Category: Senior Health
The Obama administration is moving forward with an ambitious agenda to improve the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and unlock a method to prevent it by 2025. The plan also sets up a wide-ranging effort to improve the care that Alzheimer’s patients receive and support families.
Selected articles on health: Care of the elderly falling on shoulders of the young. Why we’re losing the battle against obesity? Whither the AMA? The big profits of non-profit hospitals.
Once again, trustees forecast that Medicare’s hospital fund would begin to run out of money beginning in 2024, but, overall, the outlook for the social insurance program that covers nearly 50 million elderly and disabled people was only slightly worse than findings from last year.
Older people have lower rates of depression than younger groups. But depression often goes undiagnosed in the elderly, who feel the stigma of mental illness more acutely than younger people and are often less likely to seek help. Medicare began to cover annual depression screening in primary-care settings.
Last interview with a doctor who fought for the right-to-die. Young doctors are turning away from careers in primary care. A solo practice sells out to the local hospital.
Santorum once wanted more government involvement in health care, not less. Electronic health records and medical malpractice. Making the best of old age. Talking about AIDS and sex.
Swedish Visiting Nurse Services will cease operating in April. The service provides in-home medical care to about 300 home-health patients, about 125 hospice patients and 80 home-infusion patients. Swedish said the service is projected to lose $12 million in this year, which would put its total loss since 2009 at $51 million. Swedish blamed losses on the high cost of wages, benefits and overtime and low reimbursement from commercial payers as well as “productivity issues.”
Sarah Palin on special needs. When doctors treat their family members. The neurology of ethics. Not all memory loss is Alzheimer’s. And the politics of the Komen-Planned Parenthood controversy.
A study of nearly 5,000 women suggests that women with healthy bone density on their first bone desity test might safely wait 15 years before getting tested again.
The latest casualty of the Great Recession may soon be the nation’s elderly. Cuts in government payments for patient care and less construction of new nursing homes are already taking a toll. Add to this the aging baby boom generation and you have a worst-case scenario.
Will it cover your needs? Can you pay for it? Can you afford not to have it?
Don’t buy if the out-of-pocket cost for the coverage would be more than you can afford. Policies differ greatly so know what you are buying. Shop around.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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