Looking to save money on your Medicare Coverage? A new law that took effect this month may help. Officials from the Baker-Polito Administration and City of Boston kicked-off the expansion of Medicare Savings Programs in Massachusetts during a recent community event in Roxbury. Continue reading
Tag Archives: healthcare services
Annual Report on Hospital Readmissions in Mass. Looks at Trends Among Older Adults Patients
Although hospital readmission rates decreased overall in recent years for patients age 65 and older, both the volume and rate of readmissions increase with older patient age groups. For example, patients aged 85 and over had the highest readmission rate in 2018 (17.2%), followed by patients aged 75-84 (17.1%).
This is among a list of findings in the Massachusetts Hospital-Wide Adult All-Payer Readmissions SFY 2011-2018 report produced by the state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA). The report provides a statewide look at readmissions from Massachusetts acute care hospitals, enabling insights into statewide, regional, and hospital-specific readmission rates, including breakdowns by payer type, discharge setting, and hospital characteristics. Continue reading
‘Good Talk Toolkit’ Released to Aid Advanced Care Planning
Based on public messaging research, the Massachusetts Coalition on Serious Illness Care developed the Good Talk Toolkit to be a resource that supplements your organization’s capacity to build awareness and understanding for advance care planning.
The messaging and campaign are intended to shift the frame of advance care planning away from “end of life” and “life-sustaining treatment choices” towards goals of care, quality of life and shared decision making thus also bringing it into closer alignment with palliative care principles. Continue reading
WebMD/JAHF Surveys Older Adults and Their Caregivers Highlights Opportunity of Community Collaboration
A new survey of more than 2,700 older patients and caregivers from The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) and WebMD assesses opinions on Age-Friendly Health Care, which require attention to what matters to the older person and their caregivers in order to ensure high-value care resulting in consumer satisfaction.
The good news is that 87% of the more than 2,700 respondents to the Driving Towards Age-Friendly Care for the Future survey of older adults and family caregivers report satisfaction with the care they have received in the past 12 months. This high satisfaction, however, has some caveats. Continue reading
DPH, Health Policy Commission Announce ‘Moving Massachusetts Upstream’ Program and RFP
The “Moving Massachusetts Upstream” (MassUP) initiative is a partnership across Massachusetts state agencies including the HPC, the Department of Public Health (DPH), the Office of the Attorney General, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
The vision of the MassUP initiative is better health, lower costs and reduced health inequities in Massachusetts through effective collaboration among government, health care systems, and communities. MassUP includes two distinct but complementary work streams: an investment program, and a state-level interagency policy alignment working group. Continue reading
Health Care Planning Ambassador Workshops From Honoring Choices MA
To kick-off the season, Honoring Choices Massachusetts is co-hosting a series of Health Care Planning Ambassador Workshops all over the state to empower care providers and community professional to start early and effective care planning conversations with adults anywhere they live, work and gather! Continue reading
Medicare Plan Finder Gets an Update from CMS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a modernized and redesigned Medicare Plan Finder, which is the most used tool on Medicare.gov. Continue reading
MA Attorney General Launches Website to Open Access to Community Benefits Reports
The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative has promoted community benefits support provided by Massachusetts hospitals and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) as a potential Age- and Dementia Friendly Funding opportunity. According to reports recently published by Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office, the state’s hospitals and HMOs distributed $800 million across Massachusetts in fiscal year 2018. Continue reading
Honoring Choices MA Supports Age- and Dementia Friendly Communities
More than 1,000 Honoring Choices partners and Health Care Planning Ambassadors are working in their local communities to help adults make a personal health care plan and get connected to essential care to improve healthy living.
Honoring Choices is now connecting this important work to Age- And Dementia Friendly Community efforts across Massachusetts via a new web page using Framingham as an example.
CDC’s New Clinical Tools Help Prevent Older Adult Falls
CDC released two new complimentary clinical tools to help healthcare providers reduce older adult falls. Continue reading
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