long-term care

Officials propose new rules for nursing home care

By Susan Jaffe, Kaiser Health News

After nearly 30 years, the Obama administration wants to modernize the rules nursing homes must follow to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid payments.

Once politically toxic, Medicare plans to cover end-of-life counseling

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Matt Sedensky, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Six years ago, a proposal for Medicare to cover end-of-life counseling touched off a political uproar that threatened to stall President Barack Obama's health care law in Congress. This week, when Medicare finally announced it would make the…

How a chance encounter with ‘Hef’ led an aspiring journalist to become Miss October 1964

By Kathleen McCleery

The last person you expect to meet at a Mexican nursing home is a Playboy centerfold.

QUIZ: What do inspection reports reveal about America’s nursing homes?

By Laura Santhanam

A new database from the investigative non-profit news organization, ProPublica, tracks the quality of nursing homes nationwide based on government inspection reports. Take our quiz that draws on the database's findings and see if you can guess where America's nursing…

What I wish my dad said before he died

By Jack Ohman, The Sacramento Bee

Growing up, Jack Ohman often saw his father with a drink in his hand and little energy to dote over his son. Decades of alcohol consumption left his dad with an entangled series of disabling health problems. In turn, Ohman…

How to find care for LGBT seniors

By Leah Eskenazi, Family Caregiver Alliance

While LGBT seniors face many issues shared among all older adults and those who care for them, a number of specific factors should be considered.

How to let go when a loved one is dying

By Bonnie Lawrence, Family Caregiver Alliance

Even after the conversations are held and legal documents completed, reaching acceptance that a person is dying is a difficult path for the individual who is ill as well as for their family members.

Millennials make up substantial share of America’s caregivers

By Laura Santhanam

Nearly 40 million Americans offer unpaid care to an adult friend or relative, and of those, Millennials make up a major part of this group, according to a report issued today by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.

The last time I went fishing with my dad

By Jack Ohman, The Sacramento Bee

Cartoonist Jack Ohman’s aging father was in no condition to go fishing, but when his dad said he wanted to go, Ohman spent days figuring out how to make the trip happen.