If you’re intent on keeping dementia at bay, new research suggests you’ll need more than crossword puzzles, aerobic exercise, and an active social life. A new study suggests that older adults who did exercises to shore up the speed at which they processed visual information could cut by nearly half their likelihood of cognitive decline or dementia over a 10-year period. The new clinical trial results, presented Sunday at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference in Toronto, establish specialized brain training as a potentially powerful strategy to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other afflictions, including normal aging, that sap memory and reduce…
One of the state’s wealthiest health care operators was arrested Friday at his Miami Beach waterfront estate on charges of orchestrating the nation’s biggest Medicare fraud scheme — $1 billion. Philip Esformes, 47, charged with two other defendants, is accused of exploiting his network of about 20 Miami-Dade skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities to fleece the taxpayer-funded Medicare by filing false claims for services that were not necessary or in some instances not provided over the past 14 years. An unidentified local hospital referred some of the thousands of Medicare patients to his network through kickback payments to physicians and other…
According to Fidelity Investments, the average 65-year-old couple retiring this year are likely to spend $245,000 on medical care not covered by Medicare — 29 percent more than they did 10 years ago. That figure doesn’t include long-term care, which can run as high as $200,000 a year for a private room in a nursing home. The data from the Employee Benefits Research Institute are even grimmer. A 65-year-old couple who would like a 90 percent chance of having enough money for lifetime health care should set aside $392,000. Health-related costs are rising by twice the rate of overall inflation….
Despite objections from Congress and the hospital industry, the Obama administration said it will soon publish star ratings summing up the quality of 3,662 hospitals. Nearly half will be rated as average, and hospitals that serve the poor will not score as well overall as will other hospitals, according to government figures released Thursday. The government says the ratings, which will award between one and five stars to each hospital, will be more useful to consumers than its current mishmash of more than 100 individual metrics, many of which deal with technical matters. The hospital industry, however, fears the ratings…
A new, detailed report by a coalition of more than 100 nonprofit groups shows that since January 2015, Senior Health Partners and at least two other companies have been systematically cutting the hours of home care for their disabled clients, typically without proper notice or legal justification, the study found. By law, only a change in a client’s medical condition or circumstance is supposed to allow a reduction. The study was co-sponsored by Medicaid Matters, which is an advocate for Medicaid beneficiaries, and by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). It independently confirms…
The state’s failure to post inspection reports of state-licensed care facilities online has prompted advocates for the elderly to go to court to force the state to comply with the law. The Hawaii Department of Health has failed to comply with the law for the past 18 months. The Kokua Council for Elderly Citizens has been writing letter to the agency urging officials to post the records. On Monday, the group filed a lawsuit against Health Director Virginia Pressler to get a judge to order the department to follow the law. “For one reason or another, the Department of Health…
Kathy Greenlee, who has served as Assistant Secretary on Aging since 2009 and ACL Administrator since 2012, gave her final speech before stepping down from these positions. Delivered at the n4a Answers on Aging Conference in San Diego, Calif., the speech focused on “the things each of us carry” including our attitudes, dignity, leadership, and each other. Looking to the future, Greenlee discussed the importance of more diverse leaders and leaders “competent in both the fields of aging and disability.” Read the full speech. David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate,…
There are some things that we hope to accomplish in a lifetime, and there are some people who accomplish enough for multiple lifetimes; Tao Porchon-Lynch is one of the latter. The 97-year-old Master Yoga instructor was named the World’s Oldest Yoga Teacher by the Guinness Book of World Records back in 2012, and she’s only achieved more since then. Turning 98 next month, Porchon-Lynch is in no rush to slow down. Instead, the yoga teacher turned ballroom dancer is moving full-speed ahead, with her next destination being a world ballroom competition in France. She pursued her most recent passion for…
Home renovations could be well worth the expense for older adults and people with a history of falls because they prevent injuries and might curb medical spending, a study in New Zealand suggests. The cost-benefit analysis found a 33 percent reduction in spending to treat fall injuries over three years, and potentially a six-fold savings in “social costs” related to such injuries. In a prior study, the authors followed 1,850 people in New Zealand for three years and found home remodeling associated with a 26 percent reduction in medically treated injuries from falls. But researchers didn’t know whether the cost…
U.S. antitrust officials appear to be poised to file lawsuits to block Anthem Inc.’s takeover of rival health-insurer Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s deal to buy Humana Inc., Justice Department officials, who are responsible for protecting competition, are concerned that the deals, which would transform the health-insurance industry by turning its five biggest companies into three, would harm customers, according to several people familiar with the situation. While the companies may offer to sell assets to gain approval for the deals, that’s unlikely to sway antitrust officials, one of the people said. The final decision on whether to sue to…
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