Will Wisconsin Be A Health Care Bill Mainland Or An Under Served Island?

Will Wisconsin demonstrate an evolved focus and establish the infrastructure needed to help facilitate an updated health care system?   This is what is now needed for Wisconsin citizens to benefit from the Health Care Bill.

On February 24, 2009 in a joint session of Congress the President of the United States defined the need for the health care system in America to be updated.

On November 7, 2009 The House of Representatives passes The Health Care Bill.

On December 24, 2009 The Senate passes The Health Care Bill.

On February 25, 2010 The President of the United States explains The Health Care Bill to both parties using a televised meeting.

On March 23, 2010 The President of the United States signs the Health Care Bill in to law.

On November 24, 2011 The Supreme Court agrees to hold a hearing on the legal challenge to The Health Care Bill.

On June 28, 2012 The Supreme Court records the decision to uphold the Health Care Bill. 

Wisconsin has an opportunity to transcend political posturing and organize systems of health in accordance with today's  health care law.  Supporting a clear legal directive will help health care providers reduce gaps and fragmentation in the local service areas.  Increased numbers of Wisconsin citizens accessing health insurance policy as a form of guarantee payment will strengthen health care providers ability to maintain service state wide.  The State Of Wisconsin insurance industry will serve larger numbers of users.  Lets watch and see what Wisconsin will do.

Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com is a leading senior care provider serving south central Wisconsin.  Services include:
-in home staffing and help with ADL's and IADL's
-inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
-transitional counseling when a more structured service is needed
-temporary help with a scheduled day surgery
-down sizing home contents when stuff matters
-communicating face to face on the computer across long distances
Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule an in home interview.  2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.  We accept long term care insurance.  Email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com We can be there when you are working.  Valuing home and human life.

Pets Are Family Too

Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com knows animals are more than just companions for the home.  Pets are family.  Pets help keep us healthy and well. 

Plenty of research (Pets for the elderly foundation) demonstrates those who care for a pet tend to have better blood pressure values, less emotional depression, and a stonger sense of security.  Pet owners tend to need less visits to the medical clinic. 

Pets have been shown to help family's with the greif process when a loved one passes.  Elderly with pets tend to make friends easier. 

Just caring for an animal involves tasks that are healthy for seniors.  Animals tend to need daily help with walking, feeding, grooming, toileting, and benefit from lots of petting and playing.  All these tasks require action by the owner.  Pets can make daily acitivity fun. 

A trip to the vets office or to the pet park is a social outing for both the senior and the animal.  Pets are family and belong in our communities.

Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com is a leading senior care provider serving south central Wisconsin.  Services include:
-in home staffing with help for ADL's and IADL's
-inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
-transitional counseling when a more structured service is needed
-temporary help with a scheduled day surgery
-down sizing home contents when stuff matters
-communicating face to face on the computer across long distances
Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule an in home interview.  We accept long term care insurance.  Email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com Valuing home and human life.  2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.  We can be there when you are working.

Walgreens Becomes Worlds Largest Buyer Of Prescription Drugs

Walgreens has purchased 45 percent of the United Kingdom Health and Beauty products group Alliance Boots.  This includes an option for Walgreens to buy the rest of Alliance Boots in 2015.  Alliance Boots comes from Boots, and English Company since the 1800's merger with Swiss Company Alliance Unichem in 1996 to make Alliance Boots.

Combining two recognized brands with a retail foot print measurable in both large and small communities allows Walgreen's time to focus on procurement expertise. 

Walgreens is now the worlds largest buyer of prescription drugs.  The worlds largest buyer of prescription drugs has the best opportunity to negotiate purchase contracts for individual drugs at a reduced expense. 

Prescription drug purveyors will be challenged to meet Walgreens offer to have access to this large wholesale, retail, and institutional distribution network.

Lower prescription drug investment means larger consumer market share.  Money saved on medications can be spent on the many Walgreens health, food and beauty products.

Home Care Path is a leading senior care provider serving south central Wisconsin.  Services include:

-in home staffing to help with ADL's and IADL's
-inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
-transitional counseling when a more structured service is needed
-temporary help with a scheduled day surgery
-reducing home contents when stuff matters
-communicating face to face across long distances on the computer
Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule and in home interview.  We can be there when you are working.  Email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com 2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.  Valuing home and human life. We accept long term care insurance.

Tamara G. Fong Alzheimers Hospitalization Study

Back in 1984 the United States Congress directed the National Institutes Of Health and in particular The National Institute on Aging to pursue further research related to Alzheimers disease.  This recent study was conducted by MADRC Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in cooperation with funding from The National Institute on Aging.

The study is titled Adverse Outcomes After Hospitalization and Delirium in Persons With Alzheimer's Disease.  The famous study was published on line June 19. 2012 in Journal Annals Of Internal Medicine.  Researchers Tamara G. Fong, Richard N Jones, Edward R. Marcantonio, Douglas Tommet, Alden L. Gross, Daniel Hastemariam, Eva Schmitt, Liang Yap, Sharon K. Inouye. 

The study speaks to risk for institutionalization, progression of cognitive decline, and hastened death with hospitalizing an individual who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease.  The study talks about a group of symptoms providers call delirium.  Delirium is sudden and severe confusion.  Symptoms can include more anxiety, easily agitated, disorganized thinking, incoherent speech, searching.  The individual is unable to return to normal base level of function on their own. 

The community is beginning to see how a trip to the hospital includes all the ingredients for manifesting symptoms of confusion.  The individual is ill, possibly with a urinary tract infection.  In the emergency room the individual is asked many questions by different staff representing the involved departments.  The setting is unfamiliar.  The interventions seem akward (catheterization for urine sample) with no sense of a scheduled time. If the senior with Alzheimer's disease must stay the night, they are moved from emergency to a room on the med surg floor.  New staff, new environment, new questions. 

This challenges senior care providers to recognize the need for that stable staff person to follow the senior through the hospitalization process.  The staff who spend time helping the senior at home are now the familiar face in the unfamiliar place. 

This is especially challenging to payers.  Insurance providers have long considered an in home care provider accompanying a patient in to the hospital system a duplication of service.  Valid pay sources continue to separate this out, saying in the hospital the staff must deliver all the care of the patient.  This is no longer pragmatic practice when an individual with memory deficits requires a hospital stay.

Hospital staff can have some difficulty with a senior care staff accompanying the patient through the hospital process.  The hospital staff will tell the family that a sitter or escort will be available if needed.  It appears the senior with memory loss would most benefit from the company of the stable care giver during the hospitalization. 

Having the usual in home care giver accompany the senior to the hospital can help medical providers receive an accurate sense of what is occurring in the home.  The calming presence of a familiar face may reduce the seniors need for new prescription medications ordered to manage manifestation of undesired behaviors with increased confusion.  The senior has a better chance of receiving a discharge to home with less risk for readmission. 

Home Care Path www.homecarepath believes in accompanying seniors with a hospital stay.  Services include:
-in home staffing
-inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
-transitional counseling when a more structured service is needed
-temporary help with a scheduled day surgery
-down sizing home contents when stuff matters
-communicating face to face on the computer across long distances
Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule an in home interview.  Email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com We can be there when you are working.  2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.  We accept long term care insurance. Valuing home and human life.

Doctor Zorba Paster The Longevity Code On Alzheimer's

In the book The Longevity Code by famed author Doctor Zorba Paster is information helpful in better understanding Alzheimer's disease.  Doctor Zorba Paster describes Alzheimer's, senility or dementia as a permanent, progressive decline in intellectual function.  This limits the ability to process facts, memorize information, and appropriately act on it.  Over time it interferes substantially with a person's usual social and economic activity. 

Despite many theories, bio science does not have evidence to support a known cause for this disease.  Suggested theories include loss of viable cells in the cerebral cortex, fragmentation and disorganization with brain connections, and an increase in protein amyloid have been on the list of causes.

Preventive measures have been suggested as a way to lessen the progression and severity of the symptoms of the disease.  Suggestions include:
-aspirin a day to enhance and maintain adequate blood circulation
-avoid excessive alcohol consumption
-treat high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol
-have your thyroid checked (can effect memory function)
-avoid sports and activity that could result in a head injury or trauma
-keep learning, use your mind

Suggestions on this list are believed to help stall the progression of the Alzheimer's disease process.  Home Care Path  www.homecarepath.com staff have noted the benefit an individual can sense from having a predictable routine.  Managing change by reducing the seniors perception of outside stressors can help reduce the severety of symptoms. 

Home Care Path is a leading senior care provider serving south central Wisconsin.  Services include:
1. in home staffing for elders
2. inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
3. transitional counseling when a more structured service is needed
4. temporary help with a scheduled day surgery
5. communicating face to face across long distances on computer
6. reducing home contents when stuff matters
Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule an in home interview.  2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.  We can be there when you are working.  email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com Valuing home and human life.

HT 110 Form The Sound Of Assets Transferring In Wisconsin

An HT 110 Form is used in Wisconsin by persons entitled to receive non probate property of the deceased.  The deceased interest in non probate property could include:
-Real estate in Wisconsin
-Vendors interest in land contract
-Mortgagees interest in mortages
-Savings and checking accounts
-Securities

To submit the HT 110 Form in Wisconsin you will need three things.

1. The death certificate
2. Proof of joint tenancy, life estate, survivorship marital property, vendors interest, or mortagees interest
3. 25.00 for the Counties Register of Deeds.

Filing the HT 110 form in Wisconsin with the County Register of Deeds facilitates the transfer of non probate assets from the deceased to the entitled receiver.

Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com is a leading senior care provider serving south central Wisconsin.  Services include:
-in home staffing for elders
-inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
-transitional counseling when a more structured service is needed
-down sizing home contents when stuff matters
-help with scheduled day surgery
-communicating face to face on the computer across long distances

Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule an in home interview. 
Email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com
We can be there when you are working.  Valuing home and human life.  2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.

Observation Care Newest Strategy To Manage Risk

Hospitals that are Medicare and Medicaid certified continue to incorporate strategies to maintain the flow of revenue while managing the consumer populations risk to harm.  Even with advanced training and access to multiple diagnostic testing tools, predicting patient outcomes can be somewhat risky. 

Hospital staff are consistently challenged to comply with Medicare admission guidelines while assuring patient safety in a ever shortening frame of time.  Recall the number of Medicare eligible consumers continues to rise daily in the United States.  The medical industry currently encourages less time with the provider per patient as a way to address the increased usage.

When hospital staff  are treating a patient who's symptoms do not seem to completely meet Medicare admission guidelines, but clearly appears too frail to send home the person can be kept in the hospital under observational care.  The patient may spend the night in bed on the med surg floor, under the watchful eye of hospital staff. 

The hospital stay does not count toward the 3 day inpatient requirement to receive nursing home, rehab services.  Medicare part D drug plans often will not pay for drugs prescribed in the hospital.  Some hospitals will have policy that does not allow bringing drugs in.  So the patient may have to pay out of pocket at the elevated hospital rate for prescribed medications.

In defense of hospital staff, they are treating a patient that falls slightly short of Medicare admitting guidelines, but seems too frail to send home.  The hospital staff believe the person needs the help of an inpatient stay.  This is further complicated by patient return visits.  A patient sent home (discharged) and required to return shortly after for help for the same condition is not acceptable. 

The hospital documentation is reviewed by a utilization committee as part of the process for complying with Medicare and Medicaid certification guidelines.  The utilization committee may determine (with the advantage of knowing the outcome as time has lapsed) the patient should not have been discharged.  The utilization committee could also determine an inpatient hospital admission was not appropriate and the addmitting physician should be cited and the patient should be billed. 

The patient and accompanying family can always ask hospital staff if the admission is inpatient stay or observation care and how that will effect the patient.  Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com believes seniors and family should continue to become informed on treatment and care as it relates to their Medicare benefit. 

Home Care Path is a leading senior care provider serving south central Wisconsin.  Services include:
-in home staffing for elders
-inpatient advocacy for safe successful hospital stays
-transitional counseling when more structured servic e is needed
-help with scheduled day surgery
-down sizing home contents when stuff matters
-communicate face to face on computer across long distance

Simply call 608-432-4286 to schedule and in home interview.
 Email lkutzke@homecarepath.onmicrosoft.com  Valuing home and human life, we can be there when you are working.  2012 rates are 20.00 per hour.