The recent Health Care Reform enacted by Congress has focused on avoiding abuse to the elderly and those with special needs by incorporating the following provisions:
- It allows States to conduct national criminal background checks, including fingerprints, on anyone who seeks direct access to patients in long-term care facilities or with home care agencies receiving funding under the Medicare or Medicaid programs.
- It authorizes $10.8 million for Geriatric Education Centers to provide training for health care professionals, direct care workers and family care givers in such areas as long-term care, chronic care management, and geriatrics.
- It establishes a national panel of long-term care experts charged with creating core competencies to form the background of these training programs and to ensure they are comprehensive and consistent across the nation.
- There are even Federal training programs offering Advanced Degrees in Geriatric Nursing, Gero-Psychiatric Nursing, and long-term care.
- It establishes grants to health care professionals, such as pharmacists, clinical social workers, psychologists and advanced practice nurses to focus on long-term care, chronic care management and geriatrics.
In a future blog, I will address additional areas impacted by health care reform.
Jerry Shiles
Attorney at Law
Founder and Owner at Parman & Easterday
After helping his own family deal with a lengthy probate and the IRS following his father’s untimely death in a farm accident, Larry Parman made a decision to help families create effective estate plans designed to reduce taxes, minimize legal interference with the transfer of assets to one’s heirs, and protect his clients’ assets from predators and creditors.
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