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This year, 23 states passed more than 70 pandemic-related provisions affecting nursing homes, including measures setting minimum staffing levels, expanding visitation protections and limiting owners’ profit margins.
As the delta variant continues to spread around the U.S., the Biden administration is taking steps to authorize covid vaccine boosters, require nursing home workers to be vaccinated and protect school officials who want to require masks despite state laws banning those mandates. Meanwhile, the U.S. House is returning from its summer break early to start work on its giant budget bill, which includes a long list of health policy changes. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
When the program began half a century ago, backers believed the benefits would expand over time, but politics and concerns about money have stymied most efforts. Now congressional Democrats are looking to add vision, dental and hearing care.
Aggressive sales tactics have allegedly led surgeons to use defective or wrong-size implants, screws or other products on patients, including former Olympian Mary Lou Retton.
The latest research shows that although deaths in nursing homes received enormous attention, far more older adults who perished from covid lived outside of institutions. People with dementia and other severe neurological conditions, chronic kidney disease and immune deficiencies were hit especially hard.
The success in getting shots to older adults is likely due to states prioritizing that effort when the vaccines became available and motivation among the elderly after the virus killed so many in their age group.
Relationships with people you know only superficially can help develop a sense of belonging and provide motivation to engage in activities. Research has found that older adults who have a broad array of “weak” as well as “close” ties enjoy better physical and psychological well-being and live longer than people with less diverse social networks.
The state says it will look at the levels of disease-fighting antibodies among nursing home residents vaccinated against covid, which could help indicate whether they need a booster shot.
Pharmaceutical companies routinely cover the cost of patient copays for expensive drugs under private insurance. A federal judge could make the practice legal for millions on Medicare as well.
The makers of Aduhelm, a drug approved last month despite concerns raised by experts about its effectiveness, have launched a website and ads designed to urge people who are worried about their memory to ask doctors about testing. But some health advocates say it is misleading because some memory loss with aging is normal.
Doctors in Washington state used human body bags filled with ice and water to rapidly cool the sickest patients affected by record heat last month.
Medicare has proposed revamping its payment rules to get more people into a diabetes prevention plan that helps them eat better, exercise more and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Out of an estimated 16 million Medicare beneficiaries whose excess weight and other risk factors make them eligible, only 3,600 have participated since 2018.
A group of New York senior living facilities offer teens from 10 underserved schools the chance to volunteer and get free training for entry-level health jobs, career coaching and assistance on college prep.
It could take years for follow-up studies to prove Aduhelm slows the disease — or doesn’t. Meanwhile, its maker will profit.
The potential benefits of Aduhelm are small, its effectiveness is not certain, and even the FDA Thursday shifted its guidance on who should get the drug. But physicians are dealing with an onslaught of interest from patients and their families, and figuring out which patients are best positioned to be helped by the drug will be difficult.
Aduhelm, approved by the Food and Drug Administration last month despite questions about its efficacy, could be prescribed to at least 1 million patients a year, for a price tag of about $56 billion. Experts suggest there might be better ways to spend that money.
The covid pandemic and President Joe Biden's agenda — a planned $400 billion infusion of support — have focused national attention on the need to expand home- and community-based long-term care services designed to keep people out of nursing homes. But the need far outpaces the staffing.
Millions of older adults want to be comfortable going online and using digital tools to enhance their lives. But many need help. A number of groups around the country offer assistance.
Despite a hearts-and-minds campaign and millions spent in incentives, managers struggle to get staffs vaccinated against covid. Some workers have threatened to quit over the pressure to get a shot, which employers can’t afford.
Federal officials say that some of the money changing hands has corrupted doctors and endangered patients.
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