“Nursing Homes Given Federal Go-Ahead To Allow More Visitors,” by Ina Jaffe, National Public Radio Quote: “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulate nursing facilities, are lifting the ban on visitors, effective immediately. CMS imposed the restriction in March in an effort to control outbreaks of the coronavirus. Advocates for nursing home residents and family organizations have been clamoring for a repeal, noting the many residents who have suffered anxiety or depression, as well as physical or mental decline since the ban was imposed. The issue was also raised in the report of the Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality
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“Opinion: Long-term care insurance: There’s no good alternative,” by Howard Gold, MarketWatch Quote: “But when you look at it, it’s hard to avoid Gulden’s conclusion: ‘If you want a plan that is really designed for long-term care insurance, then you go with long- term care insurance, if you can afford it, and also if you qualify.’ It’s still the best choice among a lot of not-so-great alternatives.”       LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): This article defends and advocates for traditional LTC insurance.    
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“Federal Nursing Home Commission Calls on CMS to Adopt 27 Recommendations, ‘Reduce Suffering’,” by Alex Spanko, Skilled Nursing News Quote: “The solutions target a list of seven overarching problems or improvement areas that the group identified in its analysis: Ongoing supply and affordability dilemmas related to testing, screening, and personal protective equipment (PPE) Tension between rigorous infection control measures and quality of life issues that exist in cohorting and visitation policies A call for transparent and accessible communications with residents, their representatives and loved ones, and the public Urgent need to train, support, protect, and respect direct-care providers Outdated infrastructure
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“Lapse In Long-Term Care Insurance Doesn’t Necessarily Ruin Coverage,” by Diane Omdahl, Forbes Quote: “In a previous post, I shared my father Rusty’s experience with long-term care (LTC) insurance. He purchased a policy when he was almost 65 years old. Ten years later, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Sometime around age 85, he started analyzing how much he was paying for all his coverage – Medicare, a retiree plan, and LTC policy – and determined that he was over-insured. He didn’t need the LTC policy, he thought, because Medicare and his retiree coverage would take care of him, a common fallacy. So,
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“A win for long-term care: Providers applaud withdrawal of MFAR proposal,” by Danielle Brown, McKnight’s LTC News Quote: “Providers cheered federal health officials’ decision to withdraw a proposal they warned could cut up to $50 billion nationwide from the Medicaid program annually. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Monday that it’s rescinding the proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule (MFAR). CMS Administrator Seema Verma in a tweet said the agency ‘listened closely to concerns that have been raised by our state and provider partners about potential unintended consequences of the proposed rule, which require further study. Therefore, CMS is withdrawing the rule
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“Missed Vaccines, Skipped Colonoscopies: Preventive Care Plummets,” by Sarah Kliff, New York Times Quote: “When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Americans vastly scaled back their preventive health care, and there is little sign that this deferred care will be made up. Vaccinations dropped by nearly 60 percent in April, and almost no one was getting a colonoscopy, according to new data from the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute. … Americans continued seeking care they couldn’t avoid — hospital admissions for childbirth, for example, held steady — but skipped care they could put off. More invasive preventive procedures, such as mammograms and
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“Ken Dychtwald: 75% of Households Could Face a Big Retirement Shock,” by Jane Wollman Rusoff, ThinkAdvisor Quote: “Given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s a chance that in retirement, only 25% of all U.S. working households will be able to maintain their current standard of living unless they work longer, move to lower-cost housing and reduce many other expenditures, argues Ken Dychtwald, co-founder and CEO of Age Wave, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. … A very small percentage of the American population has an employer paying for a pension, and savings rates have been scary low. We did a
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“Ethics Consult: Keep Patient on Feeding Tube After Dementia Diagnosis?— You make the call,” MedPageToday Quote: “A woman in her late 70s has been using a feeding tube successfully for the past year after a stroke. Her family noticed a decline in her cognitive abilities, and the patient was diagnosed with dementia. Her family is worried about long-term care but is willing to do what the doctor says regarding the feeding tube. … Is it ethical to keep this patient on a feeding tube?”     LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): This column
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“CBO Cuts Forecast for Social Security Fund Life Span, Sees Debt Topping GDP in 2021,” by Bernice Napach, ThinkAdvisor Quote: “The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the Social Security Trust Fund for seniors will be depleted in 2031, three years earlier than the fund’s trustees had projected in May and one year earlier than the CBO had projected last year. After funds are depleted, benefits will continue because they are also financed by payroll taxes, but they will decline unless changes are implemented to build up the trust fund’s reserves. The CBO is also projecting that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust
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