In 2011 the first of the baby boomer generation reached retirement age of 65. This milestone has received a lot attention – but the impact that this transition is and will continue to have on caregivers is just now coming into focus.  A recent CNN article reviews the impact that this rapidly growing aging population will have on caregivers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Aging found that by 2030, the amount of Americans approaching retirement age will practically double. The number of caregivers is sure to rise dramatically as nearly 72 million adults enter retirement.

Adult children are making the inevitable transition into caregivers of their elderly parents. The burden of caregiving can be incredibly stressful and overwhelming. In fact, a survey by the American Psychological Association found that “55% of caregivers reported feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand.” ­­­

In another recent survey, it was found that “Americans caring for aging and chronically ill relatives reported higher levels of stress, poorer health and a greater tendency to engage in unhealthy behaviors to alleviate stress than the population at large.”

Many caregivers devote themselves to their loved ones and end up neglecting themselves as a result. “It’s easy to neglect yourself when you try to be all things to everyone else, but something has to give and it catches up with you,” said caregiver and psychologist Fran Walfish.

Caregivers are often reluctant to ask for help because doing so means admitting that they aren’t able to handle it all on their own. “People feel a lot of pressure, especially in this economy, to not complain or set limits for themselves,” said Walfish. But not asking for help can lead to physical or psychological reactions including heart attack and depression.

Now, more than ever, caregivers need services, such as technology automation, better communication, and support that will allow them to take care of themselves as well as their loved ones.

According to a recent article by The Republic, state officials in Ohio are working to alter the way that health care services are distributed to the 190,000 Ohioans who are both Medicaid and Medicare recipients in order to offer dual eligible individuals a single point of coordination.

Before officials move forward with the proposed changes highlighted in the draft proposal, released Tuesday, January 10, 2011 by Governor John Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation, plans have been made to collect feedback from health care providers, dual enrollees, and relevant advocate groups. They will use this feedback to create a final plan that will then be submitted to federal officials for approval.

Medicaid offers coverage to the poor though state and federal funding, while Medicare supports the elderly and disabled. Medicaid services often include payment for long-term care services, while Medicare will cover costs related to doctor and hospital visits.

Essentially, there is no coordination of care between Medicaid and Medicare. The two systems function independently of each other. According to state officials, insufficient coordination of care has led to “long-term care, behavioral and physical health services being poorly coordinated.” Resultantly, dual eligible individuals end up with worse health outcomes, which inevitably cost the system more.

Greg Moody, Director of Governor Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation, explains that, “As a person moves from one environment to another, there’s nothing about these programs that kind of keeps track of that.”

State officials know that it is this lack of communication that can lead to more costly health services.  For example, “a patient could be discharged from the hospital to a nursing home, instead of less costly, home-based care, because the two programs aren’t talking to each other in the same setting.”

Officials envision the future system operating quite differently. The state will contract with an organization, like an area agency on aging or hospital, to act as a single point of contact. This should help make the system easier to navigate for patients and providers alike.

The initiative will focus on keeping people healthy in addition to treating sickness.

To read more about the proposal in The Republic article, click here.

Effective January 1, 2012, CMS mandated that all HIPAA-covered entities and their business associates were required to switch to HIPAA 5010. Failure to comply with the HIPAA 5010 requirement means agencies and/or providers might not be paid for their services and risk non-compliance penalties from CMS.

Needless to say, this deadline has caused many a sleepless night for many organizations working to be up and running on 5010 before the deadline.

Harmony is pleased to announce that Harmony Financial Management has passed all testing and certification requirements for 5010 HIPAA. Congratulations to all of our Financial Management customers in making the successful transition to 5010 with us!

Congress approved a 2012 budget that leaves many in the aging services community disappointed and concerned about their ability to care for an increasingly aging population with limited funding.  A recent Forbes article, “The Slow Starvation of Senior Services” provides a sobering view of the impact aging services will see as a result of this new budget and highlights the areas in aging services that will take the biggest brunt of the budget cuts (Center for Elder Abuse, the ombudsman program, Meals on Wheels and Eldercare Locator, just to name a few).

The reality we face in this country is that the population is aging at an unprecedented rate.  Services to help this aging population are in greater demand than ever and resources are dwindling.  For aging services organizations, the only way to meet this skyrocketing demand is to secure more funding from different funding sources (a difficult task as funding becomes more and more scarce) and/or to do more with less.

Leveraging technology to automate manual, time-consuming tasks is more important than ever for aging services organizations to increase efficiencies and to provide high quality care to this fast growing demographic.  Leveraging technology solutions that minimize the manual, time-consuming efforts of managing caseloads, service delivery and payment processing will enable organizations to do more with existing resources and meet the demand for high quality long term supports and services.

Harmony was pleased to be among the Mid Atlantic Deloitte Fast 500 winners who rang the bell at the NASDAQ Stock Market closing yesterday.   Congratulations to all of the companies recognized among the fastest growing companies in the country this year!

Harmony Joins Mid Atlantic Fast 500 Winners to Ring the NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 programs recognize the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in North America and Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific. The program covers all areas of technology and includes both public and private companies.

A recent article by Detroit Free Press explored the lifestyles and common traits of people 100 and older. The centenarian population in the United States is growing and is expected to continue to grow as the baby boomers age and medical care advances.

While increasing numbers of Americans are expected to live to 100 or older, the current life expectancy in the United States is 78.2. So why is it that some people reach the ripe age of 100 and others do not? Scientists have found several interesting correlations related to long life spans including: genetics, the ability to handle stress better than others, the absence of obesity, and a very limited or nonexistent history of smoking.

Women are more likely to reach centenarian status. The Gerontology Research Group’s list of the world’s oldest people –110 and older — is comprised of 5 men and a whopping 74 women. While more research is needed to determine why women seem to have such an advantage over men, a popular theory credits the chromosomal makeup of women. Another fascinating trait connecting many women who live to 100 or older is giving birth after the age of 35.

As the number of centenarians will continue to increase, further accommodations will have to be made to ensure these “rock stars of aging” have the means to continue. Most people do not plan for a financial future beyond 70 or 80 and this has already caused significant problems. The Area Agency on Aging 1B in Michigan (a Harmony customer) already has a waiting list for services with the fastest growing in need group being those 85 and older.

Quality of life often declines as people age and lose mental and physical capabilities and strength. “It’s not easier growing older” stated Lynn Peters Adler, founder of the National Centenarian Awareness Project, but “this generation of centenarians is healthier and more active than past generations.”

To read more about centenarians, read the Detroit Free Press article here.

A recent article by the Atlanta Journal Constitution highlighted the role of Medicaid as the last resort option for paying for long-term care for seniors in Georgia and across the United States. Even as the last resort option, Medicaid exists as the number one funding source for long-term care services in the nation, paying for more than 40 percent of nursing home services, according to research from Boston College.

Medicare supports seniors 65 and older by paying medical costs, but it does not cover nursing home care. While most private long-term care plans do cover nursing home entry, only a small minority of seniors hold such coverage.

With the average cost of nursing homes at $80,000 a year, most seniors bankrupt themselves trying to pay before eventually turning to Medicaid for support. Many seniors receive funding from Medicaid, but countless seniors are denied funding. In the state of Georgia, for example, Medicaid pays for nearly 28,000 seniors’ nursing home costs, yet of the 2,200 Medicaid applications they receive each year, more than 40 percent are denied.

The cost of Medicaid strains state budgets and taxpayers alike, and the strain will only be exacerbated by the rising cost of the senior population. As the baby boomers age, growing numbers of seniors will look towards Medicaid for long-term payment support but large numbers will be turned away.

One suggested solution for addressing the problem of the high cost of Medicaid and long-term care is to expand Medicaid dollars to pay for home- and community-based services, as home- and community-based care costs significantly less than that of institutional care. Analysts also predict that advances in technology will help to improve the level of care that seniors can receive at home, decreasing the cost of long-term and institutional care.

You can read the full story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution here.

Not for Profit Exchange, a weekly radio show focused on connecting profit and non-profit worlds, featured an interview with Harmony’s very own John Byer, Vice President of Business Development, about the impact technology can have in improving long-term care for seniors, families and the community on this week’s show.

The show’s hosts, Adriane Berg and Pat Bohse, covered several different topics with John including a discussion about the issues facing long-term care right now, the strain that long-term care places on seniors and the families caring for them, ways technology can be leveraged to optimize current resources to offer better care for the increasing senior population, and Harmony’s role in helping to expand home- and community-based services.

In addition to hosting this weekly radio show, Pat Bohse is also the manager for the New Jersey Association of Area Agencies on Aging (NJ4A). She discussed the progress NJ has made in embracing technology to accelerate home- and community-based services.

John continued the discussion by highlighting Harmony’s role in working with state and local agencies and private service providers to rebalance care from institutions to home and community-based care, thus helping aging and vulnerable adults receive the care they need in the comfort of their own homes.

Catch the complete interview here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/notforprofitexchange/2011/11/01/not-for-profit-exchange.

This September, New Jersey submitted a 160-page Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in an attempt to lessen the rising costs of its Medicaid program and to reduce the need for institutions.

One major avenue for lowering Medicaid costs will be by keeping the elderly and people with disabilities out of nursing homes and in their communities, which is overwhelmingly the preferred option for patients and will ultimately save taxpayers money. “Home and community-based care costs about a third of institutional care,” stated Valerie Harr, Director of the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services for the New Jersey’s state Medicaid program. The most significant savings, according to Harr, will be avoiding placement in an institution at all.

Other states have filed waivers with the federal government in order to make small adjustments that help to reduce costs while keeping patients at home longer, like offering wheel chair ramps and other accommodations that allow patients to stay at home. Changes like these highlight the benefit of increased preventative care measures and “often patient admissions are the result of a lack of adequate healthcare being provided preventatively,” stated Michael Scarbrough, Senior Vice President of Amerigroup. A huge opportunity to reduce costs, Scarbrough said, is avoiding that “$30,000 to $40,000 admission to the hospital: that can pay for a lot of care.”

To read more about New Jersey’s Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver, read the NJ Spotlight article here.

The Administration on Aging (AoA) announced plans to fund the first national adult protective services resources center. The AoA plans to award the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) nearly $200,000 to establish the first ever national adult protective services resource center to help prevent and respond to elder and vulnerable adult abuse.

Currently, adult protective services (APS) agencies exist at the state and local levels and while all share the goal of insuring the safety and well-being of elders and adults with disabilities, every agency operates uniquely. A national, federally-funded adult protective services resource center will establish evidence-based best practices in the field with the intention of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of APS services. The national resource center will also compile relevant research and information and provide technical support for state and local APS agencies.

The benefits of a national resource center will likely not go unnoticed as recent reports from APS agencies indicated a need for the development of best practices for programs and interventions and for improved investigation and response methods.

The AoA sees the national resource center as a way to unite and empower the state and local APS agencies, but more importantly as a way to further protect vulnerable adults and seniors from abuse and neglect.

To read more about the AoA grant to create a national adult protective services resource center, click here.