GBO NEWS: 5 Reporting Fellowship Deadlines; 11th Legacy Film Fest; Employers’ Medicare (Dis)Advantage; Private Equity’s Sick Profits; Indian Immigrants’ US Golden Years; LGBTQ Back in Assisted Living Closet; Racism in Elders’ Med Research; NYC’s Asian Seniors; & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations.
December 23, 2022 — Volume 29, Number 14
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. If you have difficulty getting to the full issue of GBONews with the links provided below, simply go to www.gbonews.org to read the latest or past editions. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. [pfkleyman@gmail.com]. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, you’ll receive the table of contents in an e-mail, so just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities. NOTE ALSO: Some news links below hit paywalls and are inaccessible without subscriptions, although a number of those do allow free access to the first few stories.
In This Issue: ‘Tis days before Christmas and all through the nation, every creature is stirring with 24/7 consternation. GBONews.org wraps up 2022, in a week that’s proving a good news year: Bipartisan cheers, well deserved, for the man from Kiev, but also for a $1.7 trillion budget with funds for guns far outspending butter—health and shelter; the tripledemic raising masks again; four criminal “referrals” and a 1000 pages of evidence still shrugged off by millions as mere “partisanship”; and with earthquakes to the north of us, and the Great Blizzard to the east, no one is getting any younger. This final issue closes out GBONews Volume 29 with news we must still pursue, fellowship deadlines for reporters wishing to go in-depth, headlines with story links on themes from systematic failures to elevated spirits. With that, we move on to Volume 30–and bid all age-beat news hounds a Happy New Decade!
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: Deadlines for 5 Reporting Fellowships from USC Annenberg/Center for Health Journalism, Stanford Knight Journalism, U of Michigan’s Knight-Wallace, Harvard’s Nieman, Shorenstein Programs.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS: *** 11th Legacy Film Festival on Aging; *** Canada’s New Wrinkle Radio podcast; *** San Francisco Press Club’s 45th Awards Honors Generations Beat Stories.
3. GOOD SOURCES: *** Medicare Rights Center Report on Employers’ Shift to Medicare Advantage; ***Commonwealth Fund on Groundbreaking CMS-Approved Demonstration Projects;
4. THE STORYBOARD: 12 Tales from the 2022-23 Journalists in Aging Fellows – From “Working at 76: Inflation Forces Hard Choice for Older Adults,” by Anita Snow, Associated Press, to “The Golden Years of Indian Immigrants in America,” by Lavina Melwani, Khabar Magazine; to “How Racism Skewed Estimates of Heart Disease in Women,” by Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Science Magazine.
5. MORE STORYBOARD: *** “California at Forefront of Protecting Older Adults from Pandemic,” by Peter White, Ethnic Media Services;
*** “Many Nursing Homes Are Poorly Staffed. How Do They Get Away With It?” by Jayme Fraser and co-authors, USA Today;
*** “Sick Profit: Investigating Private Equity’s Stealthy Takeover of Health Care Across Cities and Specialties,” by Fred Schulte and multi-story project colleagues, Kaiser Health News;
*** “‘Impending Intergenerational Crisis’: Americans With Disabilities Lack Long-Term Care Plans,” by Sam Whitehead, California HealthLine;
*** Assisted Living Facilities Pressed to Address Growing Needs of Older, Sicker Residents,” by Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE:
*** USC Annenberg/Center for Health Journalism California Fellowship is for reporters pursuing in-depth stories on health and health equity issues. The application deadline is Jan, 13, 2023. The fellowship comes with a $2,000 stipend to defray reporting costs, intensive training at the USC Annenberg campus in March 13-17, and five months of professional mentorship.
Eligible are “California-based professional journalists (including freelancers and national correspondents with California-focused projects). We have accepted reporters in the past across all levels, from the smallest rural newspapers to national outlets.” Applicants should have at least three years of professional journalism experience.
The program gives preference to “reporters pursuing collaborative projects between mainstream and ethnic news outlets.” Among the wide range of project topics they list are systemic racism and root causes of health inequities; domestic violence as a public health issue, and social determinants of health.
USC Annenberg encourage interested journalists “to reach out to us ahead of time to discuss their project idea. To set up an appointment with our outreach consultant, please fill out this quick form.” Also, their see their Frequently Asked Questions page, or contact the USC Annenberg staff directly: editor@centerforhealthjournalism.org.
*** The John S. Knight (JSK) Journalism Fellowships for Stanford University’s 2023-2024 academic year are now accepting submissions for US applicants until Jan. 25, 2023. Twenty journalists will be selected from around the world, “who are able to step away from their professional obligations to focus full time on being a fellow on campus, exploring and testing ideas for addressing a problem in journalism,” according to their website.
This fellowship includes “a living stipend of $95,000, plus supplements to help with cost of living expenses. JSK provides an extra $6,000 for singles, $8,000 for couples, and $10,000 for families to help fellows pay their rent. In addition, fellows with children up through high school graduation receive an additional supplemental payment of $12,000. The fellowship also covers the cost of Stanford tuition for fellows and Stanford health insurance for fellows, spouses and children. JSK staff help fellows find rental housing near campus.” For details see JSK’s Become a fellow page. Follow @JSKstanford on Twitter for updates.
*** Nieman Fellowships, for Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation, have a Jan. 31, 2023 deadline for their US fellowship program. It comes with a stipend of $80,000 to cover expenses for the 2023-24 school year (two full semesters, or nine months) in Cambridge, Mass. Applicants may be freelancers, who “must be working journalists with at least five years of full-time media experience, or staff members.”
While at Harvard, says their site, “Nieman Fellows attend seminars, shop talks, master classes and journalism conferences designed to strengthen their professional skills and leadership capabilities, thereby helping to fortify the news industry itself.” They will chose 12 US journalists and another 12 international fellows.
Also, “Journalists and other professionals working in positions that support journalism, such as the business or technology departments of news companies, are welcome to apply for one of the foundation’s short-term Visiting Fellowships.” US and international candidates may also apply for the Nieman-Berkman Klein Fellowship in Journalism Innovation.
*** Applications for the Knight-Wallace Fellowships are open now until Feb. 1, 2023, for the 2023-2024 academic year at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Among the more prestigious fellowships, this one, established by the late UMich alumnus Mike Wallace, requires US applicants to spend the entire academic year there in residency, as they research their proposed projects.
Applicants must have at least five years of editorial experience “and be currently working in some aspect of journalism for a news organization or as an independent journalist. We are looking for a diverse range of journalists, including reporters, editors, data experts, visual journalists, audio producers, engagement specialists, designers, developers, entrepreneurs and organizational change agents.” Fellows are selected to represent “diversity of race, ethnicity, nationality, experience, journalism specialty, geographic region and type and size of news organizations.”
Typically, they chose 12 U.S. journalists, who are joined by six to eight international colleagues. “US finalists for our traditional fellowship are interviewed in April. International finalists are interviewed in February. Fellowships are awarded in early May.” The program starts in August with the beginning of the academic year. Inquire also about their compensation for the program, which is not (oddly) posted on their site or “FAQ” section, but has over the years been comparable to a decent newsroom salary.
*** Joan Shorenstein Fellowship at Harvard “to advance research in the field of media, politics and public policy and facilitate a dialogue among journalists, scholars, policymakers and students.” Eligible are “reporters, editors, columnists, producers, media business executives and related, with a minimum of 10 years of full-time experience either at professional news organizations or as a full-time freelancer (not including work completed as a university student).” Application deadline: March 15, for the Fall 2023 semester at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Mass. Fellows receive a stipend of $40,000 per semester, paid in monthly installments at the end of each month of their term. Travel, housing, and living expenses are not covered by the Shorenstein Center. (The deadline for the following Spring Semester, from February–May, will be Sept. 7.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** Movie Maven Sheila Malkind Announced the 11th Legacy Film Festival on Aging (LFFoA) will go virtual for the second time, Jan. 6-15, 2023. The San Francisco-based online festival will show 40 long and short films, most of them documentaries on themes of friendship, vitality, love, creativity, caregiving, longevity – and life’s end.
Some screened films will be accompanied by recorded interviews with filmmakers, such as Daniel Raim, director of 2021’s Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen, interviewed by LFFoA Film programmer, Sally Gelardin, EdD. The feature-length doc, narrated by Jeff Goldblum,
commemorated the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof’s dance from Broadway to the silver screen. Raim’s loving tribute to the film includes interviews with its director, Norman Jewison, a self-described “goy” (not Jewish); composer John Williams, who adapted the original Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick score; actors and others reflecting on the movie’s lasting legacy as what The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael called “the most powerful movie musical ever made.”
LFFoA is the only collection of features and short films to show aging in its full range of lived experience, while also avoiding the usual Hollywood tropes of “bucket-list” adventures by superannuated stars. GBONews readers may recall that this editor spent several years on the festival’s board or directors. This year I’ll gladly buy a festival pass and look forward to viewing what the current board came up with.
For more information, including trailers for most films, click legacyfilmfestivalonaging.org. Contact: Sheila Malkind, MA, MPH, at info@legacyfilmfestivalonaging.org, 415/515-2708.
*** Sally Chivers is bringing a new wrinkle to Canadian senior media, especially for women, with her new podcast, Wrinkle Radio. Her introductory episode, titled “The Power of Greyscale,” examines aging and ageism under the maple leaf. For instance, the program examines Canadian TV’s recent dropping of longtime anchor Lisa LaFlamme, which GBONews reported on in September. During the pandemic shutdowns, the 58-year-old newscaster let her hair grow grey, after which Bell Media didn’t renew her contract. Bell denied it acted with a grey-today-gone-tomorrow attitude.
A cofounder of Trent University’s Centre for Aging & Society, in Peterborough, Ontario (north of Toronto), Chivers is a professor of English, women’s and gender studies. She opens the initial 48-minute podcast with a charmingly self-effacing account of having completed her doctorate at 28 with a dissertation on aging, only to confront her own shock at spotting the first silver thread in her brunette hair: internalized age bias at its root. The new podcast also examines pop culture permutations of ageism, such as the “biopolitics and the New Woman,” the Dove and Wendy’s Canada #keepthegrey campaign, and the college professor’s dread of “aging before our students’ eyes.”
Wrinkle Radio is aired on https://voiced.ca/project/wrinkle-radio/, on https://www.spreaker.com/show/wrinkle-radio_1, and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other services. Chivers plans to post full transcripts, although not yet, on her website, www.sallychivers.ca. Her email is: wrinkleradio@gmail.com.
*** Generations Beat Stories Earned Kudos at the San Francisco Press Club 45th Annual Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards in several categories. Honors went to:
* Carly Stern, a Journalists in Aging Fellow, performed a “hat trick,” picking up three awards for stories with shared bylines in national media outlets. They include, (with Sharon O’Neal) “’Grandfamily’ Housing Caters to Older Americans Raising Children,” New York Times; (with Lena Felton and Ryan Bacic), “Long-term caregiving is crushing women’s finances: These states could chart a new path,” in The Lily (Washington Post’s multi-platform outlet targeting Millennial women); and (with Mollie Bryant and Sharon O’Neal) “Exploring the impact of housing insecurity and evictions on vulnerable communities,” The New York Times and Big If True podcast.
* Jaya Padmanabhan won for her former San Francisco Examiner column, “In Brown Type,” on a range of topics, such as “Domestic Violence Asylum Seekers.” Padmanabhan, also a Journalists in Aging Fellow, won for “The Desi Voter,” in India Currents, which she wrote with Meera Kymal and Ritu Marwah.
* Aditi Malhotra, won for “Mind games: A guide for keeping our cognitive abilities sharper as we age,” Diversity Woman magazine.
* Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari, were tapped for “Grandma Challenges Real Estate Giant In Early Test of New California Law,” KQED Public Radio.
How about you? Please drop us a note and a link to GBONews, if you or a colleague have been recognized for a story on or related to aging, so we can let other Gen Beatles around the country in on your reporting.
3. GOOD SOURCES
*** “New Report Examines Shift to Medicare Advantage by Large Employers that Offer Retiree Health Benefits,” by Lindsey Copeland, Medicare Rights Center (Dec. 8, 2022): A new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis examines the extent to which large employers that offer retiree health benefits are turning to Medicare Advantage (MA), the reasons why they are making this shift, and the implications for retirees and federal spending. Among the key findings:
- Currently, only 13% of large employers (200 or more workers) offer retiree health benefits. In 2022, half (50%) contracted with MA plans to provide that coverage—nearly double the share (26%) who did so in 2017.
- About 44% offered retirees no choice but to receive their health benefits through MA. As a result, those retirees are unable to choose Original Medicare (OM), unless they are willing to give up their retiree health benefits.
- A driving reason employers cited for offering retiree health benefits through MA contracts was to lower their own financial liability . . . “without terminating coverage or adopting other changes that more directly shift costs onto retirees.”
Unlike [Original Medicare] enrollees, people with MA are subject to narrow provider networks and utilization management tools that may limit or delay access to Medicare-covered services. Funneling more Medicare-eligible retirees into MA will likely drive up costs, as Medicare pays more for MA enrollees (including in group plans), on average, than for a similar beneficiary in OM.”
*** “CMS Approves Groundbreaking Section 1115 Demonstrations,” by Mary Lipson and Cindy Mann, Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog (Dec. 7. 2022): The writers, both of New York state’s nonprofit Manatt Health, explain, “Medicaid allows states to experiment with new ways of operating their programs and serving patients through what are known as Section 1115 demonstration waivers. Recently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved waivers in Arkansas, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon that seek to improve enrollment and address social drivers of health.” Some innovative features they describe including:
- Oregon’s plan to enroll children continuously in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program from birth to age 6 — the first state to try this.
- Massachusetts’ bid to provide 12 months of continuous coverage for people released from correctional facilities and 24 months of coverage for people without housing.
- Arizona and Oregon’s newly granted authority to pay for up to six months of rent for eligible individuals.
- All four states’ offer of nutrition-related assistance to enrollees.
They conclude, “To varying degrees, these waivers promise to transform coverage and care,” the authors write, “while also signaling to other states the types of waiver policies CMS is prepared to allow.”
For reporters covering health and long-term care issues, this short piece is a useful note on exceptions permitted for experimentation within the US health care system. “Waivers” can allow flexibility in otherwise rigid programs, such as by allowing Medicaid and Medicare funding streams to flow together allowing health care providers to order things like home meals or additional home assistance that normally would not be covered. These waivers are considered experimental and sometimes, when evaluations show they are successful—especially in cutting costs to a government system—they can be made permanent parts of Medicaid.
BACKGROUND: GBONews’ caveat is that no matter how effective these exceptions may be, even when established, barriers to securing a waiver for a state or community program may be so daunting that the best and most replicable innovation may linger in the corners of American health care for decades, only to be adopted spottily.
That is what happened, for instance, with the vaunted PACE programs. They began in the 1980s as one of four experimental waiver program modeling different approaches to more humane long-term care. An acronym for Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, PACE, which allows for the blending of Medicare and Medicaid funds. It grew out of San Francisco’s On Lok Senior Services, in Chinatown, to emphasize home-like continuing care for low-income older adults with skilled nursing and adult day care programs available as needed. The test programs took over a decade before PACE emerged as the federal government’s preferred project, as the other three faded or changed for various reasons. Although successful after three decades, there are only 148 PACE programs running 273 centers in 32 states.
It’s important for reporters to be aware of provisional projects such as these, but also to ask practitioners and administrators about what it may take for a program regarded as a “best practice” to be adapted more widely as an alternative to accepted channels of care. Who may benefit from delays in wider program adoption (follow the money), and ask what questions researchers are asking as they evaluate such waiver programs—based on better care or budgetary savings? That is, how do quality care and patient dignity weigh in a given program?
4. THE STORYBOARD
Tales from the 2022-23 Journalists in Aging Fellows:
*** “Working at 76: Inflation Forces Hard Choice for Older Adults,” by Anita Snow, Associated Press (Dec. 15, 2022):
The Lede: PHOENIX (AP) — Lenore Angey never imagined she’d have to go back to work at age 76. With an ailing husband and the highest prices she can remember for everything from milk to gasoline, the retired school lunch worker from Cleveland, Ohio, now works part time as a salesperson at a local department store to cover the costs of food and medicine. . . Inflationary pressures may be starting to ease, but higher prices throughout much of 2022 are still taking a toll on older adults.”
The Nutshell: “The problem will become more widespread in the coming years as more baby boomers, who began turning 65 in 2011, join the ranks of the retired. In 2050, the U.S. population ages 65 and over will be 83.9 million, nearly double what it was (43.1 million) in 2012, the Census Bureau projects. Angey was among participants in an AARP report released [in November] that showed more than a third of people 65 and older described their financial situation at midyear as worse than it was 12 months before. It was a huge jump from the 13% of adults 65 and older who said the same thing in January.
*** “The Golden Years of Indian Immigrants in America,” by Lavina Melwani, Khabar Magazine / LinkedIn / Diverse Elders Coalition December 2022): Dek: “Over 300,000 Indian seniors long for their cultural roots in their sunset years. Will they find them in a changing America? Here is a look at the varied retirement living arrangements chosen by Indian-American seniors.”
A Fact: “At a count of 4.8 million, Indian-Americans are the fastest growing community in America. . . . The Indian-Americans are not a homogenous group and their life circumstances can vary greatly depending on their station in life and their income. Racism, casteism/class, and invisibility that comes with being a minority have often been factors in the way their lives have panned out.”
*** “The Libraries Among Us,” by Ann Hedreen, 3rd Act Magazine (Dec. 13, 2022): The Lede: “Author Isabel Wilkerson is not one to waste words on small talk. ‘We are warehousing the crown jewels of our society,’ she declared, just a few minutes into her keynote address to the more than 3000 . . . attendees at the annual conference of the Gerontological Society of America. We are neglecting ‘the libraries among us,’ she went on. Wilkerson, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, spent 15 years gathering and preserving many of those stories in the course of researching and writing The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (2010). . . Wilkerson is also the author of Caste: The Origin of our Discontent (2020), a treatise on how racism in the United States is in reality the bedrock of a deeply entrenched caste system. At the GSA convention, Wilkerson spoke not only of the value the life stories told in The Warmth of Other Suns have had in contributing to the historical and cultural record, but the value those narratives.”
Related Research: “Deep in the GSA schedule, I found a symposium titled ‘On the Threshold: Creativity in Mid-Life,’ which included a presentation called “Arts and Creativity and Their Impact on Health and Well-Being: A Systematic Review of the Evidence,” by Roger O’Sullivan of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland. The Institute’s systematic review included studies of arts programs in 18 different countries involving more than seven thousand participants aged 50 to 94. What the reviewers found was that arts programs do indeed ‘advance public health’. . . Professor Carolyn Adams Price of Mississippi State University has been doing related research, into the value of what she calls ‘serious leisure’: a creative avocation that may have started as a hobby but has come to mean much more.”
*** “What Experts Say About Growing Old in America,” by Lois M. Collins, Deseret News (Nov. 10, 2022): The Lede: “The world is growing up and growing old. By 2050, between 10% and 43% of nations’ populations will be older than age 65. And America’s in the thick of it. The National Academy of Medicine sees aging as a critical challenge that will impact every country in the world, according to Dr. Linda P. Fried, a professor of medicine, director of the Age Boom Academy at Columbia University and dean of its school of public health. Societies thrive if people can age well, she said during a press briefing at the annual scientific meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, held in Indianapolis in early November.”
In a Nutshell: Fried’s been immersed in the issue of healthy aging worldwide as co-chair of the international commission that months ago released the “Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity.” The over-65 population has been the fastest-growing during the past century and within a few years — by 2030 — “for the first time in recorded history the old will begin to outnumber the young,” per the report. That report and the [Gerontological Society of America} scientific meeting carry similar messages about aging — both what could be hard and the rewards to be had.
*** “Access Assisted Living or Elder Care, Some LGBTQIA+ Older Adults Go Back Into the Closet,” by Claire Cleveland, Collective Colorado (Dec. 6, 2022): The Lede: “After living in the closet for more than 40 years, Cynthia Johnson [a pseudonym] left her marriage with her high school sweetheart and embarked on a new life. She started dating women, continued to pursue a career in ministry and learned to be on her own for the first time. Now, she’s 86 and largely back in the closet, ‘because I don’t trust how people are going to respond,” she said, “and they don’t need to know.’”
Research: Carey Candrian, PhD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, “points to findings from Harvard Medicine that LGBTQIA+ people can lose up to 12 years of their [life expectancy] due to the stress of living in an environment marked by stigma and structural discrimination. . . Nationally, there are estimated to be about 3 million adults over the age of 50 who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to SAGE, an advocacy and services organization for LGBTQIA+ elders. By 2030, the number is projected to more than double as the population of people over 50 continues to grow. In 2018, 60% of LGBTQIA+ older adults reported being concerned about how they will be treated in long-term care settings, according to a national survey of . . . by AARP. Additionally, 20% of LGBTQIA+ older adults are people of color who as a group face increased health disparities, higher levels of stigma and have experienced more LGBTQIA+-related discrimination than their white counterparts, according to SAGE.”
*** “How Racism Skewed Estimates of Heart Disease in Women,” by Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Science (Nov. 11, 2022): Dek: “People of color tend to ‘age’ faster, resulting in imprecise estimates of the timing of heart disease and diabetes.”
The Lede: “Growing up as a multiracial person in the United States, Alexis Reeves was no stranger to the impact of racial discrimination. She spent summer vacations with her father’s family in Pennsylvania, where her Black grandfather had worked as a sharecropper. Nearly everyone on that side of her family had high blood pressure, took cholesterol medication, or had experienced some form of heart disease. The reason, Reeves later discovered, was a phenomenon called ‘weathering.’ Just as water dripping on stone erodes rock over time, researchers have found the continual stress of racial discrimination wears down the bodies of minority populations. . . . “Weathering doesn’t just hurt people—it hurts the science that could help them. People of color often develop diabetes and heart disease at earlier ages than white populations, excluding them from research studies that track individuals over time.”
Findings: “The findings were surprising. Including these individuals lowered the average age at which women—regardless of race—experienced heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes by nearly 20 years. Black and Hispanic women who had been excluded because of menopause were also the most likely to already have diabetes or hypertension at the start of the study. Nearly one-quarter of all the newly included women had high blood pressure. . ..”
Related Stats: The new study’s findings are in line with previous work, which has found that people of color experience metabolic diseases at younger ages. A recent analysis of national data reported that, on average, white people are diagnosed with hypertension by age 47. The average age at diagnosis for Black people was 42, and Hispanic individuals 43. The chronic stress of social discrimination, environmental exposures, income inequality, and other aspects of systemic racism are thought to contribute to this disparity.
*** “Silver City: Happy 2023 with Historic Increase in Social Security,” by Peggy Sands, The Georgetowner (Nov. 28, 2022):
The Lede: “The day after Thanksgiving, the official news started posting in Social Security beneficiaries’ emails and postboxes. Social Security benefits will increase permanently by 8.7 percent starting January 2023. ‘That’s a big raise for more than 52 million retired Americans, and another 18 million who are survivors of covered workers or recipients of disability benefits or Supplemental Security Income,” writes Mark Miller, the New York Times columnist on retirement. . . . Social Security is especially important for women, because they tend to earn less than men, take more time out of the paid workforce, live longer, accumulate less savings, and receive smaller pensions.”
The Tax: “Social Security benefits are based on the earnings on which people pay Social Security payroll taxes. The higher their earnings (up to a maximum taxable amount of $160,300 – upped from $147,000 in 2022), the higher their benefit. Social Security benefits are progressive.”
*** “Feet Off the Gas: How to Help Patients Hang up Car Keys,” by Lara Salahi, Medscape (Nov. 28, 2022, paywall-blocked for non-subscribers):
The Lede: “Giving up driving is among the more traumatic events of old age — a loss of independence and a stark indicator that reflexes and reaction times aren’t what they used to be. Although family members often have to step in to help parents and relatives make the difficult decision, physicians have a role to play too. A decision aid can help older adults and their doctors make a more informed choice to hang up their car keys, a study presented at the Gerontological Society of America’s 2022 annual conference found.”
Salahi also posted, “How to Tell If Your Older Patients Are Binge Eating,” Medscape (Nov. 18, 2022) — The Lede: “Older women who binge eat may be at increased risk for8metabolic disorders such as diabetes and high cholesterol, according to research presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA 2022). According to the National Institutes of Health, 1. 6% of women in the United States have a binge eating disorder, which is defined as consuming large amounts of food while feeling loss of control.”
*** “Older Adults Face Medicare Hurdles for Substance Use Treatment,” by Jessie Hellman, CQ Roll Call (Nov. 30, 2022): The Lede: “For the staff at the Senior Recovery Center in Maplewood, Minn., helping older adults overcome substance use disorders is a calling, said Christine Martinek, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor there. . . . ‘Every day, I get phone calls saying, ‘My dad is 70 years old and he needs help.’ But he’s got Medicare, and you don’t know how many times I have to tell people that we can’t help them,’ Martinek said.”
The Nutshell: “For the 52 million Americans age 65 and older, Medicare is a lifesaver. . But for the growing number of older adults who need treatment for an alcohol or drug use disorder, the federal program falls woefully short, according to experts, advocates and medical groups.
The Stats: “At least 2 percent of Medicare beneficiaries 65 or older — about 1 million people — had a past-year alcohol or drug use disorder between 2015 and 2019, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in August. But only 6 percent received treatment. Of those who didn’t receive treatment, 38 percent cited financial barriers.”
*** “Need for Home Care Rising, But Caregivers Are Hard to Find in Rural WA,” by Paige Cornwell, Seattle Times (Aug. 22, 2022): The Lede: “About five years ago, as her mother’s hearing diminished and dementia worsened, Linda Brocklesby decided with her family that their mom could no longer live in California alone. Her children thought Washington state would be good — there were more relatives, and Brocklesby would move in. They settled on Sequim, in an area with new homes . . . looking at the mountains. The Clallam County city is often advertised as a prime place to retire; about a third of its roughly 8,000 residents are 65 or older.
In a Nutshell: “Brocklesby wanted to hire someone to come to their house and stay with her mom for a few hours so she could run errands or get a short break. But she and her family soon found themselves facing a similar issue as thousands of others in rural and isolated communities nationwide that are rapidly aging: More and more people need care, and fewer are available to provide it. . . . In rural areas, where about 1 in 5 of Americans 65 and older live, these services are less likely to be available compared with those in urban areas.”
*** “Senior living: How to Reduce the Risks of Falls in Older Adults,” by Elissa Lee (with Albert Jiang), Southern California News Group/Los Angeles Daily News (Aug. 15, 2022, story link blocked by paywall): The Nutshell: “One out of four, or 30 million, older adults fall every year in the United States — a leading cause of injury and premature death. The most common falls occur in the home, particularly in the bathroom, bedroom and stairs.”
In Fact: “A poll by the University of Michigan and AARP suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may have increased older adults’ risk of falling, as more than 37% of older adults reported less physical activity and 23% reported an increased fear of falling during the pandemic. The two are inversely correlated — those who did less physical activity feared falling more. Other studies have shown that the fear of falling seems to be as important as other factors, such as previous falls, in limiting older adults’ daily activities.”
*** “Community organizations actively launch mental health projects to help Asian elderly get out of the haze,” by Melody Cao, SinoVision (Aug. 12, 2022): The Lede: “Community organizations actively launch mental health projects to help Asian elderly get out of the haze. During the past two years of the Pandemic, New York City has experienced several waves of COVID infections, city lockdown, and economic downturns. . . . As people gradually recovered from the pandemic, senior centers also started to restore its services, as well as launch new programs related to mental health, to help Asian seniors rebuild their normal lives and reconnect to the society.”
The Nutshell: “Yuna Youn, Assistant Director of the Mental Health Clinic of the Korean Community Service Center (KCS), said that although many people are gradually returning to normal, the elderly are still under mental pressure. COVID and the feeling of unsafe locked the elderly in their house. ‘The issues that are impacting the community are still the same, you know, people being exhausted. So there is additional trauma from that.’”
The 2022-23 funders includes the Silver Century Foundation, John A. Hartford Foundation, Archstone Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and the NIHCM Foundation, plus a generous contribution from John Migliaccio.
5. MORE STORYBOARD
*** “California at Forefront of Protecting Older Adults from Pandemic,” by Peter White, Ethnic Media Services (EMS, Dec. 20, 2022): The story highlights EMS’ panel of health experts discussing strategies on how to protect seniors and those with disabilities at a recent Zoom news briefing hosted by EMS and the California Department of Aging. White’s piece includes short video snippets of the key speakers.
The Nutshell: “California’s greying population is surviving COVID a bit better than the national average. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, of the 1.1 million COVID deaths in the U.S. about 790,000 were people ages 65 and older. That group accounts for 16% of the total U.S. population but 75% of all COVID deaths to date. In California, 71.5% of COVID deaths were people 65+, according to [the state’s Department of Public Health], and that group makes up 15.6% of California’s population.”
*** “Many Nursing Homes Are Poorly Staffed. How Do They Get Away With It?” by Jayme Fraser and Nick Penzenstadler, with Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, USA Today (Dec. 1, 2022): The Dek: “President Biden has promised tougher standards, but USA Today found the government rarely enforces existing guidelines.”
The Lede: “Regulators have allowed thousands of nursing homes across America to flout federal staffing rules by going an entire day and night without a registered nurse on duty, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Nearly all of them got away with it: Only 4% were cited by government inspectors. Even fewer were fined. When other nursing home caregivers are added into the equation, one-third of US facilities fell short of multiple benchmarks the federal government has created for nurse and aide staffing.
What’s More: “Low-income residents, disproportionately people of color, fare the worst. Their nursing homes report the lowest staffing levels, but data show they seldom get in trouble because of it.”
Before Covid: “Charlene Harrington, one of the nation’s leading researchers on staffing levels and nursing home quality, said USA Today’s analysis probably underestimated how often facilities fell short because it used a conservative standard to measure care expected from nurses and aides. “What you’re looking at is the bare minimum,” said Harrington, a professor emerita at the University of California, San Francisco. And federal regulators have “not even been enforcing the bare minimum.” The problem existed long before COVID-19.”
*** “Sick Profit: Investigating Private Equity’s Stealthy Takeover of Health Care Across Cities and Specialties,” by Fred Schulte, Kaiser Health News (KHN, Nov. 14, 2022):
The Lede: “Two-year-old Zion Gastelum died just days after dentists performed root canals and put crowns on six baby teeth at a clinic affiliated with a private equity firm. His parents sued the Kool Smiles dental clinic in Yuma, Arizona, and its private equity investor, FFL Partners. They argued the procedures were done needlessly, in keeping with a corporate strategy to maximize profits by overtreating kids from lower-income families enrolled in Medicaid. Zion died after being diagnosed with ‘brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen,’ according to the lawsuit.”
The Nutshell: “Private equity is rapidly moving to reshape health care in America, coming off a banner year in 2021, when the deep-pocketed firms plowed $206 billion into more than 1,400 health care acquisitions, according to industry tracker PitchBook. Seeking quick returns, these investors are buying into eye care clinics, dental management chains, physician practices, hospices, pet care providers, and thousands of other companies that render medical care nearly from cradle to grave.”
The Package: “KHN, 2022 series has examined a range of private equity forays into health care, from its marketing of America’s top-selling emergency contraception pill to buying up whole chains of ophthalmology and gastroenterology practices and investing in the booming hospice care industry and even funeral homes. The latest story, published in USA Today, is “Patients for Profit: How Private Equity Hijacked Health Care” examines many of private equity’s forays into the health care system, such as marketing of America’s top-selling abortion pill, the establishment of “obstetric emergency departments” at some hospitals, investments in the booming hospice care industry and even takeovers of funeral homes and cemeteries. The series includes a video primer, “How Private Equity Is Investing in Health Care”.”
*** “‘Impending Intergenerational Crisis’: Americans With Disabilities Lack Long-Term Care Plans,” by Sam Whitehead, California HealthLine (KHN, Nov. 11, 2022):
In a Nutshell: “Experts say many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities do not have long-term plans for when family members lose the ability to help them access government services or care for them directly. Families, researchers, government officials, and advocates worry that the lack of planning — combined with a social safety net that’s full of holes — has set the stage for a crisis in which people with disabilities can no longer live independently in their communities. If that happens, they could end up stuck in nursing homes or state-run institutions.”
The Stats: “About one-quarter of adults in the U.S. live with a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly three-quarters of Americans with disabilities live with a family caregiver, and about one-quarter of those caregivers are 60 or older, according to the Center on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Kansas. But only about half of families that care for a loved one with disabilities have made plans for the future. . . , said Meghan Burke, an associate professor of special education at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Burke’s research has found several barriers to planning for the future.”
The System: Nicole Jorwic, of Caring Across Generations . . . , said the network of state and federal programs for people with disabilities can be ‘extremely complicated’ and is full of holes. . . ‘It’s really difficult for families to plan when there isn’t a system that they can rely on,’ she said. . . Medicaid pays for people to receive services in home and community settings through programs that vary state to state. But Jorwic said there are long waitlists. Data collected and analyzed by Kaiser Family Foundation shows that queue is made up of hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Even when people qualify, Jorwic added, hiring someone to help can be difficult because of persistent staff shortages. . . . Congress recently put about $12.7 billion toward enhancing state Medicaid programs for home- and community-based services for people with disabilities, but that money will be available only through March 2025. The Build Back Better Act, which died in Congress, would have added $150 billion, and funding was left out of the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law this summer, to the disappointment of advocates.”
*** Assisted Living Facilities Pressed to Address Growing Needs of Older, Sicker Residents,” by Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News, (KHN, Dec. 5, 2022): The Lede: “Assisted living communities too often fail to meet the needs of older adults and should focus more on residents’ medical and mental health concerns, according to a recent report by a diverse panel of experts.
The Nutshell: “Assisted living was meant to be a home-like setting where older adults could interact with other residents while receiving help with daily tasks such as bathing and dressing. But as the concept has become more popular, residents are now older and sicker than in the past, and a panel of experts is calling for more focus on their medical and mental health needs.”
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2022 JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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