Senior Hospital Visits Aren’t Always Covered Under Medicare An elderly person has a health scare and his family takes him to the hospital. After a few tests, the doctor states that the patient needs to spend a few days in the hospital. He stays for a few days, receiving the typical care and treatment, and the doctor discharges him when he believes he can safely return home. So far, so good, but a few days later a surprising piece of mail arrives: it’s a bill for the hospital stay, including the drugs that were administered by hospital staff. Surely there... View Article
Memory Lapses May or May Not Predict Dementia No one is a bit surprised when a dear elderly relative forgets where she left her reading glasses. It’s perfectly understandable when a senior can’t recall the name of a distant relative who lives in another town at a family holiday gathering. There are other times, however, when a memory lapse sends up red flags in the minds of family members—having a hard time saying the name of a son or daughter, for example, or repeating a story that was told just a few minutes ago. We don’t want to overreact in... View Article
Should Patients Have More Control Over their Medical Care? Most of us stand in awe of our doctor. He peers into our ears, listens to our heartbeat, shines lights into our eyes, asks us a few questions, and somehow knows what is going on inside our body. We watch him do all this with the anxiousness of someone watching a mechanic check out their car’s engine, a machine that is a complete mystery to its owner. When the doctor hands us his diagnosis and a prescription, it barely crosses our mind to question whether he’s positive he has come up... View Article
Senior Drug Misuse Problems Often Go Unnoticed Almost every one of us has a senior in our lives who probably would not be alive if not for prescription drugs. From cholesterol control to blood pressure regulation, medications are able to help with many of the most serious health threats that face the elderly. But any force as powerful as that has a number of hidden dangers, and tragically some of those dangers have remained hidden for years. Some experts in the medical field are now publicizing their concerns that prescription misuse is actually hurting seniors to a greater degree than... View Article
New Effort Aims to Fight Elder Abuse There are lots of things that seniors and their families can do to make it harder for scammers, thieves, and crime rings to steal money from them. As the first line of defense, family members need to step in when their elderly loved one begins to show signs of cognitive impairment, which leaves him vulnerable to fast-talking con men. But far more help is needed, according to experts in the field, and soon it may be on the way. A pair of senior advocacy groups are creating a program that would get lawyers... View Article
