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The Texas Advance Directives Act gives hospitals the authority to stop life-sustaining support if another hospital wonāt 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. Californiaās 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 onesā end-of-life wishes. But too often circumstances change, and they must break their word and guard against breaking hearts ā including their own.
Members of Congress and others complain Medicareās revamped Plan Finder had problems. Federal officials say they can help consumers who got bad information change their plans next year. But details about how switching will work are yet to come.
Harvard psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman shed his āveil of ignoranceā during 11 years serving as the primary family caregiver for his wife, who had a rare form of early Alzheimerās disease. In a new book, āThe Soul of Care,ā he offers suggestions for transforming health care ā just as caregiving transformed him.
Millions of injuries and malfunctions once funneled into a hidden Food and Drug Administration database are now available.
As alarms proliferate, hospitals are working to sort through the cacophony that can overwhelm staff and cause them to overlook real signs of harm.
Family caregivers are the backbone of our nationās system of long-term care for older adults. Every year, more than 34 million unpaid caregivers ā mostly family members ā provide essential aid to adults age 50 and older, helping with tasks such as bathing or dressing and, increasingly, performing complex medical tasks such as managing medications, dressing wounds and operating medical equipment.
A federal audit of 19 California nursing homes released today found hundreds of violations of safety and emergency standards, putting vulnerable nursing home residents at increased risk of injury or death during a wildfire or other disaster.
A long illness creates a real risk: that the relationship will be undermined and essential emotional connections lost.
Dozens of frail nursing home residents have been informed by their Medi-Cal managed care plans that they are no longer eligible for long-term care. Some health care advocates and legal aid attorneys fear that such terminations will increase as the state implements mandatory managed care for nursing home residents.
More baby boomers look forward to aging in place ā in their homes, rather than in a care facility. But the costs of retrofitting a house is likely prohibitive for many Americans.
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.
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 ā and grit ā behind it.
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.
Starting today, Medicare is keeping half a billion dollars in payments from 83% of general hospitals for having too many patients come back.
Knowing when ā and how ā to limit a loved oneās access to digital devices is akin to taking their car keys.
Simple alterations ā like better signs, seating, parking or door design ā can make it easier for older patients to navigate health care facilities. Here are several changes doctorsā offices, clinics and hospitals could make.
One out of every 13 seniors in America struggles to get enough food to eat while the federal program intended to help hasnāt kept pace with the graying population. KHN Midwest editor/correspondent Laura Ungar explains what you need to know about this largely hidden problem.
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