Older Americans Report articles from January 2005

Older Americans Report archives from January 2005

There will be a big debate.(Slants & Trends)(Medicaid expenditures )
January 7, 2005... THERE WILL BE A BIG DEBATE this year over President Bush's desire to restrain spending on Medicaid, but Bush is not the first president to want to put a lid on the program. In 1997, President Clinton suggested capping federal Medicaid spending...

Fate of Medicaid hinges on stance of handful of GOP senators.
January 7, 2005... In his quest to reduce the federal deficit this year, President Bush may revive a proposal to cut spending on Medicaid. It is unlikely, however, that his original plan--to block-grant the program in the manner of welfare reform--will get very...

Feeling the pressure.
January 7, 2005... States expect their Medicaid expenses to grow by 12.1 percent in Fiscal 2005, according to the National Governors Association. Meanwhile, federal Medicaid dollars are expected to rise by only 3.9 percent, largely due to the expiration in July...

Providers watch closely as CMS looks at paying on the basis of performance.
January 7, 2005... When he was head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Thomas Scully often complained that the government did not consider how well a medical procedure was done when reimbursing providers. Thus began a trend toward measuring...

Home health agencies need not send OASIS data for private pay patients.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... In keeping with a provision of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month said home health agencies do not have to submit OASIS data on their private-pay patients until the agency publishes a...

One week left to comment on revision of Medicare wheelchair coverage.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... Seeking to overhaul a problematic area of Medicare policy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is using the National Coverage Determination process to revise its wheelchair payment policies. The process follows a set of...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 7, 2005... Fiscal 2005 funding for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program is $58,528,000, after an across-the-board cut of 0.8 percent is applied ("Fiscal 2005 Labor/HHS Appropriations," Dec. 3, 2004, p. 362). The House approved $58,156,000, while the...

An internal controversy.
January 7, 2005... Proposals to privatize Social Security intersected with the debate over gay marriage last month when an unnamed representative of the Human Rights Campaign was quoted in the New York Times Dec. 9 as saying the group might support privatization...

New law aims to make improvements in veterans hospice, nursing care.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... President Bush has signed into law a health care plan for veterans that will reduce some of their out-of-pocket costs while seeking to address a growing nurse shortage in long-term care facilities that cater to veterans. The Veterans...

Grandparents raising grandchildren deserve more support, group says.
January 7, 2005... Although more than 6 million children live in households headed by a nonparent relative, such caregivers are invisible to policy makers, enjoying few legal rights and receiving minimal financial benefits, according to Donna Butts, executive...

Recognizing their contribution.
January 7, 2005... In Detroit's six collar counties, almost 15,000 grandparents were the primary caregivers for about 27,000 children in 2000, according to the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Databook, a review of census data by Area Agency on Aging 1-B. By...

Grandparenting is key to evolution of human race, author says.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... The nuclear family is not merely an oddity, according to the founder of the Eden Alternative to conventional nursing homes, but an abdication of humanity's defining characteristic: the willingness to share food and other resources across not...

Textbook uses curriculum standards to train Senior Fitness instructors.
January 7, 2005... Organizations looking to upgrade their senior fitness programs and institutions that teach people how to conduct such programs may wish to obtain a university-level text on the subject from Human Kinetics. At 405 pages, Physical Activity...

Manuals focus on seniors' vulnerability to sexual abuse, domestic violence.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... Twin publications from Pennsylvania may be of interest to aging service providers who want to help seniors avoid or recover from sexual abuse or domestic violence. The first item, Addressing Elder Sexual Abuse: Developing a Community...

Doing it without pills.(FYI)
January 7, 2005... DOING IT WITHOUT PILLS. People who are thinking twice about taking certain pain relievers may want to try physical therapy for certain conditions, according to the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Physical therapy is covered by Medicare in home...

Spreading it around.(FYI)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... SPREADING IT AROUND. Starting this week, people aged 50-64 qualify for flu vaccinations under guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control. Previously, only those over 65 or children under two qualified merely by age; people with certain...

Opposing privatization.(FYI)
January 7, 2005... OPPOSING PRIVATIZATION. Leaving no doubt about where it stands, AARP this week took out ads in 53 newspapers saying it opposes any attempt to let people put a portion of their Social Security taxes into private accounts. "There are right ways...

Getting a guarantee.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... GETTING A GUARANTEE. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation sets the maximum benefit for 2005 for participants in underfunded pension plans at $45,614. People who retire before they turn 65 get less, while those who retire later get more....

It works.
January 7, 2005... IT WORKS. After 26 weeks, participants in a clinical trial of acupuncture reported a 40 percent decrease in pain and a corresponding improvement in function, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The...

Keep dancing.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... KEEP DANCING. Physical activity is associated with a lower rate of cognitive decline, at least among men, according to research published in the Dec. 28, 2004, issue of Neurology. Following 295 men from Finland, Italy and the Netherlands,...

Making it permanent.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... MAKING IT PERMANENT. The Qualified Individual-1 program, which pays the Part B premiums for people with incomes between 120 percent and 135 percent of the poverty level, has been extended to Sept. 30, but a group of Democratic senators led by...

Paying more.
January 7, 2005... PAYING MORE. Payments to Medicare Advantage plans went up by 10.9 percent in March 2004, compared to 2003 levels. This means CMS will pay such plans 7.8 percent more in 2005 than it would have cost under fee-for-service for a total additional...

Florida aging chief fired in response to allegations of sexual harassment.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) fired state aging chief Terry White on Wednesday and barred him from entering the headquarters of the Department of Elder Affairs. He then appointed Deputy Secretary Susan Tucker as interim secretary. In a letter...

CMS: Medicare regulations.(Federal Register)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2005... CMS: Medicare regulations. In keeping with the Medicare Prescription Drug Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sets out a timeline for publishing Medicare regulations. The goal is to produce a final regulation within three years...

IRS: retirement plans.(Federal Register)(Internal Revenue Service)
January 7, 2005... IRS: Retirement plans. Final rule. The Internal Revenue Service provides guidance on how to run a 401(k) or 401(m) retirement plan. In response to comments on the proposed rule, the agency requires employers to distribute more to the accounts...

Teaching aging.(Calendar Update)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 7, 2005... TEACHING AGING. The Association for Gerontology in Higher Education will meet Feb. 24-27 in Oklahoma City, including a session on training people for careers in older driver safety led by Nina Silverstein of the University of Massachusetts and...

Retiring slowly.(Calendar Update)(Calendar)
January 7, 2005... RETIRING SLOWLY. The Internal Revenue Service will hold a hearing March 14 on its proposed rules for phased retirement, which involves taking a partial pension while continuing to work part time (OAR, Nov. 19, 2004, p. 360). To testify, send an...

Advocates go online to raise alarm about defective prescription drugs.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... As apprehension grows about the safety of prescription drugs, a group that for years has published warnings about defective or dangerous medications is moving its campaign to the Internet. Worst Pills, Best Pills, first published in 1988,...

Florida Governor outlines voucher plan in bid to create Medicaid 'marketplace'.
January 14, 2005... Seeking to curtail the rising cost of health care, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) this week proposed to let legislators cap state Medicaid spending and give each participant a share of the budgeted amount in the form of a voucher. Bush said the...

Rate of expansion slows.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... Health care spending rose in 2003, but not as quickly as in 2002, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The drop in the pace of expansion from 9.3 percent to 7.7 percent includes a sharp drop in the growth of Medicaid...

Background checks offer no guarantee that homes will always be safe.(Special report: criminal background checks)
January 14, 2005... Advocates have long insisted that nursing homes conduct criminal background checks on new employees, and many do, whether states require it or not. But as is shown by a case in which six people were wounded Sunday at a facility in Alexandria,...

Facilities can go beyond state law in doing criminal background checks.(Special report: criminal background checks)
January 14, 2005... Although a nursing home in Alexandria, Va., where an employee has been charged with malicious wounding was not required to submit the employee's fingerprints as part of a background check, it, like every other nursing home in the country, had...

Pilot program under way.(Special report: criminal background checks)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... The idea of conducting background checks on long-term-care workers is not new. In 1996, the General Accounting Office prepared a report for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) about measures states had taken to vet the credentials of home care workers,...

Consumer direction model expands despite resistance from providers.
January 14, 2005... Although home-care agencies are not always happy about it, more and more people are getting the opportunity to manage their own home-based services, according a report for the National Association of State Units on Aging and the National...

More help for the hard-of-hearing.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... MORE HELP FOR THE HARD-OF-HEARING. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants to make it easier to get coverage for cochlear implants for people with hearing loss. Such devices transmit impulses directly to the auditory nerve,...

Inflation update at stake.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... INFLATION UPDATE AT STAKE. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has voted to recommend that Congress not give skilled nursing facilities an inflation update for 2006, drawing criticism from the nursing home industry. "Funding stability in...

Oxygen payments resume.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... OXYGEN PAYMENTS RESUME. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced this week that it would resume paying claims for home oxygen and related equipment under Medicare. The Medicare Prescription Drug Act required the agency to...

Older adults should not be afraid to take naps, researcher says.
January 14, 2005... Older nappers: Are they lazy, maybe even senile? Or smart, health-conscious managers of their own energy cycles? If the former image prevails, seniors who like to nap may worry they will appear less robust. But if the latter gains favor,...

Dealing with emergencies.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... DEALING WITH EMERGENCIES. The Department of Health and Human Services will coordinate all health-related responses to disasters and emergencies under a National Response Plan released last week. The plan sets up 15 Emergency Support Functions....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 14, 2005... A nonworking phone number was listed for the Department of Elder Affairs ("Florida Aging Chief Fired in Response to Allegations of Sexual Harassment," Jan. 7, p. 8). The correct number is (850) 414-2000.

Training guide for bus operators might help limit demand for paratransit.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... Seniors and people with disabilities are placing heavy and rising demands on paratransit systems, making it imperative to persuade as many as people to use regular buses. With that in mind, Easter Seals has produced a brochure that aims to...

Staying fit.(FYI)(Dietary Guidelines for Americans)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... STAYING FIT. To avoid gaining weight, people should exercise for 60 minutes a day, most days of the week, according to the sixth edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released this week by the departments of agriculture and health and...

Taking the lead on social security.(FYI)(Jim McCrery the new chairmen of the social security panel of the Ways and Means Committee)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... TAKING THE LEAD ON SOCIAL SECURITY. Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) is the new chairman of the Social Security panel of the Ways and Means Committee. As such, he may play a key role in the debate over President Bush's desire to let people divert a...

Nursing home fined.(FYI)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... NURSING HOME FINED. A nursing home in California has been fined $80,000 by the Department of Health Services in connection with the death last year of a 45-year-old resident. Public Health Officer Richard Jackson said Evergreen Healthcare...

Getting covered.(FYI)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... GETTING COVERED. About 438,000 people have opened Health Savings Accounts through September of last year, according to America's Health Insurance Plans. Such accounts permit people to set aside funds for medical expenses tax-free provided they...

Going to capitol hill.(Calendar Update)(National Association of Area Agencies on Aging conference)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... GOING TO CAPITOL HILL. The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging will hold its legislative conference April 10-12 in Washington, including workshops on advocacy, briefings on the issues and visits with lawmakers. The cost is $150 for...

Building for life.(Calendar Update)(National Association of Home Builders sponsorship)
January 14, 2005... BUILDING FOR LIFE. The National Association of Home Builders is sponsoring a symposium on reaching people who want to age in place May 16-18 in Chantilly, Va., near Washington. Workshop leaders will explain how to get into the active-adult...

Getting there.(Calendar Update)(Community Transportation Association of America conference)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... GETTING THERE. Transportation for America's Elders: Mobility for Life will take place May 23-24 in St. Louis as part of the conference of the Community Transportation Association of America. Other portions of the larger event, which spans May...

Aging at home.(Calendar Update)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 14, 2005... AGING AT HOME. The American Association for Homecare will hold a leadership conference June 7-10 in Washington. The focus is on legislative and regulatory issues, including paying providers on the basis of performance (OAR, Jan. 7, p. 3) and...

SSA: recovering overpayments.(Federal Register)(Social Security Administration)
January 14, 2005... SSA: Recovering overpayments. Final rule. The Social Security Administration expands its authority to recover overpayments under a given program by withholding payments under another. For example, the agency can now withhold up to 10 percent of...

NIA: retirement economics.(Funding Opportunity)(National Institute on Aging)
January 14, 2005... NIA: Retirement economics. The National Institute on Aging is accepting applications for research on the determinants of retirement behavior, including variations in work patterns in later life and comparisons with other countries. Grants are...

Got a request for proposals?
January 14, 2005... Got a request for proposals? Please send funding announcements to Mark Sherman, editor, Older Americans Report, msherman@bpinews.com.

Recovering from the flu.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2005... RECOVERING FROM THE FLU. Seniors with the flu can get help with the cost of antiviral medicines until May 31 under a demonstration project sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services. The medicines--there are four to choose...

Leavitt Dodges question about whether he still opposes Medicaid caps.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R) is not one to mince words. Thus, at a hearing Wednesday on the nomination of EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt as secretary of HHS, he put the following question quite plainly: "Do you...

Tenn. Governor softens Medicaid cuts but fails to mollify advocates.
January 21, 2005... Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) this week gave CMS a revised proposal to change the state's Medicaid program, known as TennCare. However, advocates say the plan, which would eliminate coverage for 323,000 people, including 76,000 over 65,...

Text of Tennessee waiver casts doubt on forcing plans to reassume risk.
January 21, 2005... Last week, when he previewed his latest plan to overhaul Medicaid, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) insisted that the groups that process Medicaid claims become real managed care organizations again, something they have not been since 2002,...

Cohousing grows as viable option for seniors seeking community.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)
January 21, 2005... For Dene Peterson, living alone held little interest and moving to a retirement community seemed too expensive. "I wanted more of a purposeful life," the 75-year-old Abingdon, Va., resident, told OAR. Now Peterson has a new...

A way to end isolation.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Built usually as townhomes or condominiums, cohousing developments have a structure and spirit of their own. Cars are generally parked on the periphery, as residents use sidewalks to get home, fostering an old-fashioned, neighborhood feel. ...

Financing, development issues pose challenge in cohousing.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)
January 21, 2005... Financing and development are two of the greatest hurdles for cohousing projects, as sponsors of a new project in Virginia well know. So Elderspirit Director Dene Peterson used her social network to jump-start the process. "I asked 50...

Elder-only model still being tested.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)(Elderspirit)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... In Denmark, about half of the 400 cohousing projects are just for seniors. But the jury is out on whether Americans will want to join seniors-only facilities. Elderspirit, an elders-only development in Abingdon, Va., that is set to open...

Interactive database helps seniors untangle Medicare benefits.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)
January 21, 2005... The intersection of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security can make even the most complex highway interchange look like child's play, but a website developed by the Medicare Rights Center can steer people in the right direction. Like the...

House chairmen urge new strategy on Social Security, private accounts.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Arguing that the debate over Social Security must change, two GOP leaders this week said they have lost interest in letting people divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into private accounts, if only as a matter of political realism....

Adjusting for gender decried.(Special report: the cohousing alternative)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) got some credit for suggesting new ways to finance private retirement accounts but raised concerns by suggesting that Social Security benefits for women be lower because they tend to live longer. "It would be bad...

Speaking their language.
January 21, 2005... SPEAKING THEIR LANGUAGE. Several items from Easter Seals' Project Action are now available in other languages. An eight-page booklet on transportation options for people with disabilities, You Can Really Go Places, comes in a Spanish version....

Looking for feedback.
January 21, 2005... LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK. The Alabama Department of Seniors Services wants residents to complete an online survey of their need for services. Questions cover the availability of adult day care, the cost of medicine and concerns about identify...

Adding enrollees.(Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly and its companion program)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... ADDING ENROLLEES. A Pennsylvania program to help seniors with the cost of prescription drugs has recently grown, according to the Department of Aging. Created in 1984, the Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly and its companion...

Protecting seniors.
January 21, 2005... PROTECTING SENIORS. The Florida Department of Elder Affairs has produced a manual on preventing crime against seniors. The document is designed for participants in the Triad program, a national effort to encourage cooperation among law...

Fire officials take hard look at ways to protect nursing home residents.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Recognizing that existing fire codes and safety procedures may not be enough for people in nursing homes and other healthcare facilities, the International Association of Fire Chiefs has produced a set of recommendations. The Roundtable...

Bush administration vows to get tough on firms with underfunded pensions.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Seeking to slow if not reverse the cascade of pension plan defaults, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao this month asked Congress to overhaul the insurance system run by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The goal is give companies...

Experts find link between gambling, post-traumatic stress disorder.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... Seniors with post-traumatic stress disorder or who are patients at Veterans Administration clinics are more likely to gamble in a risky way, according to a study of 843 individuals by researchers at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine and...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 21, 2005... The executive director of Goodwin House in Alexandria, Va., was misidentified ("Background Checks Offer No Guarantee that Homes Will Be Safe," Jan. 14, p. 11). His name is Gary Selmeczi. Kathleen Anderson is president.

Creating choices.(Calendar Update)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 21, 2005... CREATING CHOICES. The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging will hold several events this year, including a conference in Washington, April 4-6, on the future of aging services. The International Association of Homes and...

AoA: delegation of authority.(Federal Register)
January 21, 2005... AoA: Delegation of authority. HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson delegates to AoA chief Josefina Carbonell the authority "to execute functions pertaining to the White House Conference on Aging" and ratifies any actions she has previously taken in...

SSA: nonattorney representatives.(Federal Register)(Social Security Administration)
January 21, 2005... SSA: Nonattorney representatives. The Social Security Administration sets forth the prerequisites for paying nonattorneys directly from the past-due benefits they help clients obtain under titles II and XVI. A five-year demonstration project...

CDC: cancer prevention.(Funding Opportunities)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... CDC: Cancer prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has $1.85 million for cooperative agreements under the National Cancer Prevention and Control Program. This includes "comprehensive" initiatives, research on breast and...

HRSA: Geriatric Education Centers.(Funding Opportunities)(Health Resources and Services Administration)
January 21, 2005... HRSA: Geriatric Education Centers. Modification. The Health Resources and Services Administration extends until March 1 the deadline for applications to develop Geriatric Education Centers (OAR, Oct. 22, 2004, p. 328). In addition, a funding...

Decoding Parkinson's.(FYI)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... DECODING PARKINSON'S. A mutation in a gene called LRRK2 may account for up to 5 percent of cases of Parkinson's disease in people with a family history of the disease, according to researchers at the National Institute on Aging and the National...

Directing one's own care.(FYI)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2005... DIRECTING ONE'S OWN CARE. Connecticut has joined the Independence Plus program in order to let 3,000 people play a larger role in managing their Medicaid services. These can include personal care, supported employment, group day services,...

When Congress raised the age at which people become eligible for full Social Security benefits from 65 to 67 in 1983, it was so nervous about what it was doing, it stretched the increase over 44 years.(Slants & Trends)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2005... When Congress raised the age at which people become eligible for full Social Security benefits from 65 to 67 in 1983, it was so nervous about what it was doing, it stretched the increase over 44 years. But that does not mean Congress could...

Plan to adjust Social Security benefits by gender might not satisfy courts.
January 28, 2005... A proposal by House Ways & Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) to adjust Social Security benefits for gender may be unconstitutional, according to Bruce Schobel, a vice president at New York Life and chairman of the Retirement Security...

CBO warns about entitlement programs as budget deficit remains high.(Congressional Budget Office)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2005... The prospects of getting more money for aging services programs remained poor as the Congressional Budget Office announced this week that the budget deficit for Fiscal 2005 will be about $400 billion, not much better than the $412 billion...

Reverse mortgages are useful, but not for LTC insurance.
January 28, 2005... Millions of homeowners, including many on Medicaid, could age in place more easily if they took out reverse mortgages, according to the National Council on the Aging. The stratagem is unlikely to boost the market for long-term care insurance,...

Elder Justice group seeks more help as Congress gets under way.(Elder Justice Act)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2005... As it prepares to push again for passage of the Elder Justice Act, the 365-member Elder Justice Coalition is asking for help with expenses. "This is a new congress and the legislative process must start from scratch," it said in an email...

Drug importation issue remains hot despite pending Medicare benefit.(Brief Article)
January 28, 2005... Five Republican senators, including four from states that border Canada, joined forces this week to sponsor legislation that would legalize the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.),...