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Affordable Care Act already saving millions for Seniors in donut hole
Pardon the tangent, but my late father always described his prostate (when he was explaining his frequent trips to the bathroom) as a donut, so every time I read about Medicare’s donut hole I think of my dad’s prostate.
The Affordable Care Act, while still being implemented in stages, has already saved $166 million for seniors in the donut hole (something I still don’t fully understand, but anyone in the donut hole knows it!).
From HealthCare.gov:
The Affordable Care Act is cutting the cost of prescription drugs for millions of people with Medicare. Starting this year, people with Medicare receive a 50% percent discount on covered brand name drugs bought when they are in the donut hole.
To receive the discount, no special action is required. Seniors simply purchase drugs at the pharmacy and receive the discount automatically.
So far, 271,000 people have used the discounts to save an average of $613 for a total of $166 million. These savings will continue to grow. Most people who reach the donut hole do so later in the year, so we know more and more seniors will be helped as the year progresses. But seniors with high costs are already receiving critical relief from prescription drug costs.
Most of these discounts are helping seniors with serious medical conditions – nearly 20% of the benefits provided to date – more than $32 million – are for cancer drugs and another nearly 10% – about $16 million – are for drugs provide to multiple sclerosis patients.
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New York City creates hospital training video on LGBT health issues
I reported yesterday that New York City hospitals are providing training on issues facing LGBT patients. Their training video is out, and it’s superb.]]>
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NYC hospitals to provide training on issues faced by LGBT patients
Reflecting the growing awareness of health issues unique to the LGBT population, New York City hospitals are adopting competence training for their staff.
From Advocate.com:
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the nation’s largest urban healthcare agency serving 1.3 million patients, will adopt cultural competence training for staff members to help improve the health of LGBT people.
The launch of the mandatory employee training program will be announced Wednesday by HHC president Alan D. Aviles, deputy mayor Linda Gibbs and National LGBT Cancer Network executive director Liz Margoiles. Dozens of elected officials, community leaders, patients, and hospital staff members are expected to attend the announcement at Bellevue Hospital to include a screening of the new training video, “To Treat Me, You Have to Know Who I Am.”
The 10-minute video, produced in collaboration with the National LGBT Cancer Network, is part of a curriculum that will reach 38,000 physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators, and support services staff at new employee orientations, annual in-service programs and upcoming employee town hall meetings.
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Institute of Health seeks more data on LGBT patients
From the News Journal: Finding a doctor they’re comfortable with is a quest that many gay men face, said Seeley, program director of CAMPsafe, the HIV/AIDS prevention program of CAMP Rehoboth, an organization serving gays and lesbians. “It’s challenging for gay men to let doctors know that they’re gay,” he said. “But we need to disclose this.” Doctors don’t have much to go by. Comprehensive data on the particular health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — also referred to as the LGBT population — are scarce. So scarce, said the Institute of Medicine in a recent report, that researchers must start aggressively reaching out to the LGBT population to draw them into health studies. They say that will help doctors get a more precise snapshot of the types of health problems LGBT patients face. Continue reading]]>
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Substance abuse problems on the rise with seniors
Some news is good, some not so. Given the higher rates of substance abuse in the LGBT population, it’s important to report on these things. It can also give hope to those struggling with alcohol and drug problems.
I don’t know if substance abuse itself is on the rise, or if seeking help for it is. In either case, we need to know these things – information is power, including the power to improve our lives.
From CBS News.com:
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – They go around this room at the Hanley Center telling of their struggles with alcohol and drugs. They tell of low points and lapses, brushes with death and pain caused to families. And silently, through the simple fact that each is in their 60s or beyond, they share one more secret: Addiction knows no age. “I retired, I started drinking more,” one man said. “I lost my father, my mother, my dog, and it gave me a good excuse,” said another. A remarkable shift in the number of older adults reporting substance abuse problems is making this scene more common. Between 1992 and 2008, treatment admissions for those 50 and older more than doubled in the U.S. That number will continue to grow, experts say, as the massive baby boom generation ages. “There is a level of societal denial around the issue,” said Peter Provet, the head of Odyssey House in New York, another center offering specialized substance abuse treatment programs for seniors. “No one wants to look at their grandparent, no one wants to think about their grandparent or their elderly parent, and see that person as an addict.”]]> -
Marijuana's popularity on the rise with seniors
I won’t be joining the aging pot fans. I was a pothead in high school, smoking probably every day until I graduated and beyond. The miracle herb turned on me and made me paranoid, until I was finally unable to be in public after toking up. I’m not going to make a judgment of other people’s preferences, but it’s not for me.
Apparently a growing number of older Americans have a different experience and are joining the medical marijuana craze.
From CBS Detroit:
DETROIT (WWJ) – Many area seniors aren’t taking just their prescription pills, they’re smoking or baking marijuana as a way to deal with the daily aches and pains.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy is a geriatric medicine specialist at Beaumont Hospital. She says this year she’s had about half a dozen requests for medical marijuana.
“Most of the time it is for pain (the prescription marijuana request) or nausea, the incidence of pain in older adults is phenomenal, I mean, 50 percent of the adults in the community are in pain,” says Dr. Murphy.
Dr. Murphy expects in the coming year even more seniors will be asking her for the legalized herb.]]> -
STDs on the rise among sexually active seniors
From the Los Angeles Times: Across the nation, and especially in communities that attract a lot of older Americans, the free-love generation is continuing to enjoy an active — if not always healthy — sex life. At a stage in life when many would expect sexually transmitted diseases to be waning, aging baby boomers are once again busting stereotypes, setting records and breaking rules. In the five years from 2005 to 2009, the number of reported cases of syphilis and chlamydia among those 55 and older increased 43 percent, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the Sunbelt where retirees have formed large communities, the rise was even more dramatic. Continue reading]]>
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GOP abandons Medicare plan under growing pressure
From the New York Times: WASHINGTON — House Republicans signaled Thursday that they were backing away from the centerpiece of their budget plan — a proposal to overhaul Medicare — in a decision that underscored both the difficulties and political perils of addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. While top Republicans insisted that they remained committed to the Medicare initiative, which had become the target of intense attacks by Democrats and liberal groups in recent weeks, the lawmaker who would have to turn the proposal into legislation said he had no plans to do so any time soon. The lawmaker, Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that while he still supports the party’s Medicare approach, opposition from Democrats made it pointless to proceed.
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Higher incomes twice as likely to have long term care insurance
From Senior Housing News: Despite the increasing need for long term care, only 1 in 10 Americans aged 55 and older had private long term care insurance in 2008 according to the a new report from the Urban Institute. Most Americans will eventually need long-term care, which is often expensive and not usually covered by public programs until recipients have nearly exhausted their savings. In 2009, 5.2 million Americans age 65 and older not living in institutions had long-term care needs. Of those covered, those with incomes of more than $100,000 were twice as high.
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Long term care costs remain on the rise
My parents were lucky, if you can call it that. Mom died at home after a third bout with cancer. They gave her six months to live and that’s what she dutifully did, but not until celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
Eleven years later Dad died from a combination Alzheimer’s and pneumonia. He was in the hospital, but not long. Neither required long term nursing care. It remains one of life’s fears, even for the generally fearless: ending up in a nursing home, or having to place someone we love there, whether it’s a parent or a spouse, and the costs of it continues to rise.
From Senior Housing News:
The average annual cost of care for a private room in a nursing home increased to $85,775 per year, up 3.5% from the previous year according to a study from John Hancock Financial.
Its findings revealed that the national average annual cost of care in the US is $75,555 for a semi-private room in a nursing home; and $39,240 for an assisted living facility. The average cost of care received at home was approximately $20 per hour.
“The ongoing effect of the recession on the nest eggs of so many individuals underscores the importance of planning for the future,” said Marianne Harrison, President of John Hancock LTC. ”John Hancock believes that long-term care insurance is an integral component of any prudent financial plan. Our cost of care studies are intended to help people better understand and prepare for their future long-term care needs.”
The study surveyed more than 11,000 providers, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health care agencies, in key cities across the country.
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Three times as vulnerable: black, gay, senior
A lot of the gay and lesbian elder population has not been a focus of the conversation. Somehow they are a hidden population.” – Dr. Raphael Bostic The challenges facing seniors can be difficult enough. Compound them with being lgbt and black, and things can get harder. Below is a brief excerpt from an interview conducted by PrideSource with Dr. Raphael Bostic. Excerpt from an interview with Dr. Raphael Bostic (PrideSource): There is a triple threat facing the elder African American LGBT population in the Detroit area. Even though small in number, this particular group of people encounters difficulties in finding retirement homes, safety, recognition and financial security. Dr. Raphael Bostic, the assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, attended an April 16 summit organized by KICK (an agency for LGBT African Americans) to address such concerns. Dr. Bostic spoke to BTL about discrimination and other issues faced by these elders. What were the common concerns discussed at the KICK summit? The elder LGBT population has significant challenges. They don’t have children who can offer them help and support. If they are with a partner they often don’t have access to their (partner’s) pension funds, so they can become extremely vulnerable rather quickly. This is a really important conversation, and a lot of the gay and lesbian elder population has not been a (focus) of that conversation. Somehow they are a hidden population. Elders in African American communities have difficulties, elders in general have difficulties and LGBT elders have difficulties, so this really overlays three types of groups. We don’t really know much about the challenges that this group faces and they are forced to be invisible because sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected classes, so landlords can and do discriminate against these (people). So sometimes they have to go back into the closet. One of the things we are trying work on is how often these issues arise so we can talk about it in an informed way and hopefully get to a place where that kind of discrimination happens a lot less frequently. (read on)
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Hospice Foundation webinar: supporting the LGBT community through illness, death and grief
I just attended a terrific webinar conducted by the Hospice Foundation of America on supporting the LGBT community in death, illness and grief. The two presenters were Dr. Kimberly Acquaviva and Dr. Kenneth Doka.
Dr. Acquaviva conducted the first part, which was aimed at professionals in the healthcare industry. She covered issues facing LGBT people and couples requiring care – does the healthcare professional’s agency have a non-discrimination policy for its employees, how are they prepared to serve the LGBT community. Does the intake person determine gender by looking at the person or is the person allowed to self-identify. It was all great information, and I was curious to know who was on the call. One of the best questions from a provider in the Q&A was when it was appropriate for a care provider to reveal his/her sexual orientation. Acquaviva, an out lesbian herself, answered that it is always about caring for the patient and there are ways to signal to the patient without coming out and saying it. Dr. Acquiviva is of the mind that it’s not a good idea for the provider to make any statement, not because they should hide it but because the care is completely about the patient.
Dr. Doka covered an area very familiar to me: grief and disenfranchised grief. I lost my partner Jim in 1991. He (and we) were treated with respect at Hollywood’s Kaiser Permanente. Jim’s life ended in a hospice. But one of my two sisters never acknowledged him when he was alive (she and her husband would not come to my parents’ house when we were there) and she never, not once, acknowledged my grief. That changed eventually and she and her family were welcoming to Frank and me, but her reaction as if the man I lost was not worth commenting on compounded immense grief with fury. It’s not uncommon.
Frank lost his partner Michael after 22 years, just seven months before we met, and I knew what I was dealing with. The grief section of the webinar was excellent, as were the many excellent questions. Just outstanding.]]> -
Medicare bonuses to offset cuts under new healthcare law
From the Los Angeles Times: Washington—
— Millions of seniors in popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare will get a reprieve from some of the most controversial cuts in President Obama’s healthcare law. In a policy shift critics see as political, the Health and Human Services Department will award quality bonuses to hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans. The $6.7-billion infusion could head off service cuts that would have been a headache for Obama and Democrats in next year’s elections for the White House and Congress. More than half the roughly 11 million Medicare Advantage enrollees are in plans that are rated average. The insurance industry says the bonuses will turn what would have averaged out as a net loss for the plans in 2012 into a slight increase. In a recent letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, two prominent GOP lawmakers questioned what they termed the administration’s “newfound support” for Medicare Advantage.
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