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Archives for October 2014

Nursing Home Infections Are Increasing…Surprise (Not!)

October 17, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Elder In Nursing HomeHere’s an October 9, 2014 article from McKnight’s LTC News describing recently published findings that show across the board infection rates in nursing homes have surged during the past five years. 

Quoting from the article, “The prevalence of viral hepatitis in nursing homes increased 48% between 2006 and 2010, the investigators determined. MDRO prevalence increased by 18% and pneumonia by 11%. The rates of urinary tract infections, septicemia and wound infections also rose.”

Here are several additional blogs I’ve done about Medicaid’s shortcomings. Because most long-term patients in nursing homes are on Medicaid (a form of Welfare), and because Medicaid’s reimbursement to nursing homes is actually less than the cost of caring for such patients, many nursing homes are unprofitable. We all agree that the most important employees in nursing homes are the custodial caregivers. These are the lowest paid people on the economic totem pole. Counter-intuitively, these critical frontline caregivers are often the first place nursing homes fire to cut expenses.

My opinion is that because of inadequate care in many Medicaid-funded nursing homes, corners are cut. Quality of care suffers. Sad outcomes then occur. This is what is causing the rapid rise of nursing home infections. It is not hard to connect the dots on this one.

Many nursing home patients end up in such facilities because they do not have money to access better care. People who own long-term care insurance (LTCi) are far less likely to wind up in Medicaid-funded nursing homes. They are far more likely to end up in preferable, far nicer assisted-living facilities.

Filed Under: Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Honey Leveen, Long Term Care insurance, LTCi, McKnights Long-Term Care News & Assisted Living, Medicaid, Nursing Homes, www.honeyleveen.com

New Report Exposes High Costs Associated Dearth of Dignified Death

October 13, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

End Of LifeLast week, reporting on the largely broken, slippery slope of costly, undignified end-of-life outcomes too many families experience, broke in the news.

The news reported on a 21-member nonpartisan committee that was part of the National Academy of Sciences. This committee just released a report calling for sweeping changes in end-of-life care.

Many of the recommended changes could be accomplished without legislation. Other recommendations are just common sense AND would save a lot of money.

Here’s a summary of the recommendations:

  • Reimburse health care providers for conversations on advanced care planning.
     
  • Restructure Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care delivery programs.
     
  • Eliminate perverse financial incentives that encourage expensive hospital procedures when low-tech services like pain management and home health care are available.
     
  • Finally, accredited medical schools and groups as well as health providers should greatly increase training in palliative care.

My opinion is these changes cannot happen soon enough. I hope such reporting, accompanied by public outrage, continues.

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Honey Leveen, Long Term Care insurance, long-term care, LTC Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, National Academy of Sciences, www.honeyleveen.com

Fighting to Honor a Father’s Last Wish: To Die at Home

October 1, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Right To Die At HomeTying into last week’s news of the new report titled “Dying on America” I will recommend two stories that bring the report into the most personal of terms.

Here’s a past blog I did describing a gripping, highly rated book called, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”. It puts what is imparted in the new report into very poignant, personal, compelling terms.

Just like the book “Knocking on Heaven’s Door, an article in the September 25, 2014 New York Times, called “Fighting to Honor a Father’s Last Wish: To Die at Home” is a heartbreaker.

Both the New York Times article and Knocking on Heaven’s Door put a human face on what “Dying in America” recommends, in the most poignant, heartbreaking ways.

The New York Times article describes a very beautiful, loving, highly functional American family. Despite the daughter’s tenacious, enduring fight to bring her father home, and at great personal sacrifice, our current system kept her father away from home. Most of his final years were spent bouncing between various forms of expensive, often negligent, in-patient care.

Home would have offered the father far more dignity and quality of life, much less suffering, at far less cost. The article beautifully, heartbreakingly, illustrates this.

Quoting from the article, “Many geriatric experts say that if the wasteful medical spending on this stage of life could be redirected, it could pay for all the social supports and services actually needed by today’s fragile elders and their families. Instead, public money has been shuffled in the same system, benefiting health care businesses but not necessarily patients.”

The changes recommended would most likely come at a net savings to the government. I hope reporting like this, combined with public lobbying, brings the recommended changes.

Filed Under: Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Honey Leveen, Knocking on Heaven's Door, long-term care, Medicaid, Medicare, New York Times, www.honeyleveen.com

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Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP
“The Queen, by Self-Proclamation, of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCi)”
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Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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