CAREGIVING CONCERNS

GRIOT Circle aims to keep members informed and equipped with handy toolkit on caregiving topics, developments.  Feel free to add your experience and opinion to discussions on caregiving and contribute to a list of qualified caregivers you would refer to others.  This promises to be one of the most active and exciting sections of our blog.

>>  BETTER WAY TO FIND HOME CARE AIDES   (Click headline to read full article)  Ms. Haynie comes to their home 81 hours a month at $10.20 an hour, a rate negotiated by the union representing public home care workers in Oregon and a huge bargain for state taxpayers, compared with any kind of institutional care. Clients who pay privately for home care can also use the registry, free of charge.

>> FOUND: DOCTORS WHO TAKE MEDICARE  (Click headline to read full article)   Were significant numbers of doctors bailing out of Medicare, the nation’s largest health insurer?  Dr. Tara Bishop and two colleagues tried to answer the question by analyzing data from a National Center for Health Statistics survey of 4,112 physicians practicing in private, nonhospital offices and accepting new patients from 2005 to 2008. They’ve published their findings in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

>>  ELDER CARE SPECIALISTS: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY   (Click headline to read full article)     We face a shortage of all kinds of health care professionals with expertise in treating older patients, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine.  Indeed, most counties in the United States have no geriatricians practicing within their borders.