ADAPT in DC

11 ADAPTers were arrested at the McCain offices. They have all processed out and returned to DUH City. The night shift has arrived to populate DUH City overnight.  End of Day One.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

Still More Pictures:


Under Arrest


More at McCain headquarters

Steve Gold was one of the people arrested at McCain headquarters.



Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

More Pictures:


Police at HUD


DUH City chanting the same chant as being chanted at McCain's headquarters


Multimedia message


At McCain Headquarters, I think.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

Some more pictures:


A young ADAPTer enjoys breakfast


Food being distributed to ADAPTers in DUH City


Cassie James and Anita Cameron start the press conference


Multimedia message


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

DC ADAPT National Action, Day 3

from Philosophercrip:

Today started early.  That is, we wanted to surprise our target (National Headquarters ofHUD) an so we got there before any of the staff or administration.  I went to bed at around 10:30pm Sunday night, and was up at 2:15am Monday morning, so the march from the hotel could begin at 4am sharp!  Many of my friends and family who mock me for not being an early riser will find that amusing.  We arrived at HUD and began to erect tents on their patio, labeling it DUHCity (get it, HUD and DUH?).  Security gaurds scrambled around, and there is even a rumor that we woke one up with our 4am chanting, but we weren’t there to “take” HUD.  We were merely using it as a staging ground for other actions throughout the city.  and more....

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Senate Committee Approves Legislation That Would Invalidate Mandatory Binding Arbitration Provisions Of Nursing Home Admission Contracts

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved by voice vote a bill (S 2838) that would ban the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts, CQ Today reports. The clauses require that people seeking to enter a nursing home and their family agree to waive their right to take disputes regarding care at the facility to court and must settle them through arbitration. The House Judiciary Committee in July approved a companion bill (HR 6126). 

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

ADAPT has put up a website, http://www.duhcity.org/
to consolidate information, videos, and pictures about their action to open up housing to people with disabilities instead of nursing homes. Check it out!

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

More Pictures:



ADAPT heading out for HUD at 4:am



The HUD building at night, no police wait for ADAPT



ADAPT color leader taking charge at HUD



HUD Security is helpless to prevent the construction of DUH City



At the center of ADAPT's city people share their personal experiences


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

AP IMPACT: Tons of drugs dumped into wastewater

U.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into America's drinking water, according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation.

These discarded medications are expired, spoiled, over-prescribed or unneeded. Some are simply unused because patients refuse to take them, can't tolerate them or die with nearly full 90-day supplies of multiple prescriptions on their nightstands.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Aging in Community in Sri Lanka

What do we want to accomplish through this project in Sri Lanka?


After long discussions in many days and months, we came up with four core goals for this project as follows:

1. Developing the culturally appropriate architectural design and care program

2. Applying the concept of aging in community

- Developed countries : creating intentional community

- Developing countries : maintain and strengthen the existing community to care for elders

3. Learning about the social value of elder care in Sri Lanka

4. Application of the lessons learned from the past experience of long term care for elders


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

More pictures from "DUH" city in the HUD building plaza.





Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

From ADAPT in DC

ADAPT Promises Pre-Election Surprises in D.C. to Get Community Choice Act Passed

For information contact;
Randy Alexander (901) 359-4982
Chris Hilderbrant (585) 267-0343

Washington, D.C.---Over 500 ADAPT disability rights activists committed to getting the Community Choice Act passed during this Congress are coming to town September 13-18 to exert some pre-election pressure on policymakers. The Community Choice Act (S. 799, H.R. 1621) would allow people with disabilities and older Americans to choose to live in their own homes and communities instead of being forced into nursing homes and other institutions by the current institutional bias in the nation's Medicaid program.
"We are coming up on an election," said Chris Hilderbrant, ADAPT organizer from Rochester, New York, "and one of the two candidates for president, Sen. John McCain, has blatantly refused to endorse the Community Choice Act even though he says he supports community services. On the other hand, Sen. Obama and his running mate Sen. Biden have both signed on to this legislation. Maybe Sen. McCain needs some more convincing."
ADAPT will be in D.C. to confront a variety of policymakers and systems that continue to put up barriers to community living for disabled and older Americans. Home and community-based services, housing, transportation, hospital discharge planning, and managed care of long-term supports and services are all on ADAPT's list of possible targets.
ADAPT celebrated 25 years of activism in Washington, D.C. in April of this year, closing down both the Republican National Committee offices and Sen. McCain's office in the Russell Senate Building demanding that Sen. McCain, himself a person with a disability, sign on to the Community Choice Act.
"Not only does Sen. McCain have a disability himself, but he has an aging mother," said Randy Alexander, ADAPT organizer from Memphis, Tennessee. "You'd think he'd understand our issues, but maybe having all that money and all those homes puts him totally out of touch with the reality that older Americans and Americans with disabilities live everyday. Being able to live free in the community shouldn't only be available to the ultra-rich. Civil rights are not based on income!"
Since its inception in 1983, ADAPT has fought for the right of people with disabilities, old and young, to live in their own homes and communities. ADAPT efforts have resulted=2 0in a significant shift toward community of the Medicaid dollars formerly directed overwhelmingly to institutions. ADAPT has also been credited by former federal Medicaid officials with creation of the Money Follows the Person portion of the 2006 federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. ADAPT is the nation's largest cross-disability grassroots disability rights organization.
During the week of September 15, 2008, ADAPT will debut internet tools that will help the disability community across the country stay closely in touch with ADAPT action activities as they happen. ADAPT will widely publicize these tools as soon as they are available to the public.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

It's 5 am and ADAPT is building a tent city in the plaza at the HUD building.



Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

ADAPT holds the "big meeting" to kick-off the organization for the upcoming action.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

ADAPT in DC

Joe, curator of The Philosopher Crip, is one of forty bloggers following the ADAPT action.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

From the ADAPT Action in DC

ADAPT begins with training on direct-action and non-violence.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Seniors In Poorer ZIP Codes Less Likely To Survive Surgery

Elderly patients living in impoverished areas are more likely to die after undergoing surgery compared to peers from higher-income ZIP codes, a new study finds.



n fact, all patients regardless of income who underwent treatment at the hospitals in the poorest areas were more likely to die, whereas all patients undergoing surgery in the wealthiest ZIP codes proved less likely to die.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

PHI EXPERT INTERVIEW: Steven Dawson

Getting real about retention
This is the fourth in a series of PHI Expert Interviews, which bring you insights from four senior PHI staff. They’re an impressive group — among the nation’s leading experts on long-term care’s direct-care workforce — and collectively they’ve spent decades studying the challenges facing the workforce and how to address them. We think you’ll be interested in what they’ve learned.

When Steven Dawson came out of the workforce development field in 1992 to join Peggy Powell in heading up the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, PHI’s sole purpose was to raise funds and provide technical support for Cooperative Home Care Associates. Over time, Steven led PHI into the broader long-term care arena, where its policy and practice experts work with employers and lawmakers to support and stabilize the nation’s direct-care workforce.

Steven has written about the impending direct-care workforce crisis (pdf) and the link between quality jobs for direct-care workers and quality care for long-term care consumers. Through the years, his emphasis has been on creating workplaces that are intentionally re-designed to retain direct-care staff.

“A constantly churning workforce is the enemy of quality care — ask anyone whose mother has had to deal with five different home health aides within a month, or with a blur of CNAs in the nursing home. The industry still manages to attract hundreds of thousands of skilled, caring workers every year, but once hired, these frontline staff are too often treated as if they were invisible. So, of course they leave,” he says.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Public Housing Authorities and Nursing Home Transition

from Steve Gold:


Information Bulletin # 259 (9/08).

Throughout the country, Public Housing Authorities have waiting lists for
both their housing vouchers and public housing units.

In many states, people are in nursing homes because they cannot afford to
rent an apartment or housing unit on their limited SSI incomes. Without
either a housing voucher or a public housing units, many people in nursing
facilities will continue to be institutionalized.

The question that has been raised a number of times is whether or not your
Public Housing Authority could target their vouchers and public housing
units to help transition people out of nursing homes and other
institutions?  People have complained that their Public Housing
Authorities, because they have waiting lists for housing vouchers and
public housing units, have not been responsive and have presented a number
of excuses to using their vouchers and housing units to end unnecessary
institutionalization.

Here are a number of points you should be aware of:

1.  Yes, your Pubic Housing Authority can open its waiting list for one
preference category of people - for example, people transitioning out of
institutions.

2.  Yes, it is possible for your Public Housing Authority to establish a
preference for persons transitioning out of institutions, so long as the
preference is not targeted towards people with a specific disability
(e.g., MI, or PD) and the preference is not based on where a person
resides (e.g., one particular institution).  Other than those two, it can
give the preference.

3.  Yes, your Housing Authority's waiting list can be opened indefinitely
for the preference group of people transitioning out of institutions.

4.  A Public Housing Authority can limit the number of applicants who
qualify for any specific preference.

5.  In order for your Public Housing Authority to establish the preference
for both its housing vouchers and housing units for persons transitioning
out of institutions, the Public Housing Authority must prepare a revision
of its administrative plan that states the new preference and complies
with other HUD procedural hoops.

Disability and elderly advocates:

   What are you going to do to ensure that your Public Housing Authority
establishes a preference for persons transitioning out of institutions?

   Advocates have to make sure it does.  This requires a strategy and
some political clout.  Do you have it?

   "Power concedes nothing without a struggle."  Frederick Douglas.

   Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues

Back issues of other Information Bulletins are available online at
http://www.stevegoldada.com
with a searchable Archive at this site divided into different subjects.

To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada@cs.com
or call 215-627-7100.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Senate committee approves long-term care background checks bill

from McKnight's

The Senate Finance Committee this week passed the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act (S. 1577), which would establish a nationwide system of background checks for potential long-term care employees, by a unanimous vote.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Pets in a Long Term Care Setting

from Long Term Care Blog:

Saw an interesting article on  pets in Long Term Care (LTC) facilities. Not just traditional birds, cats or dogs.  They actually had a small Kangaroo hoping around free. You can not keep them off the couch either.  He was actually  wearing a diaper because you can not house break a Kangaroo.  It is easy to housebreak a rabbit.   Many clinical studies have shown that petting an animal actually reduces your stress and blood pressure!

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

'Deep Flaws' With Pay-For-Performance Model Need To Be Addressed To Provide Quality Health Care, According To Commentary

The "general intent" of pay-for-performance programs "is to reward doctors for providing better care," but as they gain "momentum, the initiative[s] may be having untoward consequences," Sandeep Jauhar, a New York-based cardiologist and author, writes in a New York Times commentary. "To get an inkling of the potential problems," Jauhar discusses another quality-improvement program: surgical report cards.

The program, which was introduced in the early 1990s, was intended "to improve the quality of cardiac surgery by pointing out deficiencies in hospitals and surgeons; those who did not measure up would be forced to improve," according to Jauhar. However, studies on the program "demonstrated there was a significant amount of 'cherry-picking' of patients in states with mandatory report cards," Jauhar writes. "With surgical report cards, surgeons' numbers improved not only because of better performance but also because dying patients were not getting the operations they needed," he writes, adding, "Pay for performance is likely to have similar repercussions."

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Private equity firms do not affect nursing home quality of care, Harvard study finds

from McKnight's:

A year after a news report uncovered resident care and ownership problems at privately held nursing homes, a new report from Harvard Medical School finds the opposite: Quality at nursing homes does not suffer, and, in certain cases, may even improve under private-equity ownership.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Labels arrest thought. (Diagnosing prevents curing.)

Labels, stereotypes, abbreviations, shorthands, and heuristics are bad trade-offs. They speed communication and muddy it at the same time. Worse, once we apply the label, we stop thinking.

Labeling is a particularly dangerous behavior in health care, and yet it is considered proper and necessary behavior. In health care, labeling or stereotyping is called making a diagnosis.

Making a diagnosis implies to both providers and patients that problem is understood. Consider some common diagnoses (or labels) that you see in TV advertisements by pharmaceutical companies selling drugs directly to consumers or by lawyers recruiting clients for class action suits.
• Fibromyalgia (= pain in joints and muscles. The mechanism of disease is a mystery.)
• Mesothelioma (= cancer of the lining of the lungs, often follows exposure to asbestos. How does the asbestos produce the tumor? Your guess is as good as mine.)
• Erectile dysfunction (The "what" is obvious. The "why" is unknown.)


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Funding arrives to direct individuals away from nursing homes

More than $8 million in federal funding aimed at keeping people away from nursing homes started arriving in seven states Tuesday. Most of the money will be used to build hospital-discharge planning processes that emphasize home- and community-based care programs, officials said

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

On Being A ‘Difficult’ Patient

A COLLEAGUE RECENTLY introduced me to a young physician, noting that her research interest was difficult patients. "Really," I responded. "I’m a difficult patient, and it’s served me well." I assumed that she considered being a difficult patient a good thing, but her pained expression suggested otherwise. We shared an awkward moment before parting, and I walked away considering the plight of the "difficult" patient.

In the clinical world, the term difficult is applied to a variety of patients: the noncompliant; the rude, abusive, and manipulative; the malingering; the mentally ill; the skeptical. In my case, I too frequently challenged my doctors with questions and too often chose a treatment that differed from what they’d recommended. I consider myself to be an assertive patient, but it was clear on many occasions that some providers thought I deserved the "difficult" label.

How did I earn this distinction? Surely some of it was genetic predisposition; I was born with a feisty personality that compensates for my diminutive stature. But mostly it was born of necessity, a survival instinct that involved both fight and flight.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Eroding Access Among Nonelderly U.S. Adults With Chronic Conditions: Ten Years Of Change

Both the connection to health care and its affordability worsened for many nonelderly U.S. adults living with chronic conditions between 1997 and 2006. This erosion varied by health insurance coverage, fundamental as it is to securing health services. Access to care among uninsured adults with chronic conditions deteriorated on all of our basic measures between 1997 and 2006. In addition, more of both the privately and publicly insured with chronic conditions went without health care because of its cost over this ten-year span, even while they were just as likely as or more likely than others to have a usual source of care over time.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

First Peek at Candidates’ Positions Presented at Genworth Financial’s Long Term Care Symposium

WHAT:        

Genworth Financial’s third annual National Long Term Care Symposium will spotlight the Presidential candidates’ views on LTC policy for the mature market and an aging nation.

WHEN:        

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008
 9:00 – 11:30 a.m.  (Breakfast will be served)

WHERE:                

SENATE BUILDING DIRKSEN, Room G-50
200 Second Street NE, Washington, DC
(Northeast of the Capitol, adjoining the Hart Senate Office Building)

WHO:          



DEB WHITMAN: Staff Director, Senate Special Committee on Aging and advisor to Obama for President campaign

JAY KHOSLA: Healthcare Policy Advisor, John McCain for President

BUCK STINSON: President, Genworth Financial Long-term Care Division

SUSAN DENTZER, Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs, will serve as moderator

The event will also include a second panel discussion with members of congress and speakers from policy institutions including The CATO Institute, Third Way, Heritage Foundation and The Center for American Progress


WHY:          

With nearly 80 million Americans approaching retirement age, and one-half of seniors likely to require long term care at some point in their lives, the discussion on how to pay for that care is becoming increasingly urgent.



Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Officials study alternative long-term care facilities

An article by Allison Rupp from the Jackson Hole Star Tribune discusses one alternative model for long-term care facilities that provide care for Alzheimer’s patients.


Mary Hein, along with a group of community members, wants to build several “pod-type nursing homes” for people with dementia where residents eat home-cooked meals at a dining room table and have their own room and bathroom.

Residents would see the same staff members every day and feel more comfortable and less confused in the home-like environment.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

National Clearinghouse for LTC Information

Welcome to the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information. This web site was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide information and resources to help you and your family plan for future long-term care (LTC) needs.

Why should you plan?
Because, at least 70 percent of people over age 65 will require some long-term care services at some point in their lives.  And, contrary to what many people believe, Medicare and private health insurance programs do not pay for the majority of long-term care services that most people need - help with personal care such as dressing or using the bathroom independently.  Planning is essential for you to be able to get the care you might need.

This site provides a wide range of information and options to help you plan for future long-term care needs, but it can't tell you which ones will work best for you. Everyone's situation is different. Carefully review these options and your unique situation before making your planning decisions.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/