Friday, May 25, 2007

NORC Anyone?

If you haven't read up on it, you might want to check out the new trend in supporting people who want to "age-in-place" without leaving their own home or community. NORCs - or Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities - are neighborhoods or buildings in which a large segment of the residents are older adults and in which a service structure is set up to meet varying degrees of needs. United Jewish Communities has been a leader in establishing NORCs nationally. The local model is Beacon Hill Village whose members are offered access "to social and cultural activities, exercise opportunities and household and home maintenance services, as well as medical care and assisted living at home."

Don't want to move to a retirement community? Consider starting one on your own.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A Whole New World - Maybe

Yesterday I testified at a Massachusetts legislative hearing in support of Senate Bill 680, which would allow home care agencies to use and get paid for monitoring frail, nursing home at-risk patients via telehealth and video visiting. The value of this technology to help patients living with diseases like congestive heart failure has been demonstrated in any number of studies. But it is hard sometimes for state programs like MassHealth in Massachusetts to embrace new approaches even as they contemplate - and seek permission from the federal government - for a new Community First strategy that attempts to reduce the state's reliance on nursing homes for long term care by expanding community program eligibility and offerings. Hopefully the legislature will prompt them by passing this bill.