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For those worried they have an elevated risk of Alzheimer鈥檚 and other forms of dementia, testing is an option. But words to the wise: It鈥檚 hardly foolproof and could even backfire by heightening your fear of memory loss.
For Alzheimer鈥檚 patients and their caregivers, social and emotional isolation is a threat. But hundreds of 鈥淢emory Cafes鈥 around the country offer them a chance to be with others who understand, and to receive social and cognitive stimulation in the process.
Scores of organs 鈥 mostly kidneys 鈥 are trashed each year and many more become critically delayed while being shipped on commercial airliners, a new investigation finds.
If you鈥檙e told Medicare鈥檚 home health benefits have changed, don鈥檛 believe it: Coverage rules haven鈥檛 been altered and people are still entitled to the same types of services. All that has changed is how Medicare pays agencies.
Medicare has changed how it pays for services. In response, agencies across the country are firing therapists, limiting physical, occupational and speech therapy, and terminating services for some longtime, severely ill patients.
Medicare cut payments for 786 hospitals because of high infection and complication rates. They included a third of the hospitals proclaimed as the nation鈥檚 best in one prominent ranking.
As the Democratic primary campaign nears pivotal voting, important aspects of health care policy are being overlooked.
Neil Mahoney had terminal cancer. He also had a legal right to aid-in-dying. But his faith-based hospital called it 鈥渕orally unacceptable.鈥 So he turned to a network of Colorado doctors to fulfill his last wish.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Fewer Americans are dying in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors and nurses. That trend has been boosted by an expanded Medicare benefit that helps people live out their final days at home in hospice care. But as home hospice grows, so has the burden on families left to provide much of the care.
Across the U.S., people with early dementia are signing new advance directives to confirm their end-of-life wishes while they still have the ability to do so. But doctors say the documents may offer a false sense of security.
On the bright side, advances in medical science and a push for healthier lifestyles might extend the quality of life for aging boomers. Among clouds on the horizon: ageism, strained long-term care services and the need to work well past retirement age.
Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, sat down for a rare interview with KHN senior correspondent Sarah Varney. They discuss her views on President Donald Trump鈥檚 plan for sustaining public health insurance programs, how the administration would respond if Obamacare is struck down by the courts in the future and her thoughts on how the latest "Medicare for All" proposals would affect innovation and access to care.
New thinking about aging spins on how to stay free of chronic illnesses and cognitive decline later in life.
Because of a little-known federal exemption program, death data about heart devices sits in inaccessible FDA files that can take up to two years for the public to see under open-records laws.
The federal government funneled billions in subsidies to software vendors and some overstated or deceived the government about what their products could do, according to whistleblowers.
The Texas Advance Directives Act gives hospitals the authority to stop life-sustaining support if another hospital won鈥檛 accept the patient. The family of Tinslee Lewis, a 10-month-old with serious medical problems, is fighting to keep her in hospital care.
The aptly named Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly provides services funded by Medicaid and Medicare that range from medical and mental health care to hot lunches, recreation, transportation and haircuts. California鈥檚 newest PACE center opened recently in San Diego County.
Relationships between adult children and their parents can fray with age. Experts offer help on how loved ones can preserve the love and negotiate those tension-filled final years.
Family caregivers pledge to fulfill their loved ones鈥 end-of-life wishes. But too often circumstances change, and they must break their word and guard against breaking hearts 鈥 including their own.
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