Aging

Medicare plans to test new ways to pay for prescription medications given in doctors’ offices and hospital outpatient centers — moves likely to win praise from some policy experts, but opposition from facilities and practitioners. Under a two-part proposal released Tuesday, regulators aim to reduce what some economists and policy experts say are financial incentives for […]

Some doctors and a key group of preventive care experts are not seeing eye to eye on seniors’ need for vision screening during primary care visits. There’s not enough evidence to know whether giving seniors a vision test when they visit their primary care doctor will lead to earlier detection and treatment of cataracts, age-related […]

JUPITER, Fla. — She didn’t want to spend the rest of her days seeing doctors, the 91-year-old woman confessed to Dr. Kevin Newfield as he treated a deep wound on her arm. “You don’t have to, but you have to tell me what you do want,” Newfield replied. “I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid […]

Mary Julia Klimenko thought she was prudent 20 years ago when she invested in a long-term care insurance policy, one she believed would help pay for the care she’d need as she aged. Now she wishes she’d banked the money instead. Her monthly premiums have nearly quadrupled over the past two years, and Klimenko, now […]

In a perfect world, patients with advance directives would be confident that their doctors and nurses — no matter where they receive care — could know in a split second their end-of-life wishes. But this ideal is still in the distance. Patients’ documents often go missing in maze-like files or are rendered unreadable by incompatible […]

As the health law turned six Wednesday, federal officials proposed the expansion of a Medicare diabetes prevention program funded by the landmark measure. The pilot program, developed and administered by the YMCA, helped Medicare enrollees at high risk of developing the disease improve their diets, increase their exercise and lose about 5 percent of their […]

Eliza Catchings has been seeing doctors at the Christie Clinic in central Illinois since 1957. But just after receiving this year’s WellCare Medicare Advantage member card, the insurer told her the clinic was leaving WellCare’s provider network and she would have to choose new doctors. “I was terrified,” said Catchings, 79, who gets care for […]

First, Alzheimer’s takes a person’s memory. Then it takes their family’s money. That’s the central finding of a report published Wednesday by the Alzheimer’s Association on the financial burden friends and families bear when they care for someone with dementia. “What we found was really startling,” says Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent services for […]

Doctors know it’s important to talk with their patients about end-of-life care. But they’re finding it tough to start those conversations — and when they do, they’re not sure what to say, according to a national poll released Thursday. Such discussions are becoming more important as baby boomers reach their golden years. By 2030, an estimated […]

Flora Yang is small, spry and not afraid to tell you her age: “90-something.” She walks twice a week at Mazza Gallerie in Northwest Washington, D.C., and says mall walking keeps her young and fit. Health officials are starting to notice that effect too and say more malls should open their doors to walkers. The […]