A Washington Post article examines AARP's strong endorsement of healthcare reform. According to the Post the AARP collected more than $650 million in royalties and other fees last year from the sale of insurance policies, credit cards and other products that carry the AARP name. It does not directly sell insurance policies but lends its name to plans in exchange for a tax-exempt cut of the premiums.
Why is this pertinent?
Democratic proposals to slash reimbursements for Medicare Advantage are widely expected to drive up demand for private Medigap policies like the ones offered by AARP, which provide supplemental coverage for standard Medicare plans available to the elderly.
Republicans sent a letter to AARP on Monday complaining that the group was putting its "political self-interests" ahead of seniors and point to AARP's thriving business in marketing branded Medigap policies and the potential benefits that could come its way from many of the reform proposals.
What do you think? Is AARP still relevant today? Did their attempt to re-invent themselves for boomers work or backfire?
One of the platforms I stand for is to educate people about aging issues sooner in life so that they do not become a crisis situation later. So this study is of interest.
According to the Northwestern Mutual Foundation's financial literacy Web site, most young adults think they'll need to be millionaires before they retire.
Visitors to the site were asked how much money they would need to have saved in order to retire. More than four out of five respondents (about 85%) aged 18 to 29 said they would need at least $1 million, and almost half (45%) said they would need at least $2 million. In comparison, only 60% of adults aged 30 and up thought they would need to save $1 million, and only 27% thought they would need at least $2 million.
"While today's adults think they'll need one nest egg to retire, young people think they'll need a baker's dozen," said Meridee Maynard, financial literacy expert and senior vice president, Northwestern Mutual. "In contrast to their older counterparts, young adults see a need to save more for retirement, which is wise given this generation is expected to live longer than any in history."
Over the past century, the average lifespan of people in the United States lengthened by more than 30 years. In late August, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that U.S. life expectancy had reached an all-time high, climbing to 77.9 years in 2007. The U.S. Census Bureau projects life expectancy will exceed 79 years by the year 2015, and new mortality tables indicate that some Americans could even live until the age of 121.
"Young people may spend more time and money in retirement, but fortunately, they also have time to prepare. Knowledge is power—people who identify their savings goals today are better able to achieve financial security tomorrow."
To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, click here.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Florida have conducted studies that suggest brain inflammation is not a trigger that leads to a build-up of Alzheimer's disease-causing plaques. It could actually be manipulated to cleanse the brain of those plaques.
Researchers induced inflammation in the brains of laboratory mice predisposed to develop Alzheimer's disease. The inflammation did not spur the development of plaques. Rather, it prevented the plaques from forming and cleared existing plaques.
Most people who study Alzheimer's disease believe that inflammation of the brain causes the build-up of amyloid-beta plaques, which are associated with the development of Alzheimer's, according to lead researchers Pritam Das, Ph.D. By selectively manipulating brain inflammation, researchers could develop an effective treatment for neurological disorders associated with a buildup of proteins and plaques. The research appears in the online issue of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal.
The Medicare Part A deductible will increase by $32 in 2010 to $1,100. The deductible applies to care in a skilled nursing facility, inpatient hospital, hospice and certain home healthcare services. Beneficiaries must pay an additional $275 for days 61 through 90 in 2010, and $550 for lifetime reserve days. 27% of Part B beneficiaries will see a monthly premium increase in 2010. The increase will raise the 2010 Part B monthly premium to $110.50 from $96.40. In 2010, the Part B deductible will be $155.
Sunrise Senior Living has entered into an agreement to sell 21 owned assisted living communities, located in 11 states, to an affiliate of Brookdale Senior Living Inc., for $204 million.The closing date is currently scheduled for November 16, 2009.
"This is another important step in our restructuring process and provides us with needed funds to pay down our bank line and with additional working capital," said Sunrise CEO Mark Ordan. "We are particularly pleased that our residents and team members in these communities will join a fine and committed operator like Brookdale."
I don't normally report business news here except when it can directly impact residents and caregivers. How it will affect those soon to be under the care of Brookdale remains to be seen but families and residents at least need to be aware that changes could take place. And it is significant to note that Sunrise is struggling in some respects or it would not have sold these facilities. I do believe that all of these bottom line issues affect care at some point down the line.
So takeaway, be aware. Ownership, ownership structure, these are all issues that should weigh into decision when choosing care for a loved one.
That is the question this article in Scientific American asks readers. And perhaps they have a point. If we look at dementia in the whole we would probably help better ease the pain of those battling it and avoid unnecessary medical procedures.
What scares me is that some will interpret this to mean all dementia not "advanced" dementia. Heck, we all forget stuff. And many suffer from mild forms of dementia. So do you put the label of "terminal" on that? Sure we're all going to die someday but is this article going to help or scare people? Taken for what it offers - advanced dementia as a terminal illness - I think it can be helpful. Just don't make more of it than it warrants.
Fall prevention (not the season - I love fall!) needs to be stepped up. In fact, the long-term care arena and smart administrators should adopt fall prevention as a strategic cause. Here is more reasons why.
Three in 10 elderly patients who sought care in an emergency room after a fall were admitted to the hospital for treatment of their injuries, a major share of the $20 billion cost for treating falls in people over age 65 in 2006.
Since 2006, fall-related health costs are believed to have increased substantially because of a larger number of seniors suffering falls, and because of the higher costs of treating the fractures, open wounds, and head traumas they cause.
Those were two findings from a new report from the federal Agency for Health Research and Quality, which said that each year, about one-third of elderly adults experiences a fall. Falls are the most common cause of non-fatal injuries in the senior population.
The industry needs to step up and become active in showing seniors how to prevent falls at home and elsewhere, perhaps partnering with architects to show caregivers how to protect mom and dad's home. It is actually good business sense. Keep people healthier and in a better quality of life for more years and should the time come they need the extra help of an assisted or nursing facility they will think of the people who contributed to their extended good health.
There has been something that in my gut has been annoying me about the whole health care reform debacle and Goldhill has hit it. Essentially, reform does not reform if you think of reform as something that uncovers and fixes the systemic issue at the core of this crisis.
Much of the debate is about covering those who do not have insurance and shoring up some other fundamental inadequacies such as being denied insurance for pre-existing conditions. Certainly we need to do that.
But I contend that once some of these basis changes are made we will have a worse problem. All of a sudden the system will be deluged with people seeking care. And with a shortage of primary care physicians to serve us, patients will end up in the emergency department at the local hospital, likely adding more costs to health care.
Goldhill says this: “fundamentally, the “comprehensive” reform being contemplated merely cements in place the current system—insurance-based, employment-centered, administratively complex. It addresses the underlying causes of our health-care crisis only obliquely, if at all; indeed, by extending the current system to more people, it will likely increase the ultimate cost of true reform.”
He goes on to say that providers do not serve the consumer but the insurer. That gets back to the Atul Guwande’s article –Piecework - that I cited in a previous blog.Providers get paid not for quality but for the number of tests and procedures they perform. Granted there is more value based purchasing / pay for performance taking place but as the author pointed out, if health care workers had simply washed their hands, his father would not be dead. Those simple, no cost behaviors have been shown to drastically reduce infection rates. Yet that is not necessarily how hospitals and doctors get paid. Ironically it is almost as if the hospital in his case was eating its young. It is their very own bad infection control practices that contributed to his father’s complicated stay, intensive care visit and a subsequent $600,000+ bill.
He further makes the point that I refer more to the entitlement attitude we have in this country, at least for those of us that are insured. Here is his quote: “Health insurance is the primary payment mechanism not just for expenses that are unexpected and large, but for nearly all health-care expenses. We’ve become so used to health insurance that we don’t realize how absurd that is. We can’t imagine paying for gas with our auto-insurance policy, or for our electric bills with our homeowners insurance, but we all assume that our regular checkups and dental cleanings will be covered at least partially by insurance.”
Used to be a doctor would visit your house and you would pay him/her cash. Insurance was for catastrophic care.Perhaps physicians with concierge practices have it right, especially people like Jay Parkinson, M.D. who make it affordable and patient centered. Certainly we have learned to accept that we are going to basically pay out of pocket for our dental care. The dental industry simply said we are not going to play by everybody else’s rules.
This article is long but worth the read.Perhaps WalMart should fix health care - retail health clinics where you pay out of pocket for affordable coverage; $4 prescriptions. Add some self-responsibility on our part in taking better care of ourselves in a fast food obsessed nation that is destroying our health. Then save the insurance for the times you truly need it.
Health reform is putting the proverbial band-aid on a solution that needs surgery.Extreme Makeover: Healthcare Edition
The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging is sponsoring a call-in day today in support of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act.
AAHSA is urging administrators, staff, residents, family members and members of the public to contact their senators and express their support for the CLASS Act. Information, including sample scripts and call-in day event ideas, is available at www.aahsa.org.
The CLASS Act would establish a voluntary disability insurance program that would help pay for long-term care services in the event of a disability. It is a part of healthcare reform legislation in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).
So how can this happen - a 100-year old nursing home resident murdered in her room?! Read more here. The son does not blame the nursing home and in fact his mother loved the place. And in terms of quality, it seemed to rank well with the available data from the state and federal government. Was it resident to resident violence? Could she have accidentally suffocated herself? Even when on the surface the experience and the care seem wonderful something tragic like this happens. Not sure what lesson there is here. Without knowing the staff, the residents or the culture it is just too bizarre a situation to analyze. The ironic part - she was still in many ways in the prime of her life. And certainly was a great example of what it means to age with quality EVEN in a nursing home.
This article puts in context the "battle" we face in balancing the needs of residents, caregivers, family and staff in moving long-term facilities from institutionalized warehouses to the best possible home they can be for residents. There is a long way to go. Read more here.
The U.S. Institutes of Medicine recommend adults aged 51 to 70 take 400 (IU) of vitamin D each day, and seniors aged 71 and older take 600 IU per day. Researchers at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, reviewed eight studies on Vitamin D and concluded that those doses aren't enough. Vitamin D supplements of between 700 and 1,000 IU taken daily are associated with at least a 19% reduction in the risk of falls, they discovered. Vitamin D3 proved even more potent, reducing the risk of falls by 26%. Doses of less than 700 IU do not provide significant benefits when it came to falls prevention, researchers say.
Recent Harvard articles have been consistent in their insistence that a different mode of leadership will be required in all businesses going forward. Business as usual got us into the predicament we are in so we can't simply go back to it when the economy recovers. New leadership will be about facilitating, collaborating and empowering. I write a lot about person-centered care. When readers write back, they pin a lot of the stagnation in implementing person-centered care on leadership. People change because they want to change. Leadership has to create that context. Albert Einstein said No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. With that in mind, here are some leadership qualities I believe are necessary to overcome the present stagnation.
Take a look. Is this you? Who do you know who exemplifies these qualities, and what has been your experience with them? Are you in? If so let's talk!
People with Alzheimer's disease who develop an infection need to be treated as soon as possible to prevent it worsening their dementia.
According to research conducted by Alzheimer's Society, there is a link between common infections, and an increase in inflammation like reactions in the brain which lead to an increased rate of cognitive decline. The inflammatory affect of the infection worsens dementia.
Researchers at the University of Southampton in England investigated how inflammatory proteins released during an infection might affect the brain. Results showed that people who got an infection had twice the rate of cognitive decline as people without infections.
Dr Susanne Sorensen, Head of Research, Alzheimer's Society says, “Professionals treating people with Alzheimer's disease also have a responsibility to be vigilant in their efforts to treat infections in people with Alzheimer's disease early and effectively.”
Amazing how so many of the problems in health care come down to preventable medical conditions that could be solved simply by doing simple things like washing your hands.
