On Aging

A business decision by UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest health insurance carrier, to drop a popular fitness benefit has upset many people covered by the company's Medicare plans.

Health & Safety

UnitedHealthcare Customers Are Unhappy About Cuts To SilverSneakers Fitness Program

9:11pm December 04, 2018

by Judith Graham

Health insurer UnitedHealthcare plans to cut SilverSneakers, a popular fitness benefit, for 2.5 million people with the company's Medigap and Medicare Advantage coverage.

Unless you're an extreme athlete, recovering from an injury, or over 60, you probably need only 50 to 60 grams of protein a day. And you probably already get that in your food without adding pills, bars or powders.

How Much Protein Do You Really Need?

12:18pm December 03, 2018

by Patti Neighmond

Protein snacks and supplements are popular, but unless you're an extreme athlete or recovering from an injury, you may already get enough protein in your diet. Here's how to tell how much you need.

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Medicare's new program will alter a year's worth of payments to 14,959 skilled nursing facilities across the U.S., based on how often in the past fiscal year their residents ended up back in hospitals within 30 days of leaving.

Medicare To Cut Payments To Nursing Homes Whose Patients End Up Back In The Hospital

12:42pm December 01, 2018

by Jordan Rau

Medicare's incentive program to discourage nursing homes from discharging patients too quickly will also give bonuses to facilities that have fewer rehospitalizations.

Affordable Care Act navigator Nini Hadwen (right) helped Jorge Hernandez (left) and Marta Aguirre find a plan on the health insurance exchange in Miami in 2013. Today, with fewer navigators, much of that counseling is done by phone instead of in person.

Obamacare Sign-Ups Lag As Trump Slashes Funds For Enrollment Help

7:23pm November 28, 2018

by Phil Galewitz

The Trump administration is spending $10 million this year on health care navigators — down from $63 million in 2016. Nationwide, workers are scrambling to apprise people of insurance options.

Helping a spouse or parent who has dementia steer clear of hazards can include ridding the home of all guns.

Firearms And Dementia: How Do You Convince A Loved One To Give Up Their Guns?

7:23am November 13, 2018

by Melissa Block

It's estimated that nearly half of all Americans over 65 own a gun or live with someone who does. And 7 million in the U.S. have dementia, a number that's expected to double within two decades.

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Services like rides to the doctor or wheelchair ramps are among those that some Medicare Advantage plans will begin to offer next year.

Health & Safety

New Medicare Advantage Benefits Are Supposed To Help Seniors Stay Out Of The Hospital

5:00am November 09, 2018

by Susan Jaffe

To help seniors stay healthy and independent, some Medicare plans will soon cover things like home-delivered meals or rides to the doctor, but finding plans that include the coverage is not easy.

Researchers say it's too soon to say if marijuana could help humans with Alzheimer's, but experiments in mice showed some effects.

Active Ingredient In Marijuana Reduced Alzheimer's-Like Effects In Mice

5:03pm November 07, 2018

by Jon Hamilton

In mice genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer's symptoms, those given a synthetic version of a chemical in marijuana retained normal memory function.

Getting people of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds into clinical trials is not only a question of equity, doctors say. It's also a scientific imperative to make sure candidate drugs work and are safe in a broad cross-section of people.

Language Barrier Means Millions Of Elderly Can't Access Alzheimer's Trials

2:57pm October 31, 2018

by Josh Eibelman

In the U.S., Alzheimer's clinical trials are largely limited to fluent English speakers, which leaves millions of patients without the opportunity to participate and scientists without diverse data.

"Democrats call it 'Medicare-for-all' because it sounds good, but in reality, it actually ends Medicare in its current form," Speaker of the House Paul Ryan asserted in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 8.

GOP Revives Medicare Scare Tactics As Election Nears

1:35pm October 30, 2018

by Julie Rovner

Democrats are hammering Republicans over their efforts to eliminate insurance protections for pre-existing conditions. Republicans are telling seniors their Medicare coverage may be in danger.

A major study published Monday finds that widely prescribed antipsychotic drugs like haloperidol are no more effective than a placebo for treating delirium.

Antipsychotic Drugs Don't Ease ICU Delirium Or Dementia

4:59pm October 22, 2018

by Richard Harris

Though widely prescribed in hospital intensive care units to treat hallucinations and other signs of delirium, Haldol and similar drugs are no better than a placebo for such patients, a study finds.

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