Navigating the chaos inside our garage this winter, I stumbled on a box brimming with artifacts from my 40-odd years as a Washington journalist. Staring back at me was the cover of one of those blue-ribbon commission reports, the kind that are collecti… Continue reading
As Dr. Ann Hwang of the health care advocacy nonprofit Community Catalyst has written on Next Avenue, research studies show that older adults who volunteer are less likely to have high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. They face a lower risk of… Continue reading
(An update on the following Next Avenue story, which appeared in March 2019) On June 3, 2019, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) released a report called Families’ and Residents’ Right to Know: Uncovering Poor Care in America’s Nursing … Continue reading
The first two federal safety net programs, Social Security and Unemployment Insurance, will turn 65 next year. This historic milestone is being preceded by a new focus from the new Congress on how the government’s safety net programs are performing and… Continue reading
An increasing number of Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias has put families through heartache, cost hundreds of millions in health care expenses and turned millions of spouses, adult children, friends and neighbors into un… Continue reading
Legislation wending its way through Congress and a recent Government Accountability Office report may lead the way to boosting Social Security benefits for America’s poorest retirees. The mechanism: adjusting the formula for Social Security’s annual Co… Continue reading
(This piece was originally published by the Association of Health Care Journalists and is being republished with permission.) Despite the partial government shutdown, some wheels in Congress keep turning. Among them, the bipartisan BOLD Act (Building O… Continue reading
Years ago, when Terry Fulmer was a nurse working in a hospital, she often had the same thought as she discharged an elderly patient: “I wished I could call a public health representative and say ‘I’m sending this person home – they will not do well. Ca… Continue reading
Many of the 67 million Americans on Medicaid — mostly old and poor — can least afford to ping pong from one hospital visit to another either physically or emotionally. Yet that’s exactly what often happens, due to their chronic conditions, sometimes co… Continue reading
After the pivotal midterm election, we all look for hopeful signs of policy initiatives to come. The return to divided government can result in short windows of opportunity for bipartisanship. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secr… Continue reading