Geriatricians, as well as the frail, sick, and disabled elders for whom they care, are at serious risk under the proposed implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). To read Joanne Lynn’s comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Merit-Based Incentive Payments and Alternative Payment Models under MACRA, click here.
MediCaring Communities: Getting What We Want and Need in Frail Old Age at an Affordable Cost Published June, 2016 194 pages, 6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm) ISBN-10: 1481266918 List Price $9.95 at Amazon.com Americans want a long life and most of us will get to live into our 80’s and beyond, but we […]
By Joanne Lynn Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries with advanced illnesses and worsening disabilities, and the clinicians who focus on serving them, could wind up becoming big losers if MACRA (Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) is implemented without sufficient attention to the realities of caring for these vulnerable populations. But there are ways […]
By Joanne Lynn The time has come to seek cooperation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) so MediCaring Communities can get underway in many parts of the country. These programs are as necessary to an aging society as pediatrics and obstetrics are for children and maternal care. Empowering communities to take care […]
By Joanne Lynn and Elizabeth Blair For about the last decade, federal policymakers have shunned serious consideration of long-term care, apparently feeling either that it is a black hole of need or that dealing with it gets too close to acknowledging rationing and death panels. People who tried to encourage a focus on long-term care, […]
By Anne Montgomery A tremendously positive legislative achievement occurred on November 5, 2015, when the PACE Innovation Act (P.L. 114-85) was signed into law. Although it has received little notice, what this five-line statute does is provide the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) with the authority to loosen the rigidity of the best, […]
By Anne Montgomery and Leslie Fried of the National Council on Aging One of the hallmarks of the 21st century—increased longevity of the population—will increasingly drive federal, state, and local health care programs to focus on optimizing coordination of services across a range of medical care and community services providers. Discharge planning will play a […]
By Joanne Lynn, MD If you are hoping for a good night’s sleep, don’t read the stories told by Marcy Cottrell Houle of her parents’ last years of life just before you go to bed. But do read The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Healthcare [http://www.thegiftofcaring.net/], which Houle wrote […]
By Joanne Lynn Very, very dysfunctional. You need evidence? Try these two tales. First, a remarkably illuminating piece of research was released on March 2 concerning the Meals on Wheels program (http://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/docs/default-source/News-Assets/mtam-full-report—march-2-2015.pdf?sfvrsn=6). The title was “More than a Meal,” and it showed that people who got warm meals home delivered by volunteers 5 days per […]
By Elizabeth Blair, Victoria Walker and Anne Montgomery Standing behind a podium in a Capitol Hill meeting room at the March 3 launch of a new congressional caucus aimed at increasing policy attention to family caregivers, Marianita Gorman of New Mexico took a deep breath and looked at the audience of healthy, able-bodied staffers and […]