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It is not clear why it's happening, but some hospice officials blame both a bad economy and Medicare rules that unintentionally discourage doctors from referring all but those who are about to die.
Nearly three years ago, Harry Rosenberg and his wife, Barbara Filner, met with nine of their neighbors about starting an aging-in-place "village" in Bethesda, Maryland. The idea: If neighbors could help one another with basic services such as transportation and simple home maintenance and with friendly visits, people could stay in their homes longer as they aged.
Families should be freed from the whims of politicians and the inevitable battles over government dollars by passing a national long-term care insurance program, such as the proposed CLASS Act.
There are two important lessons from the European experience with long-term care.
Critics of the CLASS Act argue that $75-a-day is insufficient. But a new study shows that millions could benefit.
A new study says almost one out of three adults in the U.S. currently serves as a caregiver. The time and energy they put into caregiving becomes like an unpaid job.
Pay attention to the CLASS Act. It can not only provide better long-term care for those who so desperately need this assistance, it can also become a new way to help those in need in an era of $1 trillion-plus budget deficits. But only if it is done right.
About 11 percent of people ages 60 and older suffer from some kind of abuse every year. But as a part of health care overhaul legislation, lawmakers are taking steps that would for the first time establish a federal beachhead in fighting such abuse.
Nearly all adults who die in La Crosse, Wisconsin, have filled out "advance directives" - explicit instructions on what treatments they do and don't want at the end of life. The medical ethicist who started the program says "We believe it's part of good patient care."
Dr. Gene Cohen, a geriatric psychiatrist who believed that old age can be a time of creativity, died this week.
We'll never keep everyone at home. But if we work at it, we can postpone the transition for months or even years.
The Senate Finance Committee calls for cuts in private Medicare plans to help pay for health reform. Some senators on the panel, worried about the 10.5 million seniors in the plans
Donna Taylor's father planned ahead - he had insurance and savings to pay for health coverage when he retired. But when he got sick and couldn't walk, he found he did not have enough coverage to pay for care for himself and his disabled wife.
We are not ready for healthy retirement, and we are desperately unprepared for the costly medical and long-term care we are likely to need in old age.
In not too many years, long-term care nursing home beds may be as rare as Republicans in Massachusetts.
The differing interests and preferences of seniors and near-seniors reflect the perils of incremental reform in reaching universal coverage.
The real challenge for long-term care reform remains indifference, rather than outright opposition.
A look at Republican efforts to drastically change Medicare in the 1990's shows that the Democratic health reforms plans aren't the real threat to the program.
In truth, seniors are likely to big winners if responsible health reform passes and prime victims if it fails.
We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. Yet, there remains one subject Americans seem unable to talk about in an honest and rational way: the inevitable decline of old age.
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