Home-Based Senior Care Program Has Limited... ( Overhaul of Medicare financing system...)

Home-Based Senior Care Program Has Limited Benefits

Date:12/11/2007

Overhaul of Medicare financing system may be needed, experts say

TUESDAY, Dec. 11 (HealthDay News) -- An intensive, home-based program to improve medical care for low-income seniors produced mixed results, a geriatrics team reports.

Failure to get better outcomes indicates the need for a new analysis of how Medicare pays for the care for older Americans, experts said.

"We were able to stabilize medical care for these people, who often have an up-and-down experience with medical care," said Dr. Steven R. Counsell, a professor of geriatrics at Indiana University and lead author of a report in the Dec. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The main thing that did not change was physical function. The program did not prevent decline."

Some improvements were evident in the two-year course of the program, which included care management by nurse practitioners and social workers who collaborated with a primary-care physician and a geriatrics interdisciplinary team guided by protocols for common conditions of aging.

Better improvement in general health, vitality, social functioning and mental health were noted in the 474 older people, as compared to a group of 477 getting usual care in community-based medical centers. Emergency room visits decreased for the intervention group, but the death rate did not decline.

The program was run under Medicare, which placed limits on how it was financed, Counsell said. In general, Medicare pays for specific treatments of specific conditions, so that most of the efforts to coordinate care were not reimbursed, he said.

"But we were hoping that this kind of coordinated care would show improvement in many areas," Counsell said.

The program results indicate a need for a basic revamping of Medicare financing, said Dr. David B. Reuben, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wrote an accompa
'/>"/>

0

GOOD

Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. Oral Health a Matter of Life and Death for Seniors
2. Mylan Commences Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations for Its 5.750% Senior Notes Due 2010 and 6.375% Senior Notes Due 2015 in Connection With Its Proposed Acquisition of Mercks Generic Pharmaceutical Business
3. Lutheran Senior Services Partners with Silverchair Learning Systems to Enhance Employee Training and Education
4. GAO Report Confirms: Medicare Underpays for Anesthesia Services; Nurse Anesthetists Assure Seniors Access to Safe Anesthesia Care
5. Seniors Need a Safety Plan in Face of Disasters
6. MassMutual Promotes Debra Palermino to Senior Vice President of Human Resources
7. Mylan Announces Appointment of David A. Lillback as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Human Resources
8. High Co-Pays Cause Seniors to Go Without Meds
9. Governor Rendell Proclaims Sept. 9-15 as Senior Community Center Week
10. Poor Senior Vision Often a Window on Disease
11. Karen Vigil Named Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Blue Shield of Californias Individual, Small Group, and Government Business Unit

Post Your Comments:

Home-Based Senior Care Program Has Limited...( Overhaul of Medicare financing system...),Health