Quality of Life

Medicare will revise the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual to correct suggestions that Medicare coverage is dependent on a beneficiary "improving." New policy provisions will state that skilled nursing and therapy services necessary to maintain a person's condition can be covered by Medicare.

For decades, Medicare beneficiaries – particularly those with long-term or debilitating conditions and those who need rehabilitation services – have been denied necessary care based on the "Improvement Standard".  

http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/hidden/highlight-improvment-standard/

The result is 10 items that mature drivers can look for when shopping for a new vehicle that will likely make their driving experience safer and less stressful.

"Our primary interest was equipping consumers to have this info so when they go shopping they can bring our list and talk to the salesman and use it in the decision-making process," Olshevski said.

While the list includes some technologies like lane-departure warning or parking assist systems that may only be available on more expensive vehicles, others are more common: electronic stability control is now mandatory for all passenger vehicles made after 2011.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-mo-autos-hartford-10-technologies-mature-drivers-20121030,0,7744146.story

Use this tool to search more than 25,000 nursing home inspection reports, most completed since January 2011, and encompassing over 130,000 deficiencies.

http://projects.propublica.org/nursing-homes/

The clip shown on NPR's website is part of a documentary called Alive Inside, which follows social worker Dan Cohen as he creates personalized iPod playlists for people in elder care facilities, hoping to reconnect them with the music they love. Cohen tells NPR's Melissa Block that the video of Henry is a great example of the link between music and memory.

"He is able to actually answer questions and speak about his youth, and this is sort of the magic of music that's familiar for those with dementia," Cohen says. "Even though Alzheimer's and various forms of dementia will ravage many parts of the brain, long-term memory of music from when one was young remains very often. So if you tap that, you really get that kind of awakening response. It's pretty exciting to see."

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/18/150891711/for-elders-with-dementia-music-sparks-great-awakenings