Housing Bust Derails Some Seniors’ Assisted-Living Care
With the real estate market depressed, thousands of seniors are unable to move because they can't sell their homes.
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With the real estate market depressed, thousands of seniors are unable to move because they can't sell their homes.
Aiken, with nearly 22 percent of the residents aged 65 or older, is taking some innovative approaches to serving the community, but still finds the job daunting.
Aiken, S.C.'s aging population also presents opportunities. To help older people pass their wisdom along to younger generations, Aiken has adopted the Foster Grandparents program, which pays seniors $2.65 an hour to read with children during the school year and chaperone summer recreation programs.
Aiken's Public Safety Department uses GPS bracelets and anklets from Project Lifesaver International, a nonprofit organization, to track dementia patients who wander.
Significant cuts to Aiken, S.C.'s Council on Aging have diminished its ability to serve the needs of its senior population. Since 2008, the Meals on Wheels budget has been cut by 20 percent each year and the waiting list has doubled to nearly 650 people.
Internet long-term care placement services are the cyberspace era's quick fix solution for many Americans seeking non-nursing home institutional care for their aging parents or relatives. But their expertise in navigating this bewildering world of assisted living is, at best, a hit-or-miss proposition.
Seven experts explore what it would take to muster the political will to revamp the popular health care program.
Since the 1990s, nearly every developed country on the planet has reformed the way it finances long-term care for the frail elderly and adults with disabilities. Among the handful of exceptions: The U.S. and the United Kingdom.
But John Castellani, who came to the drugmakers' lobbying group after the health care debate, also warns officials against further cuts to the industry.
Although the benefit is intended for patients who have no more than six months to live, 19 percent now receive hospice services for longer.
Congressional advisory group recommends that doctors who order a lot of MRIs, CT scans and other such procedures be forced to get prior approval.
Embattled CMS administrator says partnering with providers will improve care and reduce costs.
Even critics of managed care are warming to the idea of including nearly 400,000 seniors and disabled person now receiving health care through the traditional Medi-Cal program. The shift to managed care begins today and will be phased in.
Even as some Republicans distance themselves from the House-passed budget that would fundamentally change the Medicare program, the conservative seniors group 60 Plus' celebrity spokesman Pat Boone is boosting the plan.
Kaiser Family Foundation survey finds about 60 percent of Americans want Congress to keep Medicaid in its current form.
Mark Parkinson, head of the largest nursing home lobby, says some nursing homes will be hurt by the law's requirement to offer workers insurance but they still favor the overhaul to bring health care costs under control.
Howard Gleckman wonders how society will provide care to the frail elderly people who rely on the program and account for one-third of its budget.
Martha Roherty, who represents officials running state programs, says that "things that allow people to keep their family members at home longer" are often being cut.
The outlook for the federal health insurance program that, as of last year, covered 47.5 million elderly and disabled Americans is a dramatic shift from last summer.
About 14 percent of elderly nursing homes residents receives a so-called atypical antipsychotic medicine despite an increased risk of death when the medicines are used to manage dementia in older people.
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