The initiatives announced today include:

• Research – The funding of new research projects by the NIH will focus on key areas in which emerging technologies and new approaches in clinical testing now allow for a more comprehensive assessment of the disease. This research holds considerable promise for developing new and targeted approaches to prevention and treatment. Specifically, two major clinical trials are being funded. One is a $7.9 million effort to test an insulin nasal spray for treating Alzheimer’s disease. A second study, toward which NIH is contributing $16 million, is the first prevention trial in people at the highest risk for the disease.
• Tools for Clinicians – The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $2 million in funding through its geriatric education centers to provide high-quality training for doctors, nurses, and other health care providers on recognizing the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and how to manage the disease.
• Easier access to information to support caregivers–HHS’ new website, www.alzheimers.gov, offers resources and support to those facing Alzheimer’s disease and their friends and family. The site is a gateway to reliable, comprehensive information from federal, state, and private organizations on a range of topics. Visitors to the site will find plain language information and tools to identify local resources that can help with the challenges of daily living, emotional needs, and financial issues related to dementia. Video interviews with real family caregivers explain why information is key to successful caregiving, in their own words.
• Awareness campaign – The first new television advertisement encouraging caregivers to seek information at the new website was debuted. This media campaign will be launched this summer, reaching family members and patients in need of information on Alzheimer’s disease.

FOR A COPY OF THE FULL NEWS STORY, CLICK HERE.

McNally described her role in the process.  “We train retired professionals to go out and educate within their communities – caregivers and providers – about the potential for Medicare scams, how to find them – and how to report them.”

For a copy of the full article CLICK HERE.

The House voted 147-2 in favor of legislation that makes it a crime for those with authority over an elderly person to take advantage of that person’s state of mind for financial gain.

The Senate had already approved the bill. It now goes to the Governor for his signature.

Read the entire story from the Associated Press by clicking here.

Among the key decisions in the budget:

• A health care program for blind Missourians will receive most of its funding from the state budget.

• Seven universities will split a $3 million boost to higher education funding.

• The Sue Shear Institute for Public Life at the University of Missouri-St. Louis will not be stripped of state dollars.

• Missouri’s seven veterans homes will be funded primarily through the state’s casino entrance fee.

• Most state employees will receive 2 percent raises in the coming year.

Click here for the video summary.

– St. Louis Business Journal
Date: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 6:13am CDT – Last Modified: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 7:24am CDT

Individuals can direct these questions at Presidential, Congressional and Senatorial candidates to inquire how the policies they support will affect Medicare beneficiaries. Individuals can modify the document as they wish and submit the questions by mail or e-mail, or ask them over the phone or in-person. Many of the questions focus on the future of the Medicare program and the benefits and coverage that will be available to beneficiaries. These issues currently sit at the center of the deficit-reduction and budget debates.

Many proposals under consideration would save the government money by shifting costs onto Medicare beneficiaries, increasing the out-of-pocket health care expenses of older adults and those with disabilities.

For example, the budget authored by Representative Paul Ryan and recently approved by the House of Representatives would convert Medicare into a voucher system, under which beneficiaries would receive a defined contribution from the government to buy health coverage. The House budget would cap the amount of Medicare spending at a rate that would not reflect actual increases in the cost of health care overall. As a result, over time, the voucher would be insufficient to purchase health coverage as good as that which Medicare currently provides to beneficiaries.

Other questions focus not only on how candidates plan to preserve Medicare, but also on how they plan to improve the program, for example by reducing the cost of coverage for beneficiaries. People with Medicare already spend 15 percent of their household incomes on health care, five times as much as the non-Medicare population. Moreover, half of all people with Medicare have annual incomes of less than $25,000. For a population with high health care needs, policymakers must examine how they can improve Medicare, while making the benefit more affordable.

“We encourage everyone to ask tough questions of those who hold the future of Medicare—and therefore of our health and retirement security—in their hands,” says Joe Baker, president of Medicare Rights. “It is important to know how prospective lawmakers intend to change programs that millions of people depend on.”

Read Medicare Rights’ “Five Medicare Questions for Candidates.”

O’Leary was selected after an extensive, nationwide search to lead the non-profit, which works to improve the health of Missourians through health literacy and is funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health.

“She is extremely intelligent and energetic with a strong management style that will help to further establish Health Literacy Missouri as a leader in its field,” said Dr. Steve Pu, chairman of the HLM board and a surgeon in private practice in Kennett, Mo. “Dr. O’Leary is a lifelong Missourian. She truly understands the needs of the people that HLM serves, both rural and urban.”

O’Leary has researched numerous physical and mental health-related topics, including HIV and sexually transmitted disease-reduction in high-risk St. Louis women, as well as behavioral interventions to increase participation in health services and research among community-recruited groups.

“I am excited to join the HLM team and I look forward to engaging diverse community partners in our work,” said O’Leary. “My efforts will focus on important health-related outcomes among underserved populations across the state.”

Health literacy, in simple terms, is the ability to make good health decisions in everyday life. O’Leary’s research career has placed her at the center of many community-based initiatives with health literacy at their core. Much of her work was conducted through HealthStreet, an innovative program in which community health workers native to St. Louis use a health van and a walk-in storefront in St. Louis’ Grove neighborhood to engage underserved populations in health-related opportunities and research studies. After serving for many years as HealthStreet faculty and manager under founding director Dr. Linda Cottler, O’Leary was named HealthStreet’s director in 2011.

O’Leary also serves as board president at The Bridge, a drop-in shelter that offers daily meals and basic social services to homeless and food insecure St. Louisans. She is a member of the United Way of Greater St. Louis Mental Health and Substance Abuse Allocation Panel, and assistant to the treasurer for the American Psychopathological Association.

For more information contact:

Michelle Roberts

Director of Communications and Marketing

Health Literacy Missouri

(314) 361-9400

Today, with the creation of the new Administration for Community Living (ACL),  key HHS organizations and offices dedicated to improving the lives of those with functional needs will be brought together into one coordinated, focused and stronger entity.

The Administration for Community Living will bring together the Administration on Aging, the Office on Disability and the Administration on Developmental Disabilities into a single agency that supports both cross-cutting initiatives and efforts focused on the unique needs of individual groups, such as children with developmental disabilities or seniors with dementia. This new agency will work on increasing access to community supports and achieving full community participation for people with disabilities and seniors.

The Administration on Community Living will seek to enhance and improve the broad range of supports that individuals may need to live with respect and dignity as full members of their communities. These support needs go well beyond health care and include the availability of appropriate housing, employment, education, meaningful relationships and social participation.

For more information, please visit http://hhs.gov/acl

The bill now goes to Governor Jay Nixon for his approval and signature.

A short summary of the bill follows.

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SS/SCS/SB 689 – Under current law, a person who recklessly and purposely causes serious injury to an elderly person commits the crime of second degree elder abuse. This act makes it so a person who recklessly or purposely causes such injury has committed the crime.

This act adds undue influence to the types of acts that, when committed against an elderly or disabled person, constitute the crime of financial exploitation.

Undue influence is defined under the act to mean influence by a person who has authority over the elderly or disabled person in order to take unfair advantage of the person’s vulnerable state of mind, neediness, pain, or agony. It includes improper use of various types of fiduciary authority.

This act makes it an unlawful violation of the financial exploitation statute to fail to remit to a nursing facility in which a Medicaid eligible person resides all money owing the facility resident from any source.

This act allows the Department of Social Services to release records regarding the income or assets of a resident of a facility licensed under Chapter 198 to prosecuting attorneys who are investigating or prosecuting an offense of financial exploitation.

If a person admits to or is found guilty of failing to remit money owed to a facility licensed under Chapter 198, the court can order the offender to make restitution to the facility as a condition of sentence and/or probation. Any order or agreement for restitution must allow the prosecuting attorney to receive ten percent of each payment toward the restitution as reimbursement for the cost of enforcement.