Search results for: herb weiss
Talking Turkey about the Holiday Blues – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues Increased demands of family obligations during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, baking, and cleaning to host dinner, and even unrealistic expectations about family, or having a dysfunctional family, can produce extra stresses, feelings of anxiety, isolation, and depression. This is oftentimes referred to as holiday blues. This year, during…
Read MoreIn the coming years, generations of older Veterans will be leaving us – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues Reprinted: 11.11.24 Of the 16.6 million living veterans, serving in World War II to the Global War on Terror, one half of these veterans are age 65 and over. The graying of America’s veterans is well-documented in a U.S. Census Bureau report released last July. Taking a Look…
Read MoreFederal Court denies attempt to stop Medicare drug negotiation program – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues Over two months ago, as supporters of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) celebrated the one-year anniversary of the passage of the historic legislation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), along with drugmakers filed multiple lawsuits to block the IRA’s drug…
Read MoreSenate bipartisan proposal boon to nation’s family caregivers – Herb Weiss
by Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues Many family caregivers will tell you that coping with the stress of providing care to loved ones, is made more difficult when they are forced to navigate the confusing federal bureaucracy to identify key financial and health care programs for support. Last week, S 3109, the Alleviating Barriers…
Read MorePutting the brakes on CMS proposed minimum staffing for nursing facilities – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issue In response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recent release of proposed rule to establish minimum federal staffing requirements, last week 97 members of Congress, mostly Republican, called on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to put the breaks on CMS’s proposed…
Read MoreModest Social Security COLA increase seen as chump change by some – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues Last week, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 71 million beneficiaries will increase 3.2% in 2024, about $59 per month starting in January. The 2024 payment declined from last year’s 8.7%, but that had been the…
Read MoreWill Magaziner fulfill call to reestablish House Aging Committee? – Herb Weiss
by Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues With Congressman David Cicilline retiring from Congress, no House lawmaker has yet stepped up to reintroduce, H.R. 583, the Rhode Island lawmaker’s resolution to reestablish the House Select Committee on Aging (HSCoA). Without receiving a vote in the House Rules Committee at the end of the 117th Congress, the resolution…
Read MoreAARP report: States’ care for seniors “painfully inadquate”. Major gaps in RI – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer Last week, the Washington, DC-based AARP released its latest Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Scorecard, calling care provided to seniors and persons with disabilities during the last three years after the COVID-19 pandemic “painfully inadequate.” This nine-page report detailed state specific data, finds major gaps in providing care in every state, including…
Read MoreIncreased funding must be tied to nursing home mandated minimum staffing – Herb Weiss
Increased funding must be tied to mandated minimum staffing – Herb Weiss By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to establish comprehensive staffing requirements for nursing homes—including, for the first time, national minimum nurse staffing standards. The proposed rule seeks to would ratchet up…
Read MoreThe Village helps grandparent/kinship caregivers in need – Herb Weiss
By Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues When we dream about our retirement years, these dreams most likely don’t include images of diapers, children’s tantrums, and school buses. However, for some grandparents and other kinship caregivers, their later years include these images, as they become primary caregivers for their grandchildren/kin children. Nationally, more than 2.5…
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