The Affordable Healthcare Act is coming and it’s been widely reported that it will cut back on Medicare funding. This means that 20 percent of Ventura County, which is how vast our senior citizen community is, will be affected.
Ventura County Agency of Aging estimates that the current senior age population is hovering near 1 million, or more broadly 1 out of 5 people in the county are over 60 years of age. They are also the individuals who rely on Medicare for healthcare.
The new healthcare act, though, is pressing on Medicare to reduce its costs. This translates into shorter hospital stays, limited time available at skilled nursing facilities, and more care in the home. Since a hospital visit can easily cost four to five times as much as home health, Medicare will be forced to send patients home earlier – much earlier than they have been in the past years. If treatment can be done for a fraction of the cost outside the hospital, they’re likely to go with the cheaper option.
And the same is true for admissions. Patients that may have been previously admitted for non-serious cases of dehydration, and constipation will be given alternative care. So, it’s a mixed bag – forcing Medicare to be more prudent with their expenses but also limiting their ability to provide extensive hospital, hospice, or nursing care to an elderly patient.
Why is this happening? We have a demographic dividend.The aging population has been increasing steadily. However, the population that’s paying into Medicare is not as vast. Imagine one million people feeding the costs of 3 million individuals using Medicare services. It’s a lopsided equation. And that’s why cuts have been ordered. The changes have already started taking place and are going to become more pronounced for the healthcare community as we head towards 2014.
But, if we move away from the partisan chatter on this and start looking at what does this really mean for our senior citizens, there are some important steps we, as adult children, can take to make sure that our aging parents get the best care possible.
First, start doing research as early as possible. So, if a parent has been admitted into the hospital. Start looking ahead at the next week or two – where will they be going next? And after the Medicare-funded services have expired, will they have a caregiver at home or will they be admitted to an assisted living facility? Why? Because the hospital will be kept as short as possible to keep costs low. That may segway into home health or a skilled nursing care. But even that will be kept to a minimum as home health agencies will have to justify visits to Medicare.
So, get online and start researching. While a discharge planner at the hospital or a doctor may assign you to one of the many home health and non-medical home care companies, do your own homework.
For home health, look for the company to have a CHAP-accreditation and a Medicare license. There are also ratings instituted by governing agencies; look into those to ensure that the company meets all these criteria and has a solid record of delivering care.
For non-medical home care, it’s a bit more tricky. Since caregivers are privately paid and not funded by Medicare, there isn’t a single regulatory agency overseeing their activity. That means you can have “fly by the night” companies. Google them. Look at organizations such as the Ventura County Healthcare Association (VCHA) that can advise on where to go for caregivers. Lastly, don’t be scared to just get on the phone and start asking the basics: how many times will the caregiver be at the house, how long will he/she be there, what kind of caregiver will be provided?
Do the homework earlier because these decisions will have to made faster, given the limited resources. It can also translate into better, more effective care – if you’ve empowered yourself with this information early on.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.