Seniors are staying in their homes with the help of networks of friends and family’s called a “village”, which helps them manage tasks the can no longer handle on their own.
Electronic monitoring devices can help families keep watch over aging relatives who are living alone.
Using motion sensors and cameras, family members can “check-in” over the Internet to make sure elderly relatives are O.K.
New homes built with “universal design” allow the elderly and disable to stay in their homes and live independently.
Virtually all the projected improvement in Medicare’s long-run outlook stems from a big bet on hospitals and doctors becoming more efficient and productive.
When am I going to be able to start collecting benefits under the law’s new long-term-care program? When will the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap close?
The idea of doctors making house calls seems old fashioned. But for frail, elderly people with multiple health problems, home visits makes sense.
Medicaid costs as a percentage of state budgets will nearly double — perhaps triple in “worst case scenarios” — by 2030, study finds.
In Sunday’s Seattle Times health reporter Carol Ostrom explains how changes in Medicare mandated by the new health reform law will affect seniors.
Vaccinations: not just for kids any more.
Less than a fourth of the roughly 11 million people in Medicare Advantage plans belong to plans with four- or five-star quality ratings.
National Council on Aging’s Jim Firman on the impact of the Community Living Assistance Service and Supports (CLASS) Act that creates a federal insurance program for long-term care.
Buried within the new health law is the first federal insurance program to help Americans meet the often crushing costs of long-term care.
What if your state helped you turn your home equity into cash to pay for long-term care?
Aging-in-place “villages” springing up around the country to help seniors stay in their homes.
Organizing care is especially important for the frail elderly, who may have multiple chronic diseases.
“We’re finding more and more expensive ways to keep people alive. So we have to find ways to set some limits,” ethicist says.
Almost one out of three adults in the U.S. currently serves as a caregiver.
Adult day care may soon become harder to find and afford.
Commission would draft proposals to control the long-term costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security
Judge orders Washington to restore cut services for 950 elderly and disabled adults. Health reform must control costs, says Seattle Times. Swine flu hits WSU.
Opinion: In truth, seniors are likely to be big winners if responsible health reform passes and prime victims if it fails, says columnist Howard Gleckman of the Urban Insitute.
Howard Gleckman, Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute
August 14, 2009
We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. People discuss, in excruciating detail, their weight, sex lives, and bank accounts on reality TV. Kids tweet about their dates—in real time. And we happily blog away on our latest medical diagnosis. It is apparently no [...]
By Kate Steadman
August 14, 2009
The furious controversy over Medicare payments for end-of-life care counseling stems from Section 1233 in the health bill passed by three House committees.
Related article:
Doctors Providing End of Life Counseling See Benefit in Current Controversy
That language would amend the Social Security Act, which also governs Medicare, the federal program for the [...]
Seattle’s record heat wave has contributed to the death of a Seattle man, King County officials said Thursday.
The man, in his 60s, had a heart condition that may have made him more vulnerable to the effects this week’s high temperatures in the Seattle area, officials said.
Dr. David Fleming, director and health officer for Public Health [...]
An Excessive Heat Warning has been issued for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region.
According to the National Weather Service, Seattle will be sunny and hot today with a high near 99°.
Tomorrow will be slightly cooler, with a high of 97° predicted.
Friday, cooler—but still a high of 91° predicted.
Over the weekend, temperatures will drop back down to the [...]
FDA may require glucose monitors to be more accurate
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon require glucose monitors used by more than 11 million diabetics in the U.S. to be more accurate, Gardiner Harris reports in the New York Times.
Under current standards, these monitors can be off by as much as 20 percent putting [...]
Howard Gleckman, Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute
July 20, 2009
Advocates of including long-term care services in health reform usually focus on two issues: How many Medicaid dollars should be spent on home care and whether to create a national long-term care insurance program, such as Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has proposed in his CLASS [...]
By Elizabeth G. Olson
July 14, 2009
(This story is a collaboration between Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post.)
When 81-year-old Sally Darr needed nursing home care after injuring herself in a fall, her family turned to a new federal rating system for help.
The online tool uses movie-review-style ratings – one to five stars – to compare [...]
Invisible Families: The homeless you don't see
They squeeze in with relatives, couch surf with friends or camp out in cars. More families are quietly becoming homeless, driven to the edge by a lack of jobs and affordable housing. The Seattle Times and its local news partners tackle the topic together. Project home
E-Health Records: Seattle is ahead of the curve
Health News from the Seattle Times
