Archive for November, 2018

How to take the worry out of providing long-distance care to seniors

By caringfromafar.com

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Are you taking up the role of caregiver for a parent or older loved one? Wondering how to provide that care when you live far away? Long-distance caregiving doesn’t have to be so stressful if you take care of the following essential steps.

Get Familiar with Your Loved One’s Medicare Options

The number one concern for seniors is their health, and the number one source of senior healthcare coverage is Medicare. If you are providing care for a loved one from afar, you need to spend some time making sure they have the best Medicare coverage for their situation. Learn the pros and cons of coverage and supplemental plans, as well as important deadlines.

Primarily, you both should know that the Annual Election Period for coverage started on October 15, and you have until December 7 to help your family member make their choices. This crucial enrollment period is the only time you can make changes to current plans, and the deadline is fast approaching, so sit down with a checklist so you can go over all the options in detail. Pick a time when you can visit in-person so that you can have your family member’s Medicare card, copies of the previous year’s medical bills, and a list of any pertinent healthcare information (provider names, prescriptions, etc.). If you can’t do this in-person, use a video call service to connect and have your loved one show or scan you copies of needed materials.

Make Sure Your Family Member Is Safe at Home

Did you know that falls send more seniors to the hospital than any other injury? More importantly, most serious falls happen at home when seniors live on their own. This statistic is not meant to make you feel guilty, but rather to stress the importance of making sure your loved one’s home is free of any fall hazards, both inside and out. If you can make a trip, take a walk around your loved one’s home and look out for issues that could cause them to slip or trip. Clutter can be a recipe for disaster, so make sure any random objects are safely stowed off the floor and out of the path of your family member.

Bathrooms are another sore spot in senior homes, so you may want to help your loved one make changes, such as installing grab bars or putting a seat in the shower. When you need to make these upgrades from afar, you’ll need to find a contractor you can trust. Check reviews online, or ask friends for referrals, so you can find reliable, affordable help to assist your senior loved one with these projects, as well as future issues they may have in their home.

Stay in Touch with a Local Network of Help

When you are providing care from a distance, there will likely come a day when your loved one will need some help and you may not be immediately available to assist them. This is why it is important to build rapport with any neighbors, friends, or community members who may be able to help your family member in their time of need. It’s a major step in effectively providing care for loved ones without adding more stress to your life.

Don’t be afraid to ask neighbors to check in with your parent or loved one, or at least let you know if there is cause for concern. This may include severe weather, odd behavior, or anything else out of the ordinary. Your network can help your loved one get prepared for emergencies, get help when needed, or simply connect with you. As an added layer of protection and connection, look into medical alert services for your parent as well.

Providing care to a senior loved one, when you do not live nearby, can be nerve-wracking. But if you can do some planning, connect with locals, and find ways to keep them safe at home, you can take a lot of the guesswork out of being an effective long-distance caregiver.

 

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Hospice month celebrates success of nation’s first coordinated care model

Published in The Hill by Edo Banach, Opinion Contributor

While there’s no shortage of partisan disagreements on Capitol Hill, one hopes the combative environment that’s become the norm in Washington might take a brief pause now that midterm elections are behind us. At a time when unity and common ground are sorely needed in our politics and our policymaking, one health care program stands out as a reminder of how bipartisanship works at its best: the Medicare Hospice Benefit.

This extraordinary policy achievement was made possible by lawmakers who put aside their differences in the interest of the Americans they served. Enacted as a demonstration in 1978 and a Medicare benefit in 1982, hospice programs have served millions of Americans and their families with compassionate care to relieve pain, manage symptoms, supported beneficiaries and their family caregivers, and provided bereavement services for individuals following the death of a loved one. The benefit has been invaluable to patients and lifesaving for families. And it never would have happened without lawmakers who were committed to the concept, and to working together.

Democrats, including Sens. John Glenn (Ohio) and Bill Bradley (N.J.), joined with Republican senators like Bob Dole (Kan.) and Chuck Grassley(Iowa) to pass what then-Rep. Leon Panetta (D-Calif.) called a “political miracle.” Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.) personally collected commitments from 68 senators to pass the Heinz-Dole-Packwood amendment to provide hospice services to terminally ill Medicare patients.

Not only did this bipartisan act show how a diverse group of legislators could come together for the good of the country but the hospice benefit itself has become an example of how our fragmented health care system can – and should – work together for the betterment of patients. As America’s original coordinated care model, hospice brings together a multidisciplinary team of providers to meet all aspects of a dying patient’s physical, spiritual and emotional needs. No other health care sector is required to address all aspects of a patient’s, and their family’s, health and wellbeing.

Those elected to serve in the upcoming Congress should know that hospice is a program that works and a Medicare benefit that matters to their constituents. As seasoned and novice legislators alike consider health policy reforms, they should look to the success of the hospice model as an example of preserving what works, and help expand access to comprehensive, coordinated care and person- and family- centered care to all patients with serious, advanced and life-limiting illness. We should also reinforce the foundation of hospice to ensure access, choice and quality care at the end of life.

Hospice is not only best for patients at the end of life, it is also good for the Medicare program. Study after study show hospice care improves quality of life, delivers on patient and family satisfaction and reduces unnecessary costs for Medicare beneficiaries at the end of life. Thirty-plus years later, hospice is a reminder that there are policy solutions that work for both sides of the aisle and across our nation for all Americans. The fruits of cooperation live on today in a Medicare benefit that serves 1.43 million Americans annually.

It’s sometimes unclear if the dust will ever settle in Washington, and if we’ll ever get back to a place of collegiality and bipartisanship in Congress. If our nation’s remarkable hospice benefit is any indication, great things can certainly happen if it does.

Edo Banach is President and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).

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NHPCO Highlights Importance of Hospice in Healthcare Since 70s

November begins National Hospice & Palliative Care Month. National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) writes that hat began as primarily a volunteer-driven, grassroots movement in the 1970’s, is now an integrated part of our nation’s health care delivery system that provides care to more than 1.43 million Medicare beneficiaries and their families every year.

“Enacted as a demonstration in 1978 and a Medicare benefit in 1982 as our nation’s first coordinated care model, hospice programs have served millions of Americans and their families with compassionate care to relieve pain, manage symptoms, support patients and their family caregivers, and provided bereavement services for individuals following the death of a loved one,” said Edo Banach, president and CEO of NHPCO. “The benefit has been invaluable to patients and lifesaving for families.”

NHPCO offers a snapshot of hospice care with representative statistics from the current edition of its report, Facts and Figures: Hospice Care in America (PDF):

NHPCO provides a valuable abundance of resources with data and statistics on hospice. The organization is integral to a broad spectrum of efforts in leading the public’s understanding of hospice and palliative care and advancing the ever more vital role of hospice across the healthcare industry.

In addition, this month honors the home care and hospice community including the millions of nurses, home care aides, therapists, and social workers who make a remarkable difference for the patients and families they serve.

These heroic caregivers play a central role in our health care system and in homes across the nation.
  • In 2018, home care providers will travel about 8 billion miles to deliver the best health care in the world’
  • Ninety percent of Americans want to age in place, and home care is the preferred method of health care delivery among the disabled, elderly, and chronically ill; and
  • Home care provides high-quality, compassionate care to more than 5 million Americans annually.

As we approach the giving season, November is the perfect time to recognize their efforts.

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