Medicare spending speeds up again
Medicare expenditures rose much faster than overall health-care spending in 2011, the government reports.
Weighing a Medicare age hike
Raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 may be off the table for now, but the idea will resurface as budget pressures grow.
Medicare coverage deadline: This Friday
Medicare’s open-enrollment period, when the 49 million Americans who use the program can make changes to their 2013 coverage, is about to come to a close – for most beneficiaries and their families, the deadline for alterations is midnight on Friday, Dec. 7.
Tracking health-care reform online
The more you know about the coming changes in the system, the better. So if you’re confused about health-care reform and – in particular – what your state is doing (or not doing ) when it comes to establishing “health insurance exchanges,” an invaluable tool from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation can help clarify matters.
Elder Parent Caregiving During and After SuperStorm Sandy
When my husband’s mother lived in an excellent assisted living community, we found severe weather to be a challenge. Huge storms, no matter what the season, made it difficult to stay in touch. Gail Sheehy’s November 3, 2012 article about …
Bringing Game-Changing Ideas to Scale
The Green House Project has been called the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) signature example of bringing game-changing ideas to scale. It started with an idea 12 years ago for a housing and skilled-nursing care environment that could provide a … Continue reading →
Empowering Through Design: What a Health-Wellness Concept!
We’ve all had experiences trying to accomplish a task that is way too hard — and one reason it’s so difficult is because the environment is not designed to help a person function and work efficiently. Many of us have watched our aging…
How to fight a Medicare claim rejection
It’s every patient’s worst nightmare: You undergo a complicated, expensive medical procedure, only to have your insurer deny your claim and refuse to pay, leaving you stuck with the bill. (Every patient’s second worst nightmare, by the way, is the one in which NBC decides not to cancel “Animal Practice.”)
Poll: Where Medicare Ranks With Voters
Encore: Obama’s favored over Romney on the issue, but the gap narrows among seniors.
Is Retirement Making You Fat?
Encore: Lifestyle changes and the aging process can threaten baby boomer waistlines.
Does Obamacare ‘Cut’ $716 Billion From Medicare?
Commentators weigh in on a claim by Mitt Romney
Medicare Identifies Problem in Readmissions
Big goofups are not a great thing when one is trying fix healthcare. Medicare Errs In Crackdown On Hospital Readmissions.
Want to win a genius grant? Try caring for the elderly
Encore: Coleman is 3rd geriatrician in 5 years to win $500,000 MacArthur award
Michael J. Fox to His Kids when They Complain: “A Lady Had a Baby in a Tree!”
Parkinson’s may be a bit more idiosyncratic than most diseases. But I don’t believe there’s any condition where “one size fits all.” Drugs and rehabilitative therapies can create as many individual, specific results as there are people who use them. For that reason, it’s vital we assume active roles in managing our own health care.
Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenses Loom Large Despite Medicare
Adult children who help aging parents should check out the Washington Post article At End of Life, Medicare Beneficiaries Spend Thousands Out-of-Pocket. Reporter Sarah Kliff explains that a recent study, Out of Pocket Spending in the Last Five Years o…
Medical Bills: The Cost of the Final Five Years
Seniors and their families always face a reality check when they realize how much Medicare doesn’t cover—from necessary sundries like your drug-store “cheater” reading glasses to major costs like nursing-home care. A new study in the Journal o…
Learning All We Can About Assisted Living
Check out 10 Things Assisted Living Homes Won’t Tell You, an August 15, 2012 article over at Smart Money. These tips for adult children and their families look like common sense suggestions. Often however, when family members seek an assisted liv…
Shifting Medicare Costs to Consumers
Encore: Ryan’s health care plan could help restore fiscal balance, but at whose expense?
Unraveling the Myths of Medicare
Encore: The key to evaluating potential new policies this election season is understanding how Medicare really works now.
Calling All Social Change Agents
As a large health and human services provider and an advocate for the greater disabilities community, Sunrise joined other industry leaders in celebrating the landmark Supreme Court decision on the health care law last month. Without question, we are facing unprecedented challenges to our health care system. Aging baby boomers, a wave of young children with autism and the graying of the disabilities communities, all demand new 21st century solutions. We cannot continue to look back at the way things “used to work.” We must identify new approaches and be open to new ways of working to find effective solutions.
Follow Us