Nine years ago, Carla Harrison of Augusta weighed 381 pounds. “I was brought up with cornbread and to throw a little grease into the food,’’ she said. Harrison said some family members were also large, and she herself, in addition to being overweight, had high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol and was pre-diabetic. Then, in…
When the health of an aging loved one deteriorates, it’s often difficult for families to decide what medical services are right for those situations. It gets especially troublesome when families don’t have conversations beforehand with their loved ones about their wishes for health care at the end of life. Bernard Hammes and Nancy Desmond address…
By Bernard Hammes and Nancy Desmond Ten thousand baby boomers a day are turning 65 starting this year, setting in motion an incredible demand on America’s health care system as seniors utilize Medicare like never before. As a result, the demand for assisted living facilities near Walnut Creek, CA and anywhere else in the country…
Next year, a multibillion-dollar transportation referendum will go before voters in 10 metro Atlanta counties. So far, the hotly debated items on the project list involve improvements in rail, road and bus service. But also on the list — though drawing considerably less media attention — is a $17 million call center to help seniors…
The Georgia legislative session has just three days remaining. But for people like Fred Brown and Mignon Fleishel, it will be an agonizing countdown. They each have an elderly mother living in a Kennesaw assisted living facility. Both women have dementia and need help with mobility. Brown and Fleishel want their mothers to remain at…
Spending on health care goes billions of dollars beyond the costs of doctors, medications, hospitals and insurance, a new study shows. The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions says that health care costs U.S. consumers $363 billion more than what government traditionally reports as health spending. Much of what the Deloitte study describes as the ‘’hidden…
Many assisted living residents may get legislative help to remain in those facilities, rather than face discharge and eventual placement in a nursing home. The House Health and Human Services Committee approved House Bill 405 on Monday. It would allow Georgia assisted living facilities to hire certified medication aides to help residents in taking their…
Hyde Talbot’s young life has been one medical complication after another, the result of a rare genetic defect that eventually rendered his kidneys useless. Now, thanks to a new kidney donated by his uncle – and with the assistance of a new and very expensive drug – the 4-year-old from Cumming and his family may…
Federal officials have cited three Georgia nursing homes for serious quality of care problems. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) placed the three facilities – in Midway, Tifton and Albany — on its latest ‘’Special Focus Facility’’ list. The designation means that a nursing home has had a history of serious quality problems, and…
As stimulus funds expire, Georgia senior citizens confront an array of proposed state budget cuts on social services. The reductions in the fiscal 2012 budget include $1 million in state funding for about 138,000 Meals on Wheels a year. That would reflect a fraction of those food deliveries in Georgia, but the cut could still…