Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CMS Unveils Dementia Care Program; Researchers Find Sign Of Early Decline
Becker's Hospital Review: CMS Launches Dementia Care With Alternative Medicare Payments
CMS has launched a dementia care program that will be piloted by 400 organizations. The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model focuses on comprehensive, coordinated care that is designed to improve the lives of people with dementia, reduce strain on their unpaid caregivers and enable people with dementia to remain in their homes, according to the agency's website. It is a voluntary, nationwide model that began July 1 and will run for eight years. (Taylor, 7/9)
CBS News: Credit Score Decline Can Be An Early Warning For Dementia, Study Finds
Credit scores — used to gauge a person's ability to fulfill their financial commitments — can also be an early warning sign of cognitive decline, according to research from the New York Federal Reserve and Georgetown University. A person's credit score, on average, starts to weaken in the five years ahead of a dementia diagnosis, while mortgage delinquencies start increasing three years prior, researchers found in an analysis of a nationally representative sample of credit reports and Medicare data on more than 2.4 million people spanning 2000-2017. (Gibson, 7/10)
VCU Health: 13 Percent Of Patients With Dementia May Instead Have Cognitive Decline From Cirrhosis
About 13% of individuals diagnosed with dementia may suffer instead from reversible cognitive decline caused by advanced liver disease, according to researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine and the Richmond VA Medical Center. Published recently in the American Journal of Medicine, the new analysis of nonveteran patients corroborates and extends the research group’s earlier work showing that about 10% of U.S. veterans diagnosed with dementia may suffer instead from cirrhosis. Those findings appeared in the journal JAMA Network Open in January. (Hostetler, 7/9)
McKnight's Senior Living: Report: Most Federally Funded Clinical Trials For Dementia Have Racially Excluding Criteria
A team of investigators looked at possible dementia clinical trial requirements that could exclude people based on race and ethnicity. Overall, 82% of the trials they examined had criteria that weren’t well-defined and could reduce diversity, according to a July 1 report in Scientific Reports. The authors said that the analysis was the first overview of eligibility criteria currently used in trials funded by the US federal government. (Fischer, 7/10)
On the controversy over President Joe Biden's age —
The New York Times: White House Doctor Discussed Business With the President’s Brother
Before Dr. Kevin O’Connor was appointed White House physician at the beginning of the Biden administration, he discussed a business venture with the president’s brother James Biden, but the doctor ultimately received no compensation, Mr. Biden’s lawyer said. The discussions revolved around James Biden’s involvement with a health care company called Americore, which was looking to expand a network of hospitals in underserved rural areas of the United States. (Vogel, 7/9)
The Washington Post: What Cognitive Tests Measure And Could Tell Us About Biden And Trump
Doubts about the mental fitness of President Biden and Donald Trump to hold the White House in their 80s have highlighted tests that could reveal whether an older adult is experiencing cognitive decline. Biden has not taken a cognitive test during his presidency and dismissed calls to take one arguing during his recent ABC News interview that leading the country amounts to a daily test. Trump has bragged about passing a short screening test in 2018, and his personal physician said last year that his cognitive exams were “exceptional” but did not explain what those exams entailed and when they were conducted. (Ortega and Nirappil, 7/9)
The Washington Post: Navy Sailor Sought Access To Biden’s Medical Records, Military Says
A U.S. sailor has been disciplined by the Navy for attempting unsuccessfully to access President Biden’s medical records without authorization, officials disclosed Tuesday amid ongoing scrutiny of the president’s health and fitness for office. The incident occurred in late February, well before Biden’s halting performance during last month’s presidential debate set off a panic among Democrats, and it was not immediately clear whether the actions were politically motivated. (Lamothe, 7/9)
