Integrating Health Care and Long-Term Care

Excerpt from Forbes.com: (click for entire article)

Let me tell you about Frank. At 86, he has heart disease, diabetes, and kidney failure. He lives at home but struggles with the 16 medications he must take every day. He could also use some social support–maybe an adult day program, help shopping, or just somebody to keep him company.

What Frank needs most of all is somebody who can help organize all of his medical and personal care. It is complicated and much more than he can manage on his own. And when things go wrong, Frank lands in the hospital. Three times in just the past few months–with a fall, an infection, and with breathing problems.

His Medicare pays for doctor visits and all those drugs. Because he is very poor, also receives Medicaid, which provides him with a home health aide for a few hours, five days a week. Medicaid is the joint federal/state insurance program for low-income people that has become the nation’s biggest payer of long-term care services.