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(FORUM) Medicare, Private Sector Can Collaborate to Improve Healthcare Quality, Cut Costs, Experts Say
    Medicare has the potential of playing a powerful role in partnership with the private sector in shaping healthcare reform, two experts tell participants at the at a March 10 session of the National Policy Forum of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
03/10/2010 4:26 PM

(FORUM) Despite Protest, AHIP Panelists Optimistic About Reform
    Although an anti-health-insurance-industry demonstration led by the AFL-CIO filled an entire block March 9 outside the hotel where the National Policy Forum of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is being held in Washington, DC, the speakers on the first day of the two-day meeting were quite upbeat about the outlook for making progress on genuine healthcare reform.
03/10/2010 4:21 PM

(SLEEP) New Guidelines Emerge for Treatment of Sleep Disorders in the Elderly
    A groundbreaking report from the American Geriatric Society (AGS) finds that clinical intervention for sleep disorders in older adults can successfully treat or improve the quality of sleep in most cases. The guidelines, a first-of-its-kind addressing specifically sleep disorders in the elderly, show a distinct relationship between sleep and other factors such as illness and medications.
03/10/2010 3:47 PM

(SURVEY) Americans Want Congress to Protect Social Security At All Costs
    With the approach of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act this summer, a National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) survey finds that 88% of Americans believe Social Security is more important than ever, especially for older people who need it the most, even if it means paying higher taxes. Of the nearly 1,500 people polled, 90% want Congress to act within the next two years to ensure Social Security benefits continue.
03/09/2010 2:32 PM

(SOCIAL SECURITY) Benefit Checks Now Subject to Debt Collection by Feds
    Social Security checks could soon start getting smaller for tens of thousands of older Americans thanks to a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill. The provision in question lifts the 10-year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans -- for which the statute of limitations was lifted in 1997 -- and income taxes, where the limit remains 10 years.
03/09/2010 1:19 PM

(GRANTS) CDC To Divvy Up $3.8M for SIPS Competitive Supplements
    The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is seeking applicants for its Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Centers (PRC): Special Interest Project Competitive Supplements (SIPS) program. CDC intends to divvy up some $3.8 among 50 applicants -- all of which have previously applied for and have been selected as Prevention Research Centers under CDC Program Announcement DP-09-001. Letters of intent are due by March 20. The deadline for applications is April 20. Funding awards are expected to be released Sept. 30.
03/08/2010 3:56 PM

(OUTREACH) 'Deputization' Can Enhance Capacity of Aging Services Agencies
    The current economic downturn has created an even more compelling case for enrolling eligible seniors in public benefits such as the Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) Medicare Part D prescription drug program. Indeed, community-based organizations can play an important role in that process, finds a just-released study by the National Council on Aging's National Center for Benefits Outreach & Enrollment.
03/08/2010 10:59 AM

(INVESTIGATIVE REPORT) AP Story Wrongly Elevates Number of Poor Elderly, Says Commerce Dept.
    The U.S. Department of Commerce is angrily refuting a claim made earlier this week in a report by the Associated Press that the number of elderly Americans in poverty is expected to double under a new formula being devised by the Census Bureau. The AP made the extraordinary assertion Tuesday (March 2) in an article that has since been distributed to and reprinted by thousands of U.S. and international news outlets.
03/05/2010 11:21 AM

(FORUM) Achieving Productive Aging Society Seen as 21st Century Challenge
    Scott Bass, provost of American University in Washington, DC, and founder of the gerontology program at the school, tells an Urban Institute (UI) forum March 4 it is time to establish a National Commission for a Productive Aging Society.
03/04/2010 3:57 PM

(SENATE) Association Blasts Measure Denying Emergency Aid for Seniors
    In a late evening vote on Wednesday (March 3), the Senate rejected two measures to provide an emergency benefit of $250 to seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities as a way of offsetting the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment in their 2010 Social Security benefits. Both amendments, part of the Tax Extender Act of 2009, would have provided nearly 57 million people economic aid to assist in rising healthcare and living costs.
03/04/2010 1:10 PM