Senior Care and Senior Health News On September 3, 2010

When drug prices go up, seniors on fixed budgets sometimes reduce or stop their medications. Judging by a report from AARP, it may be time to make sure mom and dad haven’t succumbed to such financial strains. AARP recently announced findings that prices for the 217 brand-name drugs seniors use most “increased by an average [...]

Here’s another money saver for seniors and the people who care for them. Medicare recently announced that it will now cover up to eight counseling sessions yearly to help seniors stop smoking. Previously, unless you had a smoking-related illness, it only covered stop-smoking medications, reports the Associated Press. The change is effective immediately, but in [...]

Medicare is cutting drug plans, causing over 3 million seniors to have to switch plans for next year, a recent analysis estimates. The cuts are meant “to winnow down duplicate and confusing coverage,” the Associated Press reports. “Instead of 40 or more plans in each state, beneficiaries would pick from 30 or so.” Seniors won’t [...]

Aging in place—growing old in your own home—has burgeoned into a specialty in the remodeling industry. AARP and the National Association of Home Builders have even developed a “certified aging-in-place specialist” program to credential remodelers and people in related fields. (That’s the “CAPS” designation you see behind some professionals’ names.) Tomorrow, AARP will pick the [...]

Gayle Sheehy’s husband died of cancer after years of a slow demise. She’s written a book about the challenges of dealing with a loved one’s sickness called Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos Into Confidence. Journalist Scott Eyman interviewed Sheehy and asked her, among other things, whether she would have done anything differently, looking back. Her [...]

Independence can be hard to give up. When you recognize that your aging parent needs help, there are ways to introduce the idea to make it less invasive and overwhelming. A recent article at FOXBusiness offers a few tips. For one thing, start talking early, and include your parents: Too many people view the conversation [...]

State authorities are investigating whether an official with the City Department of Family and Support Services tipped off a Chicago nursing home about a surprise inspection.

The Kadoka Nursing Home will be able to remain open thanks to a$145,000 grant approved by Gov. Mike Rounds , to improve fire safetyin the facility.

The Illinois Department of Health has cited a Galesburg nursing home for mold.

National Assisted Living Week is Sept. 13-18. Community events are scheduled throughout the week. Monday, Sept. 13: Card Club, playing 500 in The Harbor dining room at 12:30 p.m.

About one of every three assisted living centers in the state does not have a backup power generator, a state Health Department official told a House panel Tuesday.

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GALESBURG In Home Care and Dementia will be the topic of Third Thursdays, a monthly lecture series hosted by the Alzheimers Association Central Illinois Chapter. The program will take place Thursday, Sept. 16 from 4 5 p.m. at the Knox County Health Department, 1361 W. Freemont, Galesburg.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Metropolitan Health Networks, Inc. (NYSE AMEX:MDF), (Metcare), a leading provider of healthcare services in Florida, and SeniorBridge, a national health management company, today announced the launch of a unique year-long care management pilot program that is expected to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life while reducing the overall ...

SUMMIT Few things are more stressful than seeing a loved one battling a chronic or serious illness. Whether it is getting better educated about the condition, learning skills to provide in-home care for such patients, or having ready-access to...

Eighty-five hundred people in the U.P. are currently living with Alzheimers

The Alzheimer Society of Timmins Porcupine District is looking to sweeten things up around Timmins these days. The group is taking orders for the popular Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in support of Alzheimer services and programs locally.

BioScale Inc., an innovative life science company that develops, manufactures and promotes novel analytical tools enabling advancements in protein research, recently announced the first shipment and installation of the ViBET Protein Analysis Workstation at a major Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company

The Fiscal Times: A Medicare program that has agreed to pay for counseling for seniors who smoke but are not yet sick could help the program, and America's health system, lower costs. "Smoking costs the U.S. economy $97 billion annually in lost productivity, in addition to the $96 billion a year in direct health care costs, according to [the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services]. Counseling ...

It's positive that Medicare scheduled a meeting so rapidly, and that the meetings focus will be rest

Medicare sets a Nov. 17 meeting to discuss Dendreon's Provenge, but the focus will be on which patients should get the prostate cancer vaccine, not whether to cover it at all.

More than $15 million in funding from the province will give local seniors health care services a needed boost.

American workers are taking yet another blow to their wallets this year -- a whopping 14% jump in costs to insure their families.

Staff writer Peace Hills Lodge is garnering plenty of attention. But then again, it's not every day a facility celebrates its 50th anniversary. A pillar of senior health care for the past five decades, Peace Hills Lodge, 5402 52 Ave., is hosting a celebration Sept.[...]