There is a great article in the LA Times today about the health of the Europeans versus Americans. Highlights: “Costly diseases, many of them related to obesity and smoking, are more prevalent among aging Americans than their European peers and add as much as $100 billion to $150 billion a...
Author Archives: anthony
For Profit Nursing Homes Worse?
You must read this New York Times article from Sunday, September 23. It complements other writing on the topic that shows how for profit long term care providers create such a complex corporate legal structure that it is nearly impossible to identify, let alone sue, ownership. It shows how so...
Grandma Gets Abused in Japan
Thousands of elderly people are abused at home by relatives in Japan, news reports said Saturday, as the country faces a rapidly aging population. More than 12,600 cases of elderly abuse were reported in 2006, almost all of them at home, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry survey released...
Gifts for Nursing Home Patients
I don’t usually take kindly to people selling in their blogs but I came across a unique one that actually does a great service. It is a gift basket company that devoted a post to talking about appropriate gifts to by loved ones in nursing homes. It is worth a...
Blacks likelier to live in poor-quality nursing homes
A new report in the September/October issue of Health Affairs, finds that 60% of blacks in nursing homes ended up in just 10% of the facilities ÛÓ typically ones that had been cited for quality problems. Interestingly the south was the least segregated around this issue. And that is consistent...
House Bill 3162
U.S. House Bill 3162 is getting a lot of publicity these days because it addresses one of the most vulnerable segments of our population – that’s right children. Its noble goal to expand health coverage to children comes at a price. Hidden in the bill is a provision to slash...
Medical Tourism in the Nursing Home Industry
A “small but steadily growing number” of U.S. residents “are moving across the border” into Mexican nursing homes, which provide care at a “fraction” of the price of U.S. facilities, reports USA Today. About 40,000 to 80,000 U.S. retirees currently live in Mexico, but no data exist on the number...
Doctor Fees
A small but growing number of doctors in South Florida and elsewhere have started charging patients annual fees to help make ends meet. These are not “boutique” doctors offering exclusive attention to patients who can afford to pay thousands upfront each year for special access and attention. These are regular...
Medical Illiteracy
A new study of patients ages 65 and older were more likely to die within six years of receiving written medical instructions than those who easily understood their caregivers, despite the health conditions at the outset. The study was done by a team at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine,...
Medical Tourism in the Nursing Home Industry?
As a health care marketing professional, I have done some overseas work in the area of medical tourism, that is helping overseas hospitals market to U.S. and European patients. Until yesterday, I had never seen the concept applied to nursing homes. This is an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune...