Joseph Coughlin, Director of the MIT Agelab, gives a talk at TEDx Boston: Aging As An Extreme Sport. “Aging is not for wimps. Think about it. As you change your environment remains the same. Your kitchen cabinets are still the mess they were, but now the height seems like a stretching exercise. Your home’s stairs now qualify as a steeple chase. And, what was once a simple shopping trip or bus ride is now something that feels like the last few yards of a swim meet.”
By Paul Bond, Emergency Nursing Today
Like it or not, electronic administration of healthcare is here – and it’s here to stay.
The only real question is when will telehealth or telemedicine gain widespread use? What’s holding back the explosion of Internet based health care along the lines of what has happened in the rest of the business world? We routinely hold meetings in the virtual world, we teach in the virtual world, and we most assuredly play in the virtual world. But what of healthcare?
Why hasn’t the behemoth that is supposedly our economy’s downfall gone virtual for more of what it can do?
The answer is quite simple: money. It’s not a lack of desire on the part of physicians or nurses or even administrators to adopt the technology. It’s not about data security. It’s about payment for services. That’s right. It’s the reimbursement for such adoption that seems to be holding back the floodgates (imagine that!).
Let’s look at the healthcare system in Western PA, UPMC. They utilize telehealth in 15 different hospitals and in 13 different specialties. Yet, many other hospitals in the area don’t even use HALF of that! Why? The insurance companies don’t feel telehealth has been proven as a cost saving method yet. And they base this on what? Their opinion.
Many studies have been done on the measuring the effectiveness of telemedicine and how it can indeed save money and benefit patient care. The Veteran’s Administration already uses it for 35,000 of its patients. And now, California has moved ahead with an initiative to connect 800 facilities statewide for the purpose of saving money and sharing resources to provide health care services.
I wonder when the holders of the purse strings will open their eyes and shell out the needed funds to make this happen nationwide? I also wonder what it will take to make that happen?
Reader Cheryl Tieszen sent a letter to Randy Turley, Chief Counsel of the Missouri State Tax Commission
questioning the logic of taxing age in place related home modifications. Her letter is below and she welcomes your comments:
Randy,
For your consideration, logical or illogical? The citizens of Missouri are taxed extra (see extra features on their assessment form) on their real property for functional additions to their homes that enable:
From what I understand, extra features would include the following:
I was told that these items would be included as extras and they would be added to the value of the structure for taxation, but would probably not add to the market value. I believe that these features are necessary, they are functional additions to a structure that enable a person to perform activities of daily living. They are not a luxury. And the addition of these features in new construction or in a remodel should be encouraged. People should receive a tax break to help offset the costs of these features that make a structure usable for all ages and abilities or these features should be exempt. Dont we want to keep people in their homes and out of nursing homes, dont we want to encourage community, dont we want to have elderly family members come visit their families and be able to get to the second floor for Christmas dinner if they are in a wheelchair. I could go on and on. This is illogical and it is not right.
Yes, I have an elevator. My knee is held together with screws and it is likely that in the future I will not be able to climb stairs. And I have an elderly parent that can not climb stairs and has to have the elevator to leave the basement. I have an Uncle in a wheelchair that requires an elevator, wide doorways, grab bars, wheel chair accessibility.
This is a request for a consideration for new legislation to make ADA compliant additions to a residential structure exempt from extra taxation.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Tieszen, MOT
Occupational Therapist Retired
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13 Lessons for Aging In Place Your Way
As we live longer we are changing how we define old. It does not necessarily mean feeble, ailing or dependent as Meika Loe discusses in her new book Aging Our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond
. Here are 13 Lessons she learned as she followed the routine lives of people aged 85 and older around the areas she lives and works in New York.
Aging Our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond
Meika Loe is an associate professor of sociology and women’s studies, Director of the Women’s Studies Program and interim director of the Upstate Institute at Colgate University.
Reprinted from Aging our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond by Meika Loe, published by Oxford University Press, Inc. Copyright © 2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc.