The vision for this blog is to create a community of harmonious professionals across the care continuum who encourage each other in exploring digital media as a way to support businesses and families dealing with elder care.
Written on November 15th, 2011 by tasha
The Medicare Open Enrollment period is earlier this year than in the past. Open enrollment closes this year on December 7th. During this window, Medicare beneficiaries with ancillary coverage (Plan D for medications, Medi-gap supplemental insurance, and/or Medicare Advantage Plans) can change plans. We have an article describing the difference between these plans in the November/December issue of our brandable newsletter aimed at family caregivers.
The trick with open enrollment is how to know if the current plan is worthwhile, and what, if any, would be better?
Here are 5 online tools to help your clients make these decisions:
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Written on October 18th, 2011 by tasha
Anyone who has read my blog for long knows that I am passionately dedicated to helping families engage in the care of their loved ones. The recent focus on care transitions highlights the importance of what I call the “home team” (patient and family) in promoting adherence and recognizing problems before they escalate to a re-admission.
Two weeks ago, in San Diego, I delivered a workshop at the NHPCO Clinical Team Conference on using the Internet safely to collaborate across the continuum. I highlighted ways that providers can share information in HIPAA-compliant fashion, with each other, but ALSO with patients and their family caregivers. The emphasis was on tools that facilitate the four factors that tend to reduce re-admissions, as demonstrated by the research of Dr. Eric Coleman of the University of Colorado:
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Written on October 4th, 2011 by tasha
I’ve been on a blogpost roll with search engine optimization techniques. But spending these last few days in Las Vegas at the Conference of the National Association of Home Care and Hospice, I decided to break things up a bit and post about highlights that have jumped out at me so far:
Written on February 2nd, 2011 by tasha
Over the next two weeks we are running a series on family caregiver receptivity to technology solutions.
Check out our factoids on Facebook and subscribe to our periodic e-notes to receive my full analysis of a report on family caregivers and technology released by the National Alliance for Caregiving. Based on the online responses of 1000 technology-using family caregivers, the report looks at their interest and perceived barriers to 12 different categories of technology that could help with caregiving activities:
I was surprised at some of the results. I have worked with family caregivers over the last 15 years and was not aware of some of the misconceptions they seem to hold about technology. And I was in some ways surprised to discover who was most receptive to hi tech solutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Written on January 18th, 2011 by tasha
The Pew Internet and American Life project just released a report in December on the impact of the Internet on patients with cancer, and interestingly, cancer research. Drawing on statistics from their on-going studies, the Cancer 2.0 report illuminates some interesting facts:
