Health and Disability

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The Phoenix Companies of Hartford Conn. have just published the results of a study on the financial concerns among almost 2,000 high net worth individuals. Over half describe serious concerns about the high costs of post retirement health care costs. What does that mean to the readers of this blog. I think it tells me that you share that very real concern at the same level or at a higher level than the survey population. If I am right you need to find a solution to that problem.

17 percent identified the cost of Long Term care as their largest concern. Almost 45 percent are afraid that Long Term Care (LTC) costs could wipe out their lifetime earning. 4 percent say that LTC costs are their greastest concern and well over 80 percent said that planning for LTC is one of their greatest concernsRemember theses are not middle class we are talking about that are this scared about the costs of LTC this is the Upper middle and the upper class. If they are this concerned how concerned should you be? What have you done about it?

To amend the Public Health Service Act
to attract and retain trained health care professionals and direct care
workers dedicated to providing quality care to the growing population
of older Americans.

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6/20/2008--Introduced.
Caring for an Aging America Act of 2008 -
Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health
and Human Services to:
(1) establish a Geriatric and Gerontology Loan Repayment Program to enter into contracts with physicians, physician
assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists,
psychologists, and social workers trained in geriatrics or gerontology
to pay educational loans in exchange for providing full-time clinical
practice and service to older adults; and
(2) establish the National Advisory Council on the Geriatric and Gerontology Loan Repayment Program.
Requires
the Secretary to ensure that individuals eligible for the nurse loan
repayment program include registered nurses who complete specialty
training in geriatrics or gerontology and who elect to provide nursing
services to older adults in home and long-term care settings.
Authorizes
the Secretary to award nursing education grants and enter into
contracts for programs that focus on specialty training in providing
long-term care services for nursing personnel who provide services in
home and long-term care settings.
Requires the Secretary to
establish a Health and Long-Term Care Workforce Advisory Panel to
conduct a research project to identify incentives for recruitment and
retention of clinicians and providers who agree to serve vulnerable
older adults in geriatric and long-term care settings.

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To amend title XIX of the Social
Security Act to require asset verification through access to
information held by financial institutions, to reduce fraud and abuse
in State Medicaid programs, and for other purposes.

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4/10/2008--Introduced.
Medicaid Fraud Reduction Act of 2008 -
Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act (SSA), for
purposes of determining or redetermining an individual's Medicaid
eligibility, to direct each state to implement an asset verification
program requiring Medicaid applicants or recipients to authorize the state to:
(1) obtain records from a financial institution; and
(2) use them to verify the individual's financial resources.
Directs
the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide payments to
eligible states to establish and carry out practices to reduce fraud
under the state Medicaid program.
Requires the Secretary to report
to Congress on the feasibility of, and potential program savings from,
implementing an electronic system for verifying asset transfers,
particularly of real property, by Medicaid applicants or recipients.
Authorizes the Secretary to require states to implement such a system
if feasible and cost-effective.
Requires withholding of federal matching payments to states for:
(1) failure to implement an asset verification program; and
(2)
any expenditures other than for compensation of a state employee or
payment to a state entity (for instance, expenditures for consultants).
Requires
states to submit to the Secretary state plan amendments for creating
Internet-based transparency programs to improve public disclosure of
Medicaid payments information.
Amends SSA title XI to permit
limitations, restrictions, and suspensions of Medicaid eligibility in
cases of Medicaid-related civil or criminal fraud or abuse.
Provides for an extended period of one year to recover Medicaid overpayments resulting from fraud or abuse.

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5/22/2008--Introduced.
Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of
2008 - Provides that a pre-dispute arbitration agreement between a
long-term care facility and a resident (or anyone acting on the
resident's behalf) shall not be valid or specifically enforceable.
See Full Bill Text

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If you were looking for a sexy lesbian topic, you came to the wrong
article. But if you are middle-aged and in a lesbian life partnership
and want to stay that way till death do you part, read on.

Long term care. What exactly does that mean? In the medical world,
long term care (LTC) is the phraseology used to describe the plans we
put in place for our old age–especially if we become disabled. If you
are aged 45 or older it is not too early to start thinking about.
Better yet, sign up as soon as possible. The younger and healthier you
are when you purchase a LTC plan, the cheaper it is. In fact, if you
develop a serious medical condition at some point in the future, you
may be ineligible to purchase LTC insurance at all.

As lesbians, we have special considerations when planning our
distant futures. In most states, our rights as a couple are not
protected. That means that unless we set up power-of-attorney (POA) for
each other and make other significant arrangements, we can be separated
when we become unable to care for ourselves.

So, let’s say as a couple you have already contacted a lawyer and
have POA papers filed. Now, one of you becomes disabled. Everything is
still under control because the able bodied/minded partner is able to
handle the arrangements. The able partner can provide care herself,
hire help in the home or arrange for appropriate nursing home care.
Great.

Now, fast frame 3 years forward and the able partner becomes
disabled also. In effect, your partnership ends at this point. The
original POA’s you filed for each other would no longer be in effect,
because both partners are now unable to make decisions for each other.
In this case, each of your secondary named POA’s take over. In states
without marriage or civil union protection, it is as if your
relationship never existed.

This means you can be placed in separate rooms within a nursing
facility. Or worse, in separate facilities altogether, at the
discretion of your secondary POA. In fact, even with good intentions, a
POA may have no choice in the matter if there are financial
constraints, not enough open beds in the nursing facility or for a
variety of other reasons. And the system feels no obligation to try to
make special arrangements for you as it does for hetero married
couples. In addition, according to Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center:

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Researchers in the UK have found that all drugs used in psychosis
treatment are associated with an increased risk of stroke. The findings
are published on bmj.com,
and include evidence that people who both suffer from dementia and use
antipsychotics are at double the risk of stroke compared to
those without dementia.

Earlier studies have shown that patients who take second generation
(atypical) antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of stroke, but
there is little research on how first generation (typical)
antipsychotics affects stroke risk or on how risk differs people with
and without dementia. In 2002 physicians began raising concern
regarding the potential increase in stroke risk for patients taking
atypical antipsychotic drugs - especially in people with dementia. In
fact, a recommendation from the UK's Committee on Safety and Medicines
came in 2004 that said atypical antipsychotics should not be used in
people with dementia, even though there was still no clear evidence to
support the suggestion.

To further explore the relationship between stroke and antipsychotics,
a team of researchers led by Ian J Douglas (London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine) analyzed data from the General Practice Research
Database (GPRD). The GPRD consists of clinical information on more than
six million patients in the UK registered at over 400 general
practices. The researchers analyzed a subsample that included 6.790
patients who had a recorded incident of stroke and at least one
prescription for any antispychotic medication between January 1988 and
the end of 2002.

The researchers found that while patients were receiving any
antipsychotic drug, they were 1.7 times more likely to have a stroke
compared to while not taking an antipsychotic. This effect nearly
doubled to 3.5 times more likely for people with dementia. In addition,
people taking atypical antipsychotics have a slightly higher
probability of having a stroke compared to those taking typical
antipsychotics. No analysis was completed to understand the specific
mechanisms that are behind these differences.

It has often been suggested that some dementia behaviors and issues
are related to disruptions of the circadian rhythm within the body.
Circadian rhythm refers to the body's natural clock that is based on a
24 hour cycle.

The researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in
Amsterdam found that using 9 hours of bright light along with the sleep
hormone melatonin improved dementia subject's mood, sleep and behavior
issues by 5%.

The Intel Corporation and the National Family Caregiver's Association collaborated
to build this new site to allow professional and family caregivers the
opportunity to interact through forums, links and profiles. It is
thought to be the first online community for family caregivers, nurses,
social workers and others who need to communicate about vital issues
concerning caregiving.

Some of the highlights of the new ConnectingForCare.com include:

We often see that a person who is multi-lingual with dementia
that is entering the middle stage will revert to their primary language
or the language that they grew up with. Imagine having dementia and
then experiencing everyone around you speaking a foreign language!

There are a few things that caregivers can do to deal with when this situation occurs:

Yielding to intense lobbying by the nursing home industry, the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is giving skilled nursing facilities
(SNFs), nursing homes that provide nursing and rehabilitative services to
Medicare beneficiaries recovering from a hospital stay, a two-part rate increase
worth more than $1.5 billion next year.

"The windfall to skilled nursing
facilities comes with no strings attached; there is no reason to believe this
windfall will help improve the quality of care or quality of life for nursing
home residents," said Toby S. Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney with the Center
for Medicare Advocacy.

"The Center for Medicare Advocacy calls on CMS to
recalibrate skilled nursing facilities rates, as it proposed in May, and to take
steps to ensure that skilled nursing facilities use their Medicare dollars as
Congress and CMS intended - for the care of skilled nursing facilities
residents," said Ms. Edelman. "CMS bases skilled nursing facilities rates, in
part, on costs for nurse staffing. The highest daily rate for an urban skilled
nursing facility, $622.93, includes $288.31 for nursing. CMS must ensure that
skilled nursing facilities actually spend their staffing dollars on staff."