Eldercare, Aging and Long Term Care

Medicare Stops Paying to Treat Medical Errors - NYTimes.com.

If an auto mechanic accidentally breaks your windshield while trying to repair the engine, he would never get away with billing you for fixing his mistake. On Wednesday, Medicare will start applying that logic to American medicine on a broad scale when it stops paying hospitals for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care.

Mental-Health Bill on Tap - WSJ.com.

Congress is on the verge of clearing legislation to require most employers and health insurers to put mental-health on par with physical illnesses. That includes coverage for hospital stays and doctor visits, as well as co-payments and deductibles. Plans that offer out-of-network coverage for physical problems will have to add equivalent mental coverage. But the legislation doesn't specify what disorders must be covered. Kathleen Mahieu, who heads behavioral health consulting at benefit-consulting firm Hewitt Associates LLC, said there is consensus that major problems such as serious depression, schizophrenia and substance abuse should be covered, but employers differ whether to cover autism, attention deficit disorder and some others. If coverage is rejected, the legislation requires the health plan to explain why.

 Medicare Part B Premiums to Stay Steady for 2009

Medicare patients will see no hike in the $96.40 a month Part B premium in 2009, but Part A deductibles will increase by $44, CMS announced today. In the 43-year history of the program, there have been only five other years with no premium increase. The Part B deductible will also hold steady, at $135.

E.R. Patients Often Left Confused After Visits - NYTimes.com.

A vast majority of emergency room patients are discharged without understanding the treatment they received or how to care for themselves once they get home, researchers say. And that can lead to medication errors and serious complications that can send them right back to the hospital.

Health Journal - WSJ.com.

Even if you can read this, chances are you know somebody who can't. More than 16 million Americans report some form of visual impairment even when wearing glasses or contacts. That number is expected to double by 2030 as the aging population brings rising rates of macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases.

But "low vision" (technically, worse than 20/60 in the better eye) doesn't have to mean darkness and dependence. An ever-growing array of devices can help people maximize their remaining vision and in many cases, compensate for what they've lost. Some of the new offerings: free software that can tailor the text on any Web site to your personal visual needs, and a cellphone that can snap photos of text -- like signs and restaurant menus -- and read it back to you.

Poor Sleep Elevates Fall Risk for Older Women - in Primary Care, 

For older women, poor sleep at night may be an independent risk factor for falls, according to researchers here.

Mental skills fade earlier than thought: study | Health | Reuters.

The rapid deterioration of our mental abilities as we age begins far earlier than scientists had suspected, Swedish researchers said on Wednesday. Simple tests of perceptual speed, spatial ability and verbal function showed that some cognitive skills begin rapidly fading nearly 15 years before death, said Valgeir Thorvaldsson, who worked on the study. "Previous studies have showed that the steep decline begins around five years before death," said Thorvaldsson, a psychologist at Gothenburg University in Sweden. "What we could see in our data is that these changes occur much earlier than thought."

Doubts Grow Over Flu Vaccine in Elderly - NYTimes.com.

The influenza vaccine, which has been strongly recommended for people over 65 for more than four decades, is losing its reputation as an effective way to ward off the virus in the elderly.