If you’re a caregiver or if you anticipate you may become one, Medicare has made changes you should be aware of. An AARP article, 3 New Ways That Medicare Is Supporting Family Caregivers, has some very useful information.
The Basics
In April of 2023, President Biden signed an executive order designed to offer support to the country’s nearly 48 million caregivers. It included more than 50 directives to federal agencies to identify ways to better support caregivers who provide what the AARP itself estimated in 2021 to be more than $600 billion in unpaid labor caring for family and friends.
More Training
The first way Medicare is offering support to caregivers is via payments to provide training to family caregivers. Under a rule that took effect at the beginning of this year, clinical psychologists, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, and other caregivers can bill Medicare for the time they spend training family caregivers.
People who are helping their aging relatives with important jobs like giving injections, managing medications, and changing bandages are now free to ask medical providers questions about what they need to know and do.
The article quotes a caregiver who explains that nobody actually tells you how to change an adult diaper for an elderly parent in a hospital bed in a way that’s respectful and safe.
While most doctors and other medical professionals were willing to offer answers and insights to those caring for a family member or friend, they were often doing so on their personal time.
Now, a caregiver can ask a doctor or medical staff for help arranging for physical therapy or occupational therapy, services to make a home safer, training on moving someone in and out of bed in a safe way, or wound care.
Extra Education
Medicare is now also providing extra education services for patients with serious medical conditions.
This rule permits Medicare to pay for what it calls principal illness navigation services to help patients with high-risk illnesses like cancer, dementia, and HIV/AIDS and their caregivers understand their condition and their healthcare needs and options.
Caring for a loved one or close friend with a serious illness brings with it a mix of emotions. On the one hand, your emotionally devastated for this person you care about. But on the other hand, you have to calmly provide them with care and support.
These education services are intended for people whose healthcare needs are only going to get more severe. Typically, these people are at high risk for hospitalization which means their caregiver must also know how to navigate through the vast healthcare system, which is extremely complex.
The article notes that these education services are particularly important for caregivers who will be going home with a patient who’s being discharged from a hospital’s intensive care unit.
Dealing With Dementia
The final way Medicare is now supporting caregivers is through a pilot project specifically for those caring for a dementia patient.
The program is called Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience, or GUIDE, and it includes 24/7 access to a support line, care coordination, caregiver training, and at-home or adult day-care services.
Beyond the support line, the pilot program will also help patients and their caregivers better understand how to utilize the various medical services that are available to them as well as ancillary services like meals and transportation.