FAQ: Hospital Observation Care Can Be Costly For Medicare Patients
A guide to help Medicare patients receiving observation care.
Doctors Raise Concerns For Small Practices In Medicare’s New Payment System
The government is laying out plans to use payment incentives to promote higher quality care, but physicians say the new system may be hard on solo practices and small groups.
As The For-Profit World Moves Into An Elder Care Program, Some Worry
PACE, a little-known Medicare program that helps keep older people in their own homes, is allowing for-profit companies in. Tech and venture capital have expressed interest.
Geriatric ERs Reduce Stress, Medical Risks For Elderly Patients
Overcrowding and chaos in traditional emergency rooms can harm seniors’ health. That’s prompting some hospitals to open ERs designed specifically for the elderly.
Elderly Patients In The Hospital Need To Keep Moving
Spending too much time in their hospital beds can leave older patients sicker than when they were first admitted.
Teaching In-Home Caregivers Seems To Pay Off
Intensive training for such aides helps reduce repeated ER visits and hospitalizations of elderly disabled people, a pilot project suggests.
Assisted Living Residents With Dementia Prone To Abusing Others, Study Finds
Residents with dementia need to be monitored and increased training is needed for staff who care for them, said researchers who examined reported instances of abuse in assisted living facilities.
Elderly Hospital Patients Arrive Sick, Often Leave Disabled
Some hospitals try to avoid sharp declines in the health of elderly patients by treating them in special units geared to their specific needs. This story is the first in a KHN series on the challenges hospitals face with an aging population.
In Later Years, Disabilities End Blacks’ Active Lives Sooner Than Whites’
Elderly black women suffer most from shorter active life expectancy free of disabilities, showing no improvement since the early 1980s, Health Affairs study finds.
Long-Term Care Is An Immediate Problem — For The Government
Medi-Cal has become the payer of first resort for many Californians unable to afford the long-term care they need.
Seniors Who Live Alone Likeliest To Rate Their Health Highly, Study Says
Researchers say their study suggests solitary households may be markers for older adults in better health and with more functional independence.
Study: Medicare Beneficiaries May Face ‘Treatment Gap’ For Painkiller Abuse, Misuse
The incidence of opioid use disorder is growing rapidly within the Medicare population.
Younger Seniors Amass More End-Of-Life Care Than Oldest Americans, Study Finds
A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis sheds new light on a widely-held belief about the costs of end-of-life care.
Few Young Doctors Are Training To Care For U.S. Elderly
Only about half of geriatric fellowships for medical residents in the U.S. are filled each year. Some students blame overwhelming medical school debt, which grows with every extra year of training.
Planear por adelantado para cuidados al final de la vida
Un nuevo beneficio de salud disponible para millones de californianos anima a las personas a discutir opciones con los doctores para cuidados al final de la vida.
Advance Planning For Your End-Of-Life Care
A new health benefit available to millions of Californians encourages people to discuss end-of-life care options with their doctors.
Catastrophic Insurance Could Help With Long-Term Care Expenses: Studies
Urban Institute researchers examine how such a plan could work and whether it would be better to make payments when people first need care or after they have used up much of their own money instead.
HHS Proposes To Streamline Medicare Appeals Process
The changes announced Tuesday seek to eliminate the backlog by 2021.
End-Of-Life Care Better For Patients With Cancer, Dementia: Study Finds
Researchers concluded that physicians and other health professionals are less likely to know or accommodate the advanced-care preferences of patients with conditions such as renal disease or congestive heart failure, among others.
Colon Cancer Screening: Five Things To Know
The U.S Preventive Services Task Force recently expanded the list of approved colorectal cancer screening tests. Here’s a primer on these various tests and how they might be covered now and in the future by health insurance.
