“Warning comes with sharp rise in hospitals holding ownership links to post-acute care,” by Emily Mongan, McKnight’s LTC News “The percentage of hospitals with shared ownership or investor links to a post-acute care provider jumped from 25% in 2005 to nearly 50% in 2015, a new Health Affairs study shows. That sharp increase could have policy- and care-related implications, according to the study’s authors. . . . Their findings, published Tuesday, showed that hospitals with investor links to skilled nursing facilities increased from 10.7% in 2005 to 17.5% in 2015. The study’s results also found 61.8% of skilled nursing facilities
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“Retiring This Year? Here’s What You’ll Pay for Health Care,” by Michael S. Fischer, ThinkAdvisor “Fidelity Investments reported Thursday that a 65-year-old couple retiring this year can expect an estimated $275,000 in health care and medical expenses throughout retirement. Fidelity’s annual analysis of retirees’ health care costs represented a 6% increase over last year’s estimate but a whopping 70% increase since its initial retiree health care cost estimate in 2002. . . . It assumes enrollment in Medicare health coverage, but does not include the added expenses of nursing home or long-term care.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President,
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“Respite Care: How to Ease the Stress of Caregiving,” by Kelly Burch, Parade “Your respite care might look like this: In-home caregivers can offer temporary services—from cooking, cleaning and companionship to medical assistance. Costs vary depending on where you live and the type of care. Medicare and long-term care insurance may cover the costs of more professional services. Adult daycare centers provide social activities with trained staff, and often include meals and transportation. Many offer services on sliding payment scales, based on income. Medicaid and long-term care insurance may cover costs. Ask about extra fees for field trips or other
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“Researchers Create ‘Alexa-Like’ Assistant to Help Alzheimer’s Patients,” by Gillian Mohney, Healthline News “Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease can be tough. It can also be time-consuming. Every year, caregivers in the United States spend an estimated 18 billion unpaid hours tending to people with Alzheimer’s disease.  With no cure in sight for the disease, researchers have developed an unlikely way to help relieve some of the caregiving burden. A virtual assistant.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Another instance of technology assisting caregivers. Researchers Create ‘Alexa-Like’ Assistant to Help Alzheimer’s Patients #goldencareagent
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“Long-Term-Care Insurance Gets a Makeover,” by Ellen Stark, Consumer Reports “Once you or a family member starts having trouble with everyday activities, such as preparing meals and showering alone, you might need some assistance. It could be help from a home health aide or a move into an assisted living facility or a nursing home. Planning for this can be a fraught exercise. But there are new types of long-term-care insurance that might help.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): A positive Consumer Reports article on LTCI? Check to see if the moon is
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“Diet Study Suggests It’s Carbs, Not Fats, That Are Bad for You,” by Dennis Thompson, HealthDay “A large, 18-country study may turn current nutritional thinking on its head. The new research suggests that it’s not the fat in your diet that’s raising your risk of premature death, it’s too many carbohydrates — especially the refined, processed kinds of carbs — that may be the real killer. The research also found that eating fruits, vegetables and legumes can lower your risk of dying prematurely. But three or four servings a day seemed to be plenty. Any additional servings didn’t appear to
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“How Well Do We Age in the U.S.? Check Our Scores,” by Judith Graham, Next Avenue “The U.S. has a long way to go in becoming a truly age-friendly society, according to a new international scorecard — the most comprehensive assessment to date of how nations across the world are responding to their aging populations. Results were released last month at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics’ World Congress in San Francisco. The United States performed well, overall. With a score of 59.8 (out of a possible 100), it came in third of 18 countries for which composite scores
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“Home Health Care: Shouldn’t It Be Work Worth Doing?,” by Eduardo Porter, New York Times “How to provide long-term care for a fast-aging population poses one of the more convoluted challenges of the American labor market. Care providers — home health aides, personal care attendants and certified nursing assistants, in the government’s classification — are expected to be among the nation’s fastest-growing occupations. The Department of Labor’s economists expect about a million more will be added from 2014 to 2024. And yet despite their critical importance to the well-being of tens of millions of aging Americans, one-fourth of these aides
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“Study: Drinking four cups of coffee daily lowers risk of death,” by Brett Molina, USA Today “Feel free to pour that second, third, or even fourth cup of coffee this morning. Higher consumption of coffee is connected to a lower risk of death, says a study presented by Spanish researchers during the European Society of Cardiology Congress held in Barcelona. . . . The study found participants who drank at least four cups of coffee a day had a 64% lower risk of death than those who never or almost never drank coffee.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President,
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