What are the Major Clinical Pathways to Disability

This is the question posed by a 2007 NBER working paper by Mary Beth Landrum, Kate A. Stewart, David M. Cutler. The authors use data from the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) between 1994 and 1999. The data is panel in nature and has the benefit of combining Medicare administrative data with survey responses. The research examines individuals over 65 without disabilities in 1994 and see which patients became disabled and how this occurred.

Growing Number Of Children, Teenagers Becoming Caregivers To Ill, Elderly Relatives

A growing number of children and teenagers are taking on the responsibility of caring for family members with debilitating illness, the Washington Post reports. As many as 1.4 million young people ages eight to 18 in the U.S. care for a chronically ill or disabled relative, according to a 2005 survey by the United Hospital Fund and the National Alliance for Caregiving.

Tasks performed by young caregivers can include providing companionship, running errands, balancing checkbooks and changing feeding tubes or adult diapers. The 2005 study found that mood swings and antisocial behavior are more common among teenage caregivers than their peers, and they also have increased rates of missing school or after-school activities.

Targeting 2.7 Billion Dollars Medicare Cuts, Ad Effort Urges Lawmakers To Stand Up For Quality Nursing Home Care, USA

n response to the 2.7 billion dollars cuts to Medicare that were passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act), the long term care provider community today initiated an aggressive TV and print campaign in Congressional districts across the country. The campaign warns that proposed cuts will jeopardize ongoing quality improvements in America's nursing homes, threaten thousands of local health care jobs, and irrationally return Medicare funding levels to those seen almost a decade ago.

"The long term care profession strongly supports expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). However, this support should not be funded by raiding the Medicare funding that vulnerable seniors depend upon for quality nursing home care in facilities across the nation," warned Alan Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care ("the Alliance"). The Alliance is funding the ad campaign in conjunction with the American Health Care Association (AHCA). "Nursing homes have achieved significant quality improvements in recent years. Through this ad campaign, we are ensuring that lawmakers understand the House-passed SCHIP expansion plan would undermine and even reverse those quality improvements. This law would harm not only the 1.7 million Americans who rely on quality nursing home care, but also the hundreds of thousands of dedicated caregivers around the country who provide care and services."

5 disabled nursing home patients sue state over care

Five people with disabilities living in nursing homes across Cook County sued the state Wednesday, claiming Illinois is violating federal law by not providing adequate resources for them to live in their communities instead of institutions.

The class-action suit claims people with disabilities are being segregated and forced into nursing homes because the state dedicates most of its long-term care funding to the institutions instead of home and community-care options.

Tags: LTC, community-based, lawsuit

Technology for Long Term Care

Technology for Long-Term Care is a free government funded resource containing information on hundreds of technology products to improve quality of life and care for people in long-term care settings such as nursing homes, assisted living, boarding care, and adult day care programs.

Patient Union Would Provide Advocacy, Support, Op-Ed States

U.S. residents must "take control" of their health care through the formation of a patient union -- a "combination civil rights, legal affairs and personal advocacy support system" that would "give all our singular whimpers a mighty bellow," Robert Lipsyte, a member of the USA Today board of contributors, writes in an opinion piece. Physicians, nurses, medical technicians, hospitals, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies "all have their organizations and lobbyists," but the "largest constituency with the most at stake -- patients with our lives and savings -- shuffle on alone, scared, ill-informed, often naked," Lipsyte writes.

Seniors head to Mexico for cheaper nursing care

CHAPALA, Mexico - Richard Slater lives at a nursing home in Mexico, comfortably settled into his own cottage surrounded by purple bougainvillea and pomegranate trees.

Here, he has plenty of room for his two dogs. He shares a little patio with three other American residents. He gets 24-hour nursing care and three meals a day, cooked in a homey kitchen and served in a sun-washed dining room.

For this, Slater pays just $550 a month, less than one-tenth of the going rate back home in Las Vegas. For an additional $140 a year, he gets complete medical coverage from the Mexican government, including all his medicine and insulin for his diabetes.

Bipartisan Letter Asks SSA To Clarify That Medicare Does Not Cover Long-Term Care

More than three dozen House members on Aug. 2 sent a letter to the Social Security Administration asking the agency to clarify that Medicare does not cover long-term care, CQ HealthBeat reports. The bipartisan letter urges SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue to include in Social Security statements sent annually to 143 million U.S. residents the sentence: "Medicare generally does not pay for long-term care."

The statement currently says that Medicare provides some coverage for "nursing care," which the lawmakers wrote "creates an unnecessary risk that individuals will assume Medicare covers an extended stay in a nursing home, when in fact it does not." While Medicare covers care delivered in skilled nursing facilities for beneficiaries who require longer-term medical treatment, it does not pay for custodial care, such as assistance with eating, bathing and other daily living activities. A December 2006 AARP survey found that 59% of adults ages 45 and older overestimated Medicare coverage for long-term care (CQ HealthBeat, 8/9)

There's no place like home: Builders design for elderly

Sixteen years of ups and downs took their toll on Sharon Hitchcock's knees.

As a bus driver for the Clinton County Regional Educational Service Agency, Hitchcock often had to help special needs students on and off the bus. That meant frequent trips up and down the stairs, and loading wheelchairs.

The physical wear already is showing. At 65, Hitchcock had back surgery six years ago, and, last month, she went through a knee-replacement operation. She has now had both knees replaced.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/79314.php

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Wednesday participated in the Service Employees International Union's "Walk a Day in My Shoes" program, spending two hours cleaning, folding laundry and preparing breakfast with a home health care worker, the Chicago Tribune reports. Participating in the program "has become a new ritual for the Democratic candidates" because the 1.9 million-member union has decided to make it a prerequisite for endorsement consideration, according to the Tribune (Dorning, Chicago Tribune, 8/9). The day-in-the-life campaign attempts to focus attention on the problems and needs of working U.S. residents, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/

Where should grandma live?

Joyce Felice of Mason was worried about her mother. Living alone in a small home in Paris, Tenn. — more than 600 miles away — with cardiac and vascular issues, Dorothy Norell Norton was vulnerable.

After months of heart-to-heart talks, Norton sold the homestead where she raised her daughter, tended her flower garden and enjoyed the company of lifelong friends. She moved to Lansing and into the Edgewood Retirement Center eight years ago, where Felice was activity director at the time.

Norton says she is glad her daughter persuaded her to come.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/78947.php

New research by scientists in France and Portugal suggests that drinking caffeine may help protect thinking and memory skills in older women.

The study is published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

Study author Dr Karen Ritchie, of INSERM, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research, in Montpellier, France, said:

"Caffeine is a psychostimulant which appears to reduce cognitive decline in women."

Using tests of memory and thinking skills, Ritchie and colleagues showed that cognitive decline was slower in women aged 65 and over who drank more than three cups of caffeinated coffee or tea a day compared with women who drank one cup or less.

Alzheimer's Foundation Of America Grants Provide Life Saving Coverage To Help Locate Those Gone Missing

While on a holiday cruise in the Caribbean last year, Robert Melnick wandered off during an emergency evacuation exercise. His wife, Dolores, was concerned that he might have fallen overboard, but, luckily, crew members found him 45 minutes later on an empty deck, wondering where everyone else had gone.

Back home in Mt. Holly, NJ, Mrs. Melnick also used to constantly worry about where her husband would wander off to next. Mr. Melnick, 67, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2002, and since has gone missing several times around the couple's neighborhood. Neighbors would find him wandering around and call his wife to escort him home.

Now, Mrs. Melnick has less to worry about, thanks to a strategic partnership between the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA), a national nonprofit organization focused on care issues related to Alzheimer's disease, and Project Lifesaver International, a rapid response system to track wanderers. Mr. Melnick now wears one of Project Lifesaver's wristband transmitters that emits a continuous silent radio signal that law enforcement officials can track with special receivers once a person has been reported missing.

Tags: AT, LTC, wandering

A parity plan for dual eligibles: the Home and Community Services Copayment Equity Act of 2007

It is hard to believe that it was 18 months ago when consumers, pharmacists, and long-term care providers were trying to figure out the new Medicare Part D prescription drug program. Articles were written, directives were issued, hearings were held, and it seemed like everyone you talked to had an opinion about the new program. Progress has certainly been made as consumers and providers alike have started to understand Part D and how it can help seniors. However, there are still some concerns with the program, and one in particular affects assisted living residents.

Tags: LTC, pharmacy, co-payment, Part D

New Parkinson's Disease Online Resource Now Available

Consumers searching for information on Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological condition that affects more than 1.5 million Americans, now have a new online destination. The Parkinson's Disease Blog Network (http://www.parkinsonsblognetwork.com) is the first site to centralize these individual perspectives, helping consumers to quickly identify the most relevant and useful information for any given situation. Oversight by an advisory board of patients and medical experts ensures content accuracy.

Tags: LTC, Parkinson's, online, blogs

Center For Medicare Advocacy Supports One-Year Freeze Of Medicare Rates For Skilled Nursing Facilities, USA

Implementing the recommendation of the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007, H.R. 3162, eliminates the update to Medicare payment rates for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for fiscal year 2008. The Center for Medicare Advocacy supports this freeze, which will not jeopardize resident care.

Tags: LTC, Medicare, payment rates, SNF

US Senate Community Services Hearing a Big Success!

from Scott Heinzman

Today's hearing in the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions, HELP,
Committee was terrific! Over 300 people were in the audience in the main
hearing room, and another hundred were in a overflow room the committee had
arranged. In the crowd there was a sea of orange ADAPT shirts, appropriately
emblazoned with the message Community Choice Act Free Our People It's Time!

The panel had six who were invited to testify; they presented a well balanced
picture of the many facets of the need for more and better community services.
Andy Imparato of AAPD spoke on behalf of ADAPT, SABE and NCIL as well as AAPD
and talked about the Community Choice Act as well as the CLASS Act and the
general problems in the system. A home care worker who was a member of SEIU
gave the workers perspectives on the issue. The mother of a child with a
disability spoke about the family's perspective and the need for more
community supports for children. Susan Daniels gave the consumer's
perspective on the limits on community service options. A provider of
Developmental Disability services and a woman who used to work with the Area
Agencies on Aging and now is active with the ADRCs gave the perspectives of
some providers of services. Everyone spoke of the broken long term care system
and the institutional bias in Medicaid and in general, the need for more
community choices and the need to fix the system now before the demand becomes
even greater.

Both the Committee Chair Senator Kennedy of MA and the Ranking Minority Member
Senator Enzi of WY were there for all the testimony of the panel members and
Senator Murkowski of AK and Senator Brown of OH listened carefully to the
testimony. Senator Harkin spoke passionately about the importance of the
issue and the Community Choice Act as well as about the contributions of ADAPT
in this struggle. Senator Kennedy also spoke passionately about the great
need for and importance of choices and community services.

Everyone felt that the message had been well sent and received and that the
hearing moved the issue forward at a critical time, as health care grows in
importance. They were glad the hearing had been held to address the many
facets of the need for more community services.

****

After the hearing about 50 ADAPT members went over to the offices of Senator
Baucus of MT, Chair of the Finance Committee where the Community Choice Act S
799 has been referred. Earlier this spring Senator Specter of PA, at the
bequest of ADAPT, had gotten a commitment for a hearing on S 799, but still no
date has been set. The group met with the Staff Director of the Committee and
he promised to have a date certain (in the early fall) set by this Thursday.

If you would like to add your voice to the call to set a date for this hearing
you can! Advocates from across the country are faxing Senator Baucus to thank
him for his commitment and asking for the hearing to be scheduled. You can
fax the Senator from the internet by going to this link:
http://capwiz.com/rochestercdr/issues/alert/?alertid=9958786&type=CU&show_ale
rt=1

NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt Community Choice Act List http://www.adapt.org

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