Archives: August 2009

Five-Star Rating Asked to be Suspended by 31 State Attorneys General

We have written about the Five-Star rating system in the past, CMS’s latest attempt at ranking and rating nursing facilities. In an interesting twist, a total of 31 state attorneys general sent a letter to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services calling for the suspension and...

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Nursing Home Arbitration

Here is an interesting article from Mother Jones about the area of mandatory arbitration. While it does not mention nursing homes it is followed by many. This article will open your eyes to the issue of arbitration and can help you in your daily life as well.

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Healthcare and the Tailor Shop

If you want to understand why healthcare is such dire straits, Atul Gawande’s essay in The New Yorker is a great place to start. My mother slaved in a tailor shop most of her career. She got paid for how many things she stitched in a given day. Guess what,...

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Changing Demographics and the Need for Education

This is a video blog of something we wrote about last week. A report released recently from the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Commerce entitled An Aging World: 2008 should make people pause. Consider these key findings: åá People aged 65 and over will...

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Life Inside a Nursing Home

This article is a must read. How do you encourage doctors to go into geriatrics? Have them spend time as a resident in a nursing home. Great perspective. Any one trying to change the experience in long term care would be wise to do the same thing. In fact, it...

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Age Bias Affects Healthcare for the Elderly

The PewResearchCenter released results of its November ‰Ûª08 study on the increasing generation. Here are some eye opening statistics. When does old age begin? The average American says 68. Those under 30 say it is 60. Those over 65 say it is 74. Conan O‰ÛªBrien‰Ûªs average audience age dropped 10...

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AARP Loses 60,000 Members

Here is a case where perceptions cause myths to arise and then actions actually cause revenue to be lost! As many as 60,000 seniors have canceled their AARP memberships since July 1 because they are angry about AARP’s position on healthcare reform. Three bill versions would trim $563 billion out...

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Older Society Challenging Implications

A report released recently from the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Commerce entitled An Aging World: 2008 should make people pause. Consider these key findings: åá People aged 65 and over will soon outnumber children under age 5 for the first time in history....

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Putting Health Care Reform in Perspective

With permission, I am reprinting Larry Minnix’s great essay on his mother’s experience with the health care system. Contrasting it against the “death panel” rhetoric floating around, he actually shows how current proposals would actually pay for services that have up until now been provided at times for free from...

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