do it. The health law requires the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to advise the administration about whether seniors would use fewer […]
As Population Diversifies, Rethinking How We Care For Elderly
The elderly population of the future may not look much like the old people of today. It will be less white and with fewer native English speakers. That means physicians, nurses, social workers and health aides will have to adapt to our increasingly diverse society, according to Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, professor, health policy & management, and […]
‘The Matrix’ Meets Medicine: Surveillance Swoops Into Health Care
Michael L. Millenson is a Highland Park, Illinois-based consultant, a visiting scholar at the Kellogg School of Management and the author of Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age. In an inconspicuous control room at the Sioux Falls, S.D., headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, nurses keep round-the-clock watch on […]
Slowly Dying Patients, An Audit And A Hospice’s Undoing
SAN DIEGO — Death sometimes came slowly at one of the nation’s largest and most respected hospices. That’s not unusual. But here’s a twist: For some patients, it came not at all. While hospices normally treat patients with fewer than six months to live, San Diego Hospice often served people who had much more time […]
Long-Term Care Ombudsmen Face Challenges To Independence
This story was produced in collaboration with The 2.3 million elderly or disabled people living in nursing homes or assisted living centers might not know it, but they’ve got an advocate – someone who’s supposed to be looking out for their health, safety and rights. In 2011, state long-term care ombudsmen — assisted by hundreds […]
Kidney Sharing System May Change To Better Accomodate Older Patients
This story was produced in collaboration with Kidneys from deceased donors are carefully rationed under rules established by the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. The system is set up so that kidneys go to people who have spent the longest time on waiting lists and who are a good match, with provisions […]
Research Finds Link Between Poor Health And Seniors Switching Out Of Private Medicare Plans
New research finds that many seniors who switch from their HMO-style Medicare Advantage plan to traditional Medicare have higher levels of significant health problems, fueling concerns that the private plans cater to more profitable, healthy beneficiaries but don’t provide the most attractive care for the very ill. More than 13 million people, a quarter of […]
San Diego Hospice Files For Bankruptcy
SAN DIEGO — Hobbled by a federal investigation into its practice of treating patients who had more than six months left to live, one of the biggest hospices in the country has filed for bankruptcy as it tries to continue operating. A local hospital chain is heeding San Diego Hospice’s plea for help, however, and […]
Letter To The Editor: Readers’ Thoughts On Issues Related To Hospice Care, Mental Health Provisions Of The President’s Gun Plan
Letters to the Editor is a periodic KHN feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We will edit for space, and we require full names. Stories that drew a lot of reader comment included one about a federal investigation into San Diego Hospice as well as another detailing the mental health provisions included in […]
Medicaid Transformation Watched Closely In Florida
This week the federal government signed off on the first part of a plan that could eventually steer more than 3 million low-income Floridians on Medicaid into a managed care, or HMO system. The decision comes two years after Florida lawmakers approved the conversion in an attempt to control costs in the $21 billion program. […]