The Wisconsin Office of the Governor has just announced that Governor Jim Doyle has approved $3.8 million in transportation awards to provide transport services to the elderly and disabled throughout the state.
More specifically, Governor Doyle approved 26 awards totaling $3,790,385 in state and federal funds that will help purchase specialized transit service vehicles to assist elderly and disabled individuals throughout the state over the next two years.

The funds are being distributed through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Elderly and Disabled Transportation Capital Assistance program.  The grants assist nonprofit organizations and local governments by covering up to 80 percent of the costs of specialized vans and buses used to meet the daily transportation needs of elderly and disabled state residents.

“This federal, state and local partnership provides essential transportation services that greatly enhance the quality of life for our elderly and disabled citizens,” Governor Doyle said. “This is another example of our ongoing efforts to support public safety and economic growth through strategic investments in our comprehensive transportation system.”

To learn more about the investment Wisconsin is making to aid their elderly residents by providing transportation systems, you can read the Governor’s official announcement here.

According to a national study which tried to measure the relationship between long-term care policies and costs, fewer states offer more Medicaid-funded, home and community based services than Kansas.

The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) News Service recently reported that the Kansas Medicaid program, on average, pays for about 10,800 nursing home stays each month. It also funds in-home services for 5,700 frail seniors. Another 2,900 seniors receive services through the state-funded Senior Care Act. Medicaid also pays for home and community based services for 7,500 people with physical disabilities and nearly 78-hundred people with developmental disabilities.

“Kansas is unique because most nursing homes have come to see home and community based services as part of a long-term care continuum,” said Cindy Luxem is the executive director of the Kansas Health Care Association, which represents most of the state’s nonprofit nursing homes. According to Luxem, the average nursing home resident is 88 years old. “They’re coming in later in life, they’re frailer, and they’re having a really hard time being on their own. The way long-term care is set up in Kansas, is really progressive… But … We shouldn’t put ourselves in a position of rewarding one and penalizing the other.”

Read more here.

TennCare officials have just launched CHOICES in Long-Term Care program in East and West Tennessee, completing the statewide restructuring of long-term care service delivery within TennCare. The CHOICES program supports efforts to offer more home-based options for meeting the long-term care needs of the state’s elderly and adults with physical disabilities, reducing reliance on more costly nursing facility care.

Less than a decade ago, TennCare provided just a few hundred people care with home- and community-based services (HCBS). Great strides have been made in the past few years, and through program expansion, TennCare was able to serve 6,000 Tennesseans in the home and community through an HCBS waiver program.

Under Governor Bredesen’s leadership and with the support of the General Assembly, the Bureau has restructured its long-term care program and has the ability to serve more than 9,500 individuals with HCBS through the CHOICES program. CHOICES now has the potential to nearly double the number of people receiving services in the home and community in the first year – all while using existing state dollars.

To learn more about this recent announcement, visit the TennCare website here.

Adding more time for pedestrians to cross more than 400 busy intersections, yellow school bus transportation to grocery stores for the elderly, and “perches” where tired older residents doing errands could take a break are just a few of the “aging-improvements” happening in New York to help make the city a kindler, gentler place for its older residents.

According to the New York Times article “A Fast –Paced City Tries to Be a Gentler Place to Grow Old,” published on July 20^th, people live in New York because it is like no place else — pulsating with life, energy and a wealth of choices — but there is some recognition among city planners that it could be a kinder and gentler place in which to grow old.  And, fortunately for its older residents, the city’s efforts to make the city an easier place to grow old are gaining strength as the baby boomer generation starts reaching retirement age.

With the aging population skyrocketing in New York, there’s no question something must be done to ease the burdens of growing old in a city.  The Department of City Planning is predicting that in 20 years, the number of school children and older people in New York will be about the same, 15 percent of the total population each, a sharp change from 1950, when schoolchildren outnumbered older residents by more than 2 to 1. By 2030, the number of New Yorkers age 65 and over is expected to reach 1.35 million, up 44 percent from 2000.

The New York Academy of Medicine adopted the idea of creating an age-friendly city from the World Health Organization in 2007 and is leading the charge to create two pilot aging-improvement districts, one in East Harlem and the other on the Upper West Side. The exact details of how designated aging districts in the city will function are still being worked out, but the goal is to create a public-private partnership that would encourage businesses to voluntarily adopt amenities for the elderly. Examples could include window stickers that identify businesses as age-friendly; extra benches; adequate lighting; menus with large type; and even happy hour for older residents.

Read the full NY Times story here.

Over the last decade, warnings about children watching too much TV have generated a lot of media attention.  But it may come as a surprise to learn that seniors are watching too much TV as well.

In story written by NPR this week, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have found that people over 65 watch three times more TV than younger adults.  In fact, results show that seniors spend 25 percent of their waking hours watching TV. Yet they enjoy their viewing far less than younger people.

According to the research, younger people said watching TV helped them relieve stress, but that relaxing effect seemed to decrease with age.

So, why do the elderly keep watching TV if they don’t enjoy it? Results point to more leisure time and physical limitations may hold them back from participating in other activities.

Read more here.

The Center for Health Care Strategies has recently published a policy brief educating states about their options for states to aid in their transition to from expensive institutional care to more affordable home- and community-based options.  This policy brief is a must read for those interesting in understanding the challenge of rebalancing care and exploring ways states can tackle this issue.

CHCS estimates that roughly two-thirds of Americans age 65 and older today will eventually need some type of long-term care — ranging from personal care assistance for managing daily activities at home to nursing home care — for an average of three years. Despite this reality, few people are insured for long-term care and few have adequate assets, with as many as two-thirds of the elderly unable to afford more than one year of nursing facility care. Consequently, Medicaid is the de facto payer of last resort for LTSS, picking up 40 percent of the nation’s long-term care costs.

According to the AARP Public Policy Institute, only five states (i.e., Alaska, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington) currently spend more Medicaid LTSS dollars on home- and community-based services (HCBS) than nursing homes.

This policy brief provides states and federal policymakers with useful tools for understanding the current Medicaid long-term care environment; legal, regulatory, and bureaucratic barriers to rebalancing LTSS; promising solutions for rebalancing LTSS; and policy recommendations for improving the Medicaid LTSS system.

Additionally, to further help states explore and understand emerging options, CHCS is launching a new publications series: Innovations in the Medicaid Continuum of Care.  For more information, visit the Center for Health Care Strategies website: www.chcs.org.

Last week (June 15th) marked World Elder Abuse Awareness Day – a day designated to raise awareness of elder abuse (which encompasses neglect and mal- or mistreatment) throughout the world.  The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse encouraged people around the world to help spread the word by issuing press releases, organizing community events and wearing purple to others that they care about preventing elderly abuse and neglect.

While the official day has passed, raising awareness and preventing elder abuse is an issue that demands much more attention.  According to the National Council on Aging (NCOA), up to 5 million older Americans are abused every year.  More than 7.3 million older Americans have been hurt by money crimes according to a study released last week by Investor Protection Trust.  Elder abuse is robbing our nation’s older adults of independence and dignity.

Three decades after the first Congressional hearings on elder abuse, the Elder Justice Act (EJA) was signed into law with healthcare reform.  The Elder Justice Act will create a coordinated and targeted federal approach to give America’s older adults the security, dignity, and justice they deserve.  NCOA has posted a summary worth reading on the Elder Justice Act including key components, the proposal and rationale behind the act.

Elder Justice Now.org is raising awareness by encouraging those who want to help to host a community screening of “An Age for Justice: Confronting Elder Abuse in  America”, a short (16 minute) documentary film outlines the struggle we face in preventing abuse.

Elder abuse is a serious issue that is getting more and more attention. However, there is more work to be done to prevent senior citizens in our country from abuse.  As citizens, we can take action to raise awareness by visiting vulnerable elders in our communities, reporting cases of abuse to local Adult Protective Services agencies, or hosting a screening of the elder abuse documentary.  At the very least, we can mark our calendars for June 11, 2011 for World Elder Abuse Day and make sure we’re all wearing purple.

Harmony for Aging Provider Direct (Provider Direct) is a new web-based product that enables states, agencies and service providers to seamlessly exchange information through a single integrated system and shared database. An add-on product to Harmony for Aging, Provider Direct delivers significant return on investment by eliminating manual data entry tasks, improving invoice accuracy, and shortening reimbursement timelines.

Provider Direct offers a cost effective way for providers of all sizes to directly connect with their host organization’s Harmony for Aging application. Simple-to-use and even easier to deploy, providers are able to instantly login to the Provider Direct module via web browser where they can:

• review new activities and referrals;
• add consumer records;
• retrieve, edit and print service orders; and
• enter service delivery information quickly for many consumers at once.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be the first organization to standardize provider interfaces on Provider Direct. “Today, our providers are managing cases using disparate systems and processes which makes exchanging information with agency systems a very manual and error-prone process,” said Joan O’Rourke, CIO, Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs. “The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is standardizing our provider interfaces via Provider Direct. We are confident that our increased automation of provider communications will enable us to spend significantly less time on administrative tasks so that resources can be further dedicated towards client services.”

Learn more about Provider Direct in a short overview video: http://www.harmonyis.com/providerdirect or register to attend a live webinar on June 29th to see Provider Direct in action: http://www.harmonyis.com/pdwebinar.

In today’s news you’ll find more and more stories about people taking advantage of the elderly.  Whether it’s swindling a senior citizen out of their life savings or stealing the identity of a vulnerable elderly person, abuse against the elderly is rapidly growing.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), identity theft against the elderly accounts for as much as 10% of all identity theft cases.  However, because of shame or embarrassment, identity fraud against senior citizens may actually be under reported, especially if it is done by someone they know or with their consent.

The Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC), the leading consumer advocate on identity fraud, recently published a list of things to watch for that may alert families and caregivers that something is wrong – including:

• Vulnerable adult has no knowledge of a newly-issued ATM, debit or credit card.
• Discovery of a vulnerable adult’s signature being forged for financial transactions or for the titles of his or her possessions.
• A set of “out-of-sync” check numbers.
• A sudden flurry of “bounced” checks and overdraft fees.
• Transaction review shows multiple small dollar checks posting to the senior’s account in the same month. This could indicate telemarketing or charity scams.
• Large withdrawals from a previously inactive account or a new joint account.
• Abrupt increases in credit or debit card activity.
• Sudden appearance of credit card balances or ATM/debit card purchases or withdrawals with no prior history.
• Withdrawals or purchases using ATM or debit cards that are: Repetitive over a short period of time; inconsistent with prior use patterns.
• Vulnerable adult appears confused about the account balance or transactions on his or her account.
• A caregiver appears to be getting paid too much or too often.
• Significant increases in monthly expenses paid.
• Sudden changes in accounts or practices, such as unexplained withdrawals of large sums of money, particularly with a vulnerable adult who is escorted by a caregiver, family member or “friend.”
• Vulnerable adult acknowledges providing personal and account information to a solicitor via the phone or email.
• Excitement about winning a sweepstakes or lottery.

To learn how you can help prevent identity fraud against vulnerable senior citizens, visit the Identity Theft Assistance website – which offers many resources to help protect against identity theft.

May is Older Americans Month—a tradition dating back to 1963 to honor the legacies and ongoing contributions of older Americans and support them as they enter the next stage in life.

To celebrate, the U.S. Administration on Aging sponsored the Age Strong! Live Long! Walk on the National Mall today. This one-mile walk attracted more than 200 older Americans and included an instructional program with routines to stay active and guest speakers.

The Harmony Team was honored to spend our morning handing out water to this enthusiastic group of seniors before they headed out into the heat for their one-mile journey.  As you’ll see in the photos below, the walk was a big success and a true tribute to the Older Americans in our country.

With a few days left in May, it’s not too late to pay tribute to the Older Americans in your life by sending them an e-card. Visit our e-card site and send those you love a little inspiration today.

Happy Older Americans Month!

The Walkers take off!

Harmony Team at the Water Station

Walkers prepared for the heat with Harmony water and fans.