Stimulus Bill Contains Important Technology Provisions

From The Future of Aging:

Since 2006, CAST Commissioner Kathy Bakkenist and members of the CAST Policy Committee she chairs have been touting the benefits of aging services technology to any federal legislator who will listen to them.

“I can’t tell you how many doors we knocked on and how many conversations we had,” says Bakkenist, who is the chief operating officer and senior vice president of strategy and operations at the Minnesota-based Ecumen. “But we were lucky. We had a compelling story to tell about the nation’s shifting demographics and the significant need to change how services are delivered to an aging population. It wasn’t a story of doom and gloom. It was a story of opportunity and solutions. Aging services technologies represent hope and a different way of thinking about how to support independence, choice and aging in place. To me, that was the power of our message.”....

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Wound care: advanced tools and talented care teams lead to solid wound management

From McKnight's:

Long-term care providers have an impressive arsenal of weapons at their disposal in the war against pressure ulcers. The key to victory is in executing the battle plan with them, experts say...

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Statehealthfacts.org Provides New Data On CHIP Enrollment, Federal Allocations Under ARRA, Dual Eligibles

From Medical News Today:

New data, statehealthfacts.org: The Kaiser Family Foundation's statehealthfacts.org Web site recently added new data on Medicaid, CHIP and Medicare....

...Statehealthfacts.org also added new data from HHS and the Government Accountability Office about temporary federal Medicaid relief provided by the federal economic stimulus plan to states from October 2008 through March 2009, along with the total estimated federal stimulus allocations to each state through December 2010. The Web site also added new data from an analysis by the Urban Institute and the Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured of 2005 CMS data on dual eligibles. The new data include Medicaid spending for dual eligibles by service, Medicaid spending per dual eligible, dual eligibles as a percent of total Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and the distribution of dual eligible enrollment (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 3/11)...

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Regulators see need to issue new guide for dining assistants in nursing homes

From McKnight's:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has completed a guide for providers who want to employ dining assistants in their facilities. After a drawn out battle, CMS agreed five years ago to allow the use of paid feeding assistants––provided they achieve a certain level of training and have the approval of the state.

Yet despite what was seen as a big victory for providers – because they would no longer have to use higher paid nursing staff to assist with many feeding tasks -- they have been relatively slow to train or use the assistants, federal regulators say...

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INTERVIEW - Nathan & Dylan: Relationship is Heart of Quality Care (part two)

From PHI:

This is the second story in a two-part series about the unique relationship shared between a young man and his young caregiver (go to part one).

NOTE:  Nathan/Dylan slideshow at bottom.

Meaningful work

Nathan has never walked and cannot use his arms. He must be bathed, fed, and lifted from couch to chair to bed. In his own words, the overall physical effect of his disease is that “movement basically dies off.” When asked to describe his body to someone who can’t meet him or see him, Nathan says, “I would say it’s a brain and a jaw. The rest is just useless, there to support my brain.”

But he says that growing up in a small town and going to public school where you knew everybody made him feel less different. He doesn’t identify with others who share his disabilities and doesn’t feel terribly sorry for himself.

“I was born this way and it’s just this subtle thing I’ve dealt with my whole life. It’s hard, but I guess there’s a lot worse things to be afflicted with,” he says. “At least I can still speak and communicate with the world.”

Just as Nathan doesn’t like to be identified as disabled or as an inspiration to others for living beyond his doctors’ predictions, his caregiver doesn’t like to be told that he’s making a huge difference in the world with his job...

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Technology for Long-Term Care: Scaling Elder Care to the Next Billion

From University of Washington:

Video:

Long-term care helps the elderly perform key day-to-day tasks such as eating, personal care and medication. Today, such care is overwhelmingly manual. However, the cost of manual care is unsustainable in the face of demographic trends. Without dramatic breakthroughs in the cost of care, over half of all elders are expected to be without adequate care within a generation.

This talk describes a series of studies performed at Intel (in collaboration with several major partner organizations including the University of Washington) over the past six years towards understanding how technology may substantially reduce the manual burden of care...

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Person-Centred Care Reduces Agitation In People With Dementia And Should Be Considered As Standard Practice In Care Homes

From Medical News Today:

Both person-centred care and dementia-care mapping* reduce agitation in people with dementia in residential care. In addition, person-centred approaches can be taught quickly and should be introduced as standard practice in residential care homes. These are the conclusions of an Article to be published Online First and in the April edition of The Lancet Neurology...

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Imprisoning the Aged in Long Term Care Settings

From AssociatedContent:

After 20 years of working in long term care facilities as a Certified Activity Director, I have become disenchanted and frustrated with the lack of respect for the democratic resident rights of our ill and aging senior citizens. Where I once believed that it was possible to meet the needs of our aging population by developing high quality long term care facilities, I am no longer inclined to believe that is the norm in most of our nursing facilities. Instead, from my own personal observations and work with seniors and institutions, I believe we have a collusion that has developed between Medicare providers and long term care providers....

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Proper use of Medicaid stimulus funds still unclear

From McKnight's:

A fierce debate has erupted over how best to use the $87 billion in Medicaid money included in the recently passed economic stimulus bill, according to news analyses.

On one side of the issue are providers and patient advocacy goups, who would like to see the new money used to expand services, broaden eligibility requirements and increase reimbursements for providers, The Washington Post notes. Some in state governments, however, want to use the money to even out state budgets as a whole and prevent layoffs and cutbacks in areas other than just healthcare...

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New AARP Research Analyzes Three Issues Key To Comprehensive Health Reform, USA

From Medical News Today:

As the health care reform debate intensifies across the country, AARP today released three new reports on major issues to health care reform. The AARP reports analyze health plan designs, cost shifting for expensive "specialty" drugs, and the access to coverage for Americans age 50-64....

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Talking About Health Reform, But Not About A Cure

From the Nation:

Thanks and a Hat tip to Rob

Health care reform is a vital and engaging concern for America - and for Americans.

But you would not know it from Thursday's White House Forum on Health Reform, which was so narrowly focused and uninspiring that it almost made Hillary Clinton's bumbling efforts of the 1990s look good...

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Regulators delaying new MDS 3.0 nursing home payment system to 'minimize confusion'

From McKnight's:

Federal healthcare regulators on Thursday announced a sweeping round of delays for an updated tool to enhance the nursing home payment system. The rollout of MDS 3.0 is now targeted for October 2010 and other intermediary steps are being pushed back, officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said....

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Arbitration, Community-Based Spending Are Key Issues For Long-Term Care

From Medical News Today:

Summaries of recent developments related to long-term care issues in Congress appear below.

    * Arbitration: Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) has introduced the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act (HR 1237), which would make arbitration prior to court disputes between long-term care facilities and residents invalid and unenforceable, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to Sanchez's office, the bill would not prohibit arbitration, but would give people the option to choose whether they arbitrate conflicts. Sanchez in a statement said, "Arbitration agreements are often buried in overly complicated contracts, and many consumers do not realize they are waiving their legal options." The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living oppose the legislation, saying that pre-disputed agreements foster timely, easier settlements, curb rising lawsuit costs and allow staff to focus on patient care (Kim, CQ HealthBeat, 3/3).

    * Home and community-based spending: Of the $113 billion Medicaid spent on long-term care in 2007, 53% went to nursing homes and 47% went to care in home and community-based programs, according to testimony given by Thomas Hamilton, director of the survey and certification group at the Center for Medicaid and State Operations of CMS, at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on Wednesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. Hamilton said the almost even split "reflects the progress of the rebalancing efforts in the growing community-based initiatives." The ratio of institutional to community-based spending has been as high as 80 to 20, according to Hamilton. He also said that home and community-based services "actually contained institutional costs and helped states moderate the growth of Medicaid spending overall" (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 3/3)....

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ALFA Commends Senator Bill Nelson's Commitment To Co-Pay Equity For Home And Community Based Seniors

From Medical News Today:

The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) today praised Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and his leading bipartisan co-sponsors Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for their introduction of the Home and Community Services Co-payment Equity Act of 2009. This legislation will provide nearly one million dually eligible individuals (those receiving Medicare and Medicaid services) across the nation living in home and community based settings, such as assisted living communities, with the same prescription drug benefits under the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program (Part D) as those living in institutional settings such as nursing homes...

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Ruby's Bequest

Thanks and a hat tip to kdwyeth:

Sign Up now to Participate in Ruby’s Bequest:
Unprecedented Online Experience Focused on Care Giving

You've been hearing about Ruby's Bequest for a few weeks now; very soon the adventure begins. If you have not yet signed up or told others in your community to do so, we hope you visit Ruby's Bequest today.

» http://www.RubysBequest.org

 

«

A quick reminder about Ruby: Ruby's Bequest is a unique immersive experience in which thousands of people will work together online to imagine—and create—the future of caring and care giving in the United States. We need you to help change the realities of care giving by sharing your story or your perspectives through participation in Ruby's Bequest and by encouraging others you know to get involved as well. Given your mission and commitment to care giving and people with disabilities, we imagine you would be very interested in being a part of this unprecedented experience to develop new ideas and approaches.

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Across the States 2009: Profiles of Long-Term Care and Independent Living

From AARP:

Across the States 2009: Profiles of Long-Term Care and Independent Living is the eighth edition of the AARP Public Policy Institute’s state long-term care reference report...

Learn More

• Report Home
• Full Report (PDF, 2.5 MB)
• Executive Summary (PDF 1 MB)...

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CareNetworks Builds Online Communities for Your Grandparents

From Mashable:

Name: CareNetworks

Quick Pitch: The only company that builds and manages branded online communities specifically for long-term care (LTC) organizations.

Genius Idea: There are dozens of solutions for private label social networks, in addition to create-your-own socnet services like Ning. That said, there are still underserved niches within the social networking space, and CareNetworks looks to fill one of them by providing online community building services to long-term care organizations, aka, nursing homes and retirement communities...

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Community Choice Act Action Twitters

From Twitter #CCA:

Realtime results for #CCA

0 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.

• 
  NickDupree: RT @NationalADAPT: ADAPT met with NY Senator Gillibrand's office. Late this afternoon she agreed to support #CCA.
  1 day ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• 
  NickDupree: RT @NationalADAPT: at Baucus' office today, ADAPT got the Senate Finance staff to meet with us on March 24 about the #CCA!
  1 day ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• 
  businessksh: RT @NickDupreeRT @NationalADAPT: both Kohl of Wisconsin & Mel Martinez spoke in support of community based supports in long term care. #CCA
  1 day ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
• 
  NickDupree: RT @NationalADAPT: both Kohl of Wisconsin and Mel Martinez spoke in support of community based supports in long term care. #CCA
  1 day ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

New from the PHI Clearinghouse

From PHI:

The newest additions to PHI’s National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce:

The need for national training standards/guidelines for privately paid geriatric home caregivers

A synthesis of direct service workforce demographics and challenges across intellectual/ developmental disabilities, aging, physical disabilities, and behavioral health

Home and community-based services: Public policies to improve access, costs, and quality

Who are direct-care workers? (Updated version)

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INTERVIEW - Nathan & Dylan: Relationship is Heart of Quality Care (part one)

From PHI:

This is the first story in a two-part series about the unique relationship shared between a young man and his young caregiver.

Nathan and Dylan could be any two dudes in their early 20s, hanging out beneath band posters in their hoodie jackets and ironic T-shirts, chatting away their afternoons about music, video games, and cult-classic films.

They certainly don’t look like the future of caregiving in America — but that’s exactly what they could be...

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Elderly May Be At Risk Due To Hazardous Conditions In The Home Health-Care Setting

From Medical News Today:

A large-scale study conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health has identified the type and frequency of hazardous conditions found in the home healthcare (HHC) setting. An anonymous survey of over 700 home healthcare RNs employed in New York City provided the most complete assessment of homecare hazardous household conditions to date. The most common hazardous conditions found in households were environmental and physical hazards, including animal hair, cigarette smoke, excessive dust, and mold/dampness. Physical hazards, such as loose rugs, were also common. The paper, "Household-Related Hazardous Conditions with Implications for Patient Safety in the Home Health Care Sector," was published in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of Patient Safety...

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Health Reform Must Include Long-term Care

From NBC26:

Today U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) held a hearing to call for the inclusion of improvements to long-term care services and supports as part of emerging blueprints for national health reform.  A member of the Obama Administration from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) offered testimony as the Committee considers how to improve the country's current scattered system of long-term care services and supports, while also working to ensure that they are cost-effective.  In recent years, Medicaid payments have shifted from primarily funding nursing home care, to funding more home and community-based care for older and disabled Americans.  Witnesses called for targeted changes to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as broader changes in the context of national health care reform discussions....

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DOCTOR INAPPROPRIATELY DIAGNOSES JOAQUIN PHOENIX WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA WITHOUT EVER MEETING HIM

From Gaining Insight:

I don't even know where to begin. I am upset that a well know psychiatrist would publicly diagnose Joaquin  with a mental disorder without ever meeting him. I mean ethically, this doctor should have his license removed. From what I have read, no doctor can diagnose a patient with schizophrenia unless he/she has exhibited symptoms (from a criteria) for at least six months. It's bad enough that this doctor would attempt to convince the public that Joaquin is suffering from a mental disorder but the worst part, he has succeeded in fueling stigma. If you haven't already heard about this story, Paul Dobransky — a relationships expert and author of The Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love (maybe he's trying to sell more books) — told the Los Angeles Times:

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SEC files fraud complaint against nursing home company

From McKnight's:

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a fraud complaint against Sunwest Management Inc., which runs one of the largest chains of retirement homes in the country.

In documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, the commission claims that Sunwest lied to investors about its operations, concealed risks from them and exposed them to massive losses when the recession triggered Sunwest's collapse...

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Study shows nursing homes beginning to lose funding dominance to HCBS

From McKnight's:

A handful of states are now spending more of their Medicaid funding on home- and community-based services than on nursing home care, according to a new report from AARP. The study also found that nursing home occupancy rates have remained static over the last five years, while HCBS funding has soared...

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Funding issues hit the spotlight as nursing home advocates gear up for Aging Committee hearing

From McKnight's:

The Senate Special Committee on Aging will convene tomorrow to discuss the inclusion of improvements to long-term care as part of overarching national healthcare reform.

Representatives from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and various state healthcare agencies will talk about possible changes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Panelists also will consider ways to better organize the country's scattered system of long-term care services, according to a statement from Sen. Herb Kohl  (D-WI), chairman of the Special Committee on Aging. Thomas Hamilton, director of CMS's survey and certification group, and Karen Timberlake, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, are among the hearing's scheduled witnesses....

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Sunrise Senior Living officials warn of cash shortage

From McKnight's:

After heavier than expected losses in the fourth quarter of 2008, Sunrise Senior Living has hinted that it could be forced to file for bankruptcy by the end of the month....

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Nursing homes find mixed bag in Obama's proposed budget

From McKnight's:

Nursing home operators are praising President Obama's proposed 2010 budget for provisions that would help educate and train nurses. But they fear that other parts, including those that call for “bundling” of some Medicare funding for post-acute care, will be harmful. Obama said the goal of bundled payments is to lower hospital readmission rates....

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PHI Testifies before Senate Aging Committee: “Health Reform Must Invest in Direct-Care Workers”

From PHI:

On March 4, 2009 the Senate Aging Committee will take up health care reform and the needs of an aging America. PHI Washington liaison Henry Claypool will address the committee concerning the reforms disability advocates have brought to long-term care policy and the applicability of these reforms for older Americans. Mr. Claypool will call on Congress to support a skilled, stable direct-care workforce, which he concludes is essential to supporting elders and people with disabilities to live meaningful lives in the community....

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New Spray Eases Pill Swallowing

from bloglongtermcare.com:

Spray'n Swallow® a 100% all-natural way to help people swallow pills is announced by Marlenk Innovations, Inc. Spray'n Swallow's proprietary formulation lubricates pills so they can glide down the throat, and masks the after taste of many medications. With the ever growing use of prescription medications, vitamins and supplements, Spray'n Swallow® offers a much needed solution for many Americans both young and old who struggle with this problem....

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