‘Fear Of Falling’: How Hospitals Do Even More Harm By Keeping Patients In Bed
In what experts call an “epidemic of immobility,” older hospital patients remain stuck in bed, their movements tracked by loud and ineffective bed alarms, losing muscle mass that’s key to their health and daily functioning.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Drumbeat Builds For A Peace Corps Of Caregivers
The notion of a national program to tend to the day-to-day needs of a booming older population has circulated for years. Now, there are grants ― and grit ― behind it.
As Medicare Enrollment Nears, Popular Price Comparison Tool Is Missing
For more than a decade, customers used the online plan finder to compare dozens of policies. Yet after a redesign of the website, the search results no longer list which plan offers a customer the best value. Federal officials say it will be fixed before enrollment begins next week.
Trump’s New Order For Medicare Packs Potential Rise In Patients’ Costs
The president’s directive, which he said is designed to give beneficiaries more choices in their health care, could lead to higher costs for seniors. Final rules are to be written by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Sickened By Billing Abuses, Readers And Tweeters Stand Up For Patients’ Rights
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
The Delicate Issue Of Taking Away A Senior’s Smartphone
Knowing when — and how — to limit a loved one’s access to digital devices is akin to taking their car keys.
How Cruise Ship Passengers Should Prepare For Sickness Or Injury At Sea
Passengers on massive cruise ships could be struck by norovirus or accidents ranging from falls to broken bones. Then what?
Voices: How Should California Address The Needs Of Its Aging Population?
By 2030, an estimated 1 in 5 Californians will be 65 or older, and the state is creating a “master plan” to address their needs. Lawmakers, advocates, local officials and others gathered in Sacramento on Monday to tackle issues of greatest concern, such as long-term care and housing for low-income seniors.
In Search Of Age-Friendly Health Care, Finding Room For Improvement
Simple alterations — like better signs, seating, parking or door design — can make it easier for older patients to navigate health care facilities. Here are several changes doctors’ offices, clinics and hospitals could make.
Millions Of Diabetes Patients Are Missing Out On Medicare’s Nutrition Help
Health experts say the little-used benefit represents a lost opportunity for older adults to improve their health — and for the program to save money by preventing costly complications from diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
Watch: Five Things To Know About Hunger Among America’s Aging
One out of every 13 seniors in America struggles to get enough food to eat while the federal program intended to help hasn’t kept pace with the graying population. KHN Midwest editor/correspondent Laura Ungar explains what you need to know about this largely hidden problem.
Starving Seniors: How America Fails To Feed Its Aging
One out of every 13 older Americans struggles to find enough food to eat while the federal program intended to help hasn’t kept pace with the graying population.
Firing Doctor, Christian Hospital Sets Off National Challenge To Aid-In-Dying Laws
In Colorado case, the right to aid a cancer patient’s death runs up against faith-based hospital policies. As more states have passed laws, about 1 in 6 acute care beds nationally is in a hospital that is Catholic-owned or -affiliated.
Readers And Tweeters Take Dialysis Providers To Task: Nowhere But In The USA
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: All About Medicare
Before “Medicare for All,” there was just Medicare, the federal program that provides insurance to 60 million Americans. This week, KHN’s Julie Rovner talks to Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation about how Medicare works and whom it serves. Then, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join Rovner to talk about some current Medicare issues being debated in Washington, D.C.
Feds Pave The Way To Expand Home Dialysis — But Patients Hit Roadblocks
What changes are needed to bring home dialysis to more patients — especially older adults, the fastest-growing group of patients with serious, irreversible kidney disease? We asked nephrologists, patient advocates and dialysis company officials for their thoughts.
What The Trump Home Dialysis Plan Would Really Look Like
It takes more than an executive order to shift kidney disease patients from dialysis centers to home care. These patients show it takes discipline, skill, will and support.
Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks To Let Medicare Patients Appeal Gap in Nursing Home Coverage
Medicare beneficiaries under observation care in the hospital can face higher costs for treatment and are not covered for nursing home care when discharged. A federal trial in Hartford, Conn., will determine whether the government’s ban on appeals involving observation care coverage is fair.
Kathy Brandt, A Hospice Expert Who Invited The World Into Her Own Last Days With Cancer, Dies
Kathy Brandt and her wife, Kim Acquaviva, national experts in hospice and palliative care, shared intimate details of Brandt’s experience with terminal cancer before her death Sunday.
