Seniors Not Getting Important Preventive Health Services-HealthDay Articles

"Many Americans aged 65 and older are not receiving potentially lifesaving preventive health services, says a new report by several U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies.

Too few seniors are getting recommended vaccinations for influenza and pneumococcal disease, including bloodstream infections, meningitis and pneumonia; help with quitting smoking; or screenings for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol and osteoporosis, according to the report released March 14."
http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=650851

Do you ever wonder why so many seniors get admitted to the hospital with multiple, recurring conditions?

Sincerely,

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

Let's Connect! http://www.nursefriendly.com/social/

Get this we did annual labs on all our residents in December and Medicare denied payment on all the cholesterol and lipid screenings. I called the lab to ask why and they told me that under the provisions of the new health care reform bill medicare would no longer cover rountine screenings for cardiac risk factors - they sent me a list of billing codes and it seems that Medicare will now only pay for these screenings if the patient has already had a heart attack or other established cardiac problem. Wait a minute I thought Healthcare reform was supposed to improve healthcare???????

H