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Drinking restrictions for the elderly

According to a new report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, people over the age of 65 are being advised not to drink more than half a pint of beer a day.

23 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: Medicare and politics; concerns about AARP; Medicaid's future

Leading Republicans — after proposing to gut Medicare — are still trying to pose as the program's saviors. How cynical can they get? At the recent Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota warned that health care reform will take $500 billion out of Medicare and harm "senior citizens who have the most to lose."

23 Jun 2011

Obama administration launches effort to tout Medicare preventive benefits

The number of Medicare recipients who take advantage of these services has only increased slightly. The availability of these benefits was expanded by the health law.

22 Jun 2011

Shake a tambourine to call a nurse!

Hospital authorities gave elderly patients a tambourine to shake if they needed help in an emergency. But the makeshift call system sparked anger among relatives who said most patients are too frail to make a proper noise with the instruments.

22 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 21, 2011

In today's headlines, the latest on the debt-reduction talks, the next chapter in the saga surrounding a McKinsey insurance survey and the details of the Obama administration's effort to tout the health law's prreventive care benefits.

22 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: Compromises on fixing Medicare?; 'progress' on AIDS; working families falling behind

Fixing Medicare should not compromise patient care. The president's health care bill created the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board. This panel of unelected bureaucrats, whose sole purpose is to decide whether to offer Medicare benefits based on a budget, could lead to government rationing of care.

21 Jun 2011

Home-based care increasingly seen as alternative to nursing homes

The health law includes provisions to assist people who want to stay in their homes longer. Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun-Times reports on knowlege gaps among adult children who may become caregivers to aging parents.

20 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 20, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about new trends in the health care marketplace, including efforts to help seniors live at home longer and why some consumers may face bigger bills for out-of-network care.

20 Jun 2011

WellAWARE Systems announces new partnership with Masonic Homes of Kentucky

WellAWARE Systems, the developer of breakthrough technology designed to enable proactive and preventive senior care, announced a new partnership with Masonic Homes of Kentucky.

20 Jun 2011

Technology aids in maintaining quality of life in aging

Dorothy Rutherford is anxiously typing at her home computer, filling in answers to an online spelling game. Gerontologists say aging in place vastly improves the quality of life for seniors and is a lot cheaper for society than group homes and institutions.

18 Jun 2011

Budget talks focus on 'the hard stuff' with tough decisions in play on health care, new revenues

Partisan differences on core issues such as taxes and Medicare spending continue to be a part of the deficit-reduction negotiations being led by Vice President Joe Biden, who says the talks will go on "around the clock" next week as lawmakers work to resolve the stand-off over raising the nation's debt limit.

18 Jun 2011

Lawmakers draw lines, offer views on Medicare

Senate Democrats argue that the best way to find savings in Medicare is to build on the program changes that were included in the health law. Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says he is open to Medicare changes that would leave the traditional program intact as an option for seniors in the future.

17 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 17, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about how health entitlement programs are faring in the ongoing deficit-reduction negotiations.

17 Jun 2011

Lawmakers clash over franked mail that criticized House GOP plan for Medicare

Some Democratic House members who have had constituent mailings held up because of proposed GOP revisions to soften the message are accusing the Republican majority of censoring their mail. GOP leaders counter that the Dems are abusing their franked mail privileges to send out political attacks on the Ryan plan to revamp Medicare.

17 Jun 2011

CBO portends 'heavy lifting' to avert Medicare doc pay reduction

The report offers cost estimates for a range of approaches that would head off a 29.4 percent reduction in Medicare physician payments scheduled to kick in Jan. 1, 2012. Meanwhile, in other news, a plan to curb the overuse of costly medical imaging demonstrates the difficulties posed by attempting even small changes in the health insurance program for seniors.

16 Jun 2011

Senate Dems signal hard line on Medicare in budget talks

Although Vice President Joe Biden offered an optimistic assessment of progress in the budget talks that he has been leading, Senate Democratic leadership reiterated yesterday that Medicare cuts should not be on the table during these negotiations.

16 Jun 2011

Increase in admissions and hospital visits due to falls

According to the latest figures, women over the age of 80 are at the highest risk of falling and need home care. Figures released from the NHS Information Centre ahead of Falls Awareness Week revealed that women over the age of 80 accounted for 30.9 per cent of all fall-related admissions.

16 Jun 2011

California's rural elders more likely to be obese, physically inactive and food insecure

Despite living in the countryside, where open space is plentiful and there is often significant agricultural production, California's more than half a million rural elders are far more likely to be overweight or obese, physically inactive and food insecure than their suburban counterparts, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

15 Jun 2011

Roundup: Conn.'s 'moderate' Medicaid cuts; Calif. adult day care threatened; disabled face 'unclear futures'

The national Center for Reproductive Rights filed a federal lawsuit Monday to halt implementation of the requirements that women wanting an abortion must have a sonogram and hear a detailed description of the fetus. The group called the mandates patronizing and an intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship.

15 Jun 2011

Medicare as a political weapon

NPR details Medicare's political muscle. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports on a Florida representative who is unabashed in his defense of his support for the GOP plan to privatize Medicare.

15 Jun 2011