NY Times: Nursing Homes and Home Care Seek Healthcare Exemptions

The New York Times is reporting that nursing home and home health care operators are starting a lobbying effort to seek some kind of exemption or special treatment from providing health care to employees.  According to the article, among workers who provide hands-on care to nursing home residents, one in four has no health insurance. […]

Virtual Health Working With Intel and GE to Help Seniors Age in Place

Virtual Health announced it’s the first customer to go live on the Intel-GE Care Innovations Guide. The Care Innovation Guide was developed to go beyond the first and second generation tele-health systems by collecting data and enabling patient behavior and lifestyle change through an interactive relationship with their clinician. “We are eager to extend the marketplace beyond what […]

Long Term Care Revenues to Reach $353 Billion in 2015

The U.S. long term care market is expected to see steady growth in the coming years according to research from Kalorama Information. In 2005, the market’s value stood at $186 billion and has grown to $258 billion in 2010. For the next five years, growth will continue at annual rates of over 6%, resulting in […]

CDC Home Hospice Report Profiles Home Health Care Recipients

Home hospice care is emerging as one of the fastest areas in senior living and senior care but what are the profiles of the end users?  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released a report on national estimates on home health care and discharged hospice care patients from data in collected from the 2000 and 2007 […]

HHS Initiatives Provide Flexibility for States to Improve Medicaid

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced four initiatives to give states more flexibility to adopt innovative new practices and provide better coordinated care for people with Medicaid and Medicare last week. According to HHS, fifteen states will receive federal funding to develop better ways to coordinate care for people with Medicare and […]

ALFA Praises Georgia House of Rep. for Passing in Home Care Bill

A trade group praised the Georgia House of Representatives on Tuesday for passing a bill to allow frail seniors the ability to receive necessary care in home and avoid unnecessary moves to institutional environments. According to the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA), the bill creates a licensure category for assisted living and expands the […]

GAO Study Looks for Increasing Reliance on Older Americans Act Program

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study finds that while many older adults likely needed meals or home-based care in 2008, they did not receive Title III or other government program assistance, such as Medicaid, that they needed. Preceding a reauthorization of The Older Americans Act (OAA), enacted to help older adults remain in their homes and communities, […]

Nonprofit Moves Into Home Health, Startup Lessons and Challenges

Several years ago, National Church Residences saw a hole in what had historically looked like a complete continuum of seniors housing and health care. Residents at its affordable senior housing apartment complexes needed additional services, but didn’t need to move into NCR’s assisted living or nursing facilities. So in 2008 NCR started InCare, a Medicare- […]

Healthcare Spending Grows to $2.5 Trillion in 2009

Healthcare spending is up another 4% in 2009 to $2.5 trillion based upon data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary.  The increase of approximately $8,000 per person is the slowest growth rate in the 50-year history of the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA).  The recession has led to […]