Aging
Medicare To Offer Help To Some Seniors When Advantage Plans Drop Doctors
Starting next year, the government will offer some seniors enrolled in private Medicare Advantage insurance an opportunity to leave those plans if they lose their doctors or other health care providers. Last year, thousands of seniors in at least 10 states were left stranded or assigned new doctors when insurers discontinued contracts with the physicians. […]
Seniors’ Wait For A Medicare Appeal Is Cut In Half
The federal office responsible for appeals for Medicare coverage has cut in half the waiting time for beneficiaries who are requesting a hearing before a judge. The progress follows an announcement last January that officials were going to work through a crushing backlog by moving beneficiaries to the front of the line and suspending hearings […]
When Home And Health Are Just Out Of Reach
Donna Giron is frail. She has Crohn’s disease and uses a wheelchair to get around because walking exhausts her. But she doesn’t want to be in the nursing home where she has lived since May. Giron, 65, is looking to rent a small house in the industrial town in the Cleveland suburbs where she grew […]
How California Can Improve Oversight of Home Caregivers
Jorge Chuc needs his wife to help him get ready in the morning (Photo by Heidi de Marco/KHN). https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/gorman2-99b8c126.mp3 >> Can’t see the audio player above? Click here to download it. In California, hundreds of thousands of low-income elderly and disabled people receive daily care in their homes from relatives and others paid by the […]
Rural Doctor Launches Startup To Ease Pain Of Dying Patients
Dr. Michael Fratkin is getting a ride to work today from a friend. “It’s an old plane. Her name’s ‘Thumper,’” says pilot Mark Harris, as he revs the engine of the tiny 1957 Cessna 182. Fratkin is an internist and specialist in palliative medicine. He’s the guy who comes in when the cancer doctors first deliver […]
1,700 Hospitals Win Quality Bonuses From Medicare, But Most Will Never Collect
Medicare is giving bonuses to a majority of hospitals that it graded on quality, but many of those rewards will be wiped out by penalties the government has issued for other shortcomings, federal data show. As required by the 2010 health law, the government is taking performance into account when paying hospitals, one of the […]
Learning About Hospice Should Begin Long Before You Are Sick
As a consultant who counsels families on end-of-life care management, Johanna Turner often shares the story of her mother’s final days 21 years ago. Thanks to the skilled and loving care provided by a local hospice, Turner was able to keep her promise to let her mother die in their Oakton, Va., home. “She had […]
Medicare Offers Relief To 400,000 Caught In Aetna Pharmacy Network Mix-Ups
More than 400,000 Medicare beneficiaries who may have been confused or misinformed about the pharmacy details of their 2015 Aetna prescription drug plans have until the end of this month to find participating pharmacies or switch plans, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The kerfuffle highlights the growing complexity of many Medicare prescription […]
Study: Suffering At The End Of Life Getting Worse, Not Better
It’s been more than 15 years since the Institute of Medicine released its seminal 1997 report detailing the suffering many Americans experience at the end of life and offering sweeping recommendations on how to improve care. So has dying in America gotten any less painful? Despite efforts to build hospice and palliative care programs across […]
FRONTLINE CHAT: “How Would You Spend Your Final Days?”
Kaiser Health News staff writer Jenny Gold co-hosted a live chat,“How Would You Spend Your Final Days?” with Frontline documentary maker Tom Jennings. They discussed Being Mortal, the film based on the book by Atul Gawande. You can watch the documentary online and check out other KHN stories about end-of-life issues. ( function() { var func […]