“LTSS increasingly expensive, with fewer guardrails and more demand to come: new KFF analysis,” by Josh Henreckson, McKnights LTC News “Increasingly expensive long-term services and supports should prompt serious questions about how to meet the needs of the aging US population, say the authors of a new KFF report on senior care trends. Monday’s report from the health policy research group highlighted rising costs across the senior care spectrum that already far outstrip the incomes and savings of vulnerable older adults. … Making matters worse, the report showed the ineffectiveness of existing safety nets such as long-term care insurance and
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  “Genworth Unit Moves to File New Long-Term Care Policy,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “The stand-alone long-term care insurance business has been through hard times. Genworth’s CareScout LTC provider network now has relationships with 400 home care organizations. The new CareScout Insurance LTCI policies would provide a maximum of $250,000 in benefits.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: LTCI on the rebound. Subscribe to GoldenCare News  
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  “Who is eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid?,” by Margie Zabel Fisher, Fortune “Income limits for full Medicaid vary both across and within states. Most commonly, they are based on Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI), which limits people to $943 per month in income and up to $2,000 in savings and other financial assets.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: This is literally true, but it almost never applies. In reality, income is unlimited if medical or LTC expenses are high enough. Nor are assets limited because most large assets are exempt and any countable assets are
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  “CDC report: Cognitive disability tops list of disabilities in US adults,” by Donna Shryer, McKnights LTC News “Cognitive disability emerged as the most prevalent disability in the United States in 2022, affecting 13.9% of adults. This is according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual update to the Disability and Health Data System (DHDS) released last week. On a broader level, more than 1 in 4 adults in the United States, totaling more than 70 million people, reported having a disability in 2022, DHDS said.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Ominous.
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  “My Dad Was Diagnosed With Dementia. Medicare’s 7-Word Response Baffled Me,” by Kate Ferranti, HuffPost “‘If your parents were poor, I would say don’t worry about this. And if your parents had 2 to 3 million in their IRA accounts, I would say don’t worry about this. But your parents are middle-class, and in this case, that’s a problem.’ An elder care lawyer said this to me when my father was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. … ‘We don’t consider dementia a medical issue,’ a Medicare rep told me, to my great disbelief. But my dad’s brain — which can no
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  “Home care spending outpaces nursing home spending ‘by far’,” by Kathleen Steele Gaivin, McKnights Senior Living “Spending on healthcare goods and services grew by 8.3% between May 2023 and May 2024, according to the latest monthly Health Sector Economics brief from Altarum, released Thursday. ‘Spending on home healthcare showed the fastest growth by far among major categories, at 22.6% year over year. Nursing home care spending was a distant second, at 9.5% year-over-year growth,’ George Miller, Altarum fellow and senior researcher, told the McKnight’s Business Daily on Thursday.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Nearly all that home
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