Aging
How One Home Health Agency Earned Five Stars
CHARLOTTE — Home health agencies are a segment of the medical industry that you may not know about if you or a loved one has never needed one. The companies send therapists and nurses into the homes of Medicare patients to help them recover from an illness or surgery. This summer the federal government started […]
Surge In Statin Use Among Very Elderly Without Heart Trouble Raises Doubts
Many doctors are choosing a better-safe-than-sorry approach to heading off heart trouble in very elderly patients. Inexpensive statin drugs are given to millions of people to reduce cholesterol, even many who do not show signs of heart disease. But a recent study has found that seniors with no history of heart trouble are now nearly […]
Seniors Tell Medical Students What They Need From Doctors
CLEVELAND – When doctors told Robert Madison his wife had dementia, they didn’t explain very much. His successful career as an architect hardly prepared him for what came next. “A week before she passed away her behavior was different, and I was angry because I thought she was deliberately not doing things,” Madison, now 92, […]
GAO: More Oversight Needed Over Medicare Advantage Provider Networks
The federal government needs to increase its oversight over private Medicare health plans to make sure seniors have adequate access to doctors and hospitals, according to a report released this week by congressional auditors. The General Accountability Office study found the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare Advantage plans, primarily relies on […]
Hospital Care Unaffected By Quality Payments, GAO Finds
Medicare’s quality incentive program for hospitals, which provides bonuses and penalties based on performance, has not led to demonstrated improvements in its first three years, according to a federal report released Thursday. The Government Accountability Office examined the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, one of the federal health law’s initiatives to tie payment to quality of […]
California Gov. Brown Signs Aid-in-Dying Bill Into Law
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed landmark legislation Monday, allowing terminally ill patients to obtain lethal medication to end their lives. In a deeply personal statement, Brown wrote that he read opposition materials carefully, but in the end was left to reflect on what he would want in the face of his own death. Calif. Gov. Jerry […]
Dementia Also Takes Toll On Unpaid Caregivers, Study Shows
Unpaid caregivers and family members spend more than 100 hours a month, on average, assisting elderly people with dementia who live in the community and not in residential care or nursing homes, according to a new study. The time commitment was significantly higher than for similar caregivers who helped elderly people without dementia, who themselves […]
Nursing Homes’ Residents Face Health Risks From Antibiotics’ Misuse
Antibiotics are prescribed incorrectly to ailing nursing home residents up to 75 percent of the time, the nation’s public health watchdog says. The reasons vary — wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong duration or just unnecessarily – but the consequences are scary, warns the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overused antibiotics over time lose their […]
Seniors Who Don’t Consider Switching Drug Plans May Face Steep Price Rise
When Mildred Fine received the annual notice informing her about changes to her Medicare prescription drug plan for 2016, she was shocked. If she stayed with the same plan, her monthly premium would more than triple, from $33.90 to $121.10, and her annual deductible would rise from $320 to $360. The increase didn’t make sense […]
Suing A Nursing Home Could Get Easier Under Proposed Federal Rules
As Dean Cole’s dementia worsened, he began wandering at night. He’d even forgotten how to drink water. His wife, Virginia, could no longer manage him at home. So after much agonizing, his family checked him into a Minnesota nursing home. “Within a little over two weeks he’d lost 20 pounds and went into a coma,” […]