Long-Term Care to What Degree

¶ … Long-Term Care

To what degree does our nation have a continuum of long-term care? Focus on how federal and federal state policy has been shaped.

Long-term care refers to a wide range of health and health-linked support service offered on a formal or informal basis to persons with functional disabilities over a prolonged period. Long-term care aims at maximizing the independence of such persons. On the other hand, a continuum of care is a client-centered system that entails both services and integration of mechanism that tracks and directs over time via a detailed array of mental health, social services and health, spanning all levels of care intensity. The concept of continuum care goes beyond the conventional descriptions of long-term care. Continuum care involves detailed, coordinated care systems formed to achieve the needs of persons with intricate or constant problems effectively and efficiently.

In the past two and half decades, the nation has faced an evolution of services in the name of long-term care. This has been because of considerable rise in the prolonged existence of American adults, changes in life style; enhanced control and upshots of chronic sicknesses, shifts in expansive family migrations and a transition in delivery of health care. Present alternatives range from support of chores via volunteer networks and from retirement people to episodic acute care in hospitals. Initiatives differ extensively across diverse geographic settings. Target social assistance, health as well as other supportive services is brought close to communities who have attained their old age in these places or who migrate from other areas. Hospitals do not offer anything, but periodic care with limited stays.

Other services involve Adult Day Care, Respite Care, Senior Centers, Nursing Homes, Home Health Care and Continuing Care Retirement Communities. Nursing homes are the dominant element of long-term health care continuum followed by Home Health Care and Assisted Living Centers. Home health care is offered in an individual residence, and provides the patient the option to stay under Home Health Care. Services rendered include fundamental assistance with household chores to qualified nursing among other therapeutic services that include infusion therapies, hospice services and respirator. The complete array of services is available in heavily populated settings given the high cost of hiring skilled professionals to people living in rural areas. Assisted Living Services offer apartment accommodations in facilities licensed by states. These services close the gap amid nursing home care and independent living. Nursing homes offer rehabilitation services and nursing care to persons with functional disabilities, injuries and illnesses. Most of nursing homes deal with the elderly population. Numerous nursing homes direct their attention on rehabilitation and returning the patients to their residence or to a reduced care level.

States and the private sector developed a continuum of care founded on the evaluation of need, which reflects service needs, ethnicity, sex and other significant variables. Continuum of long-term care is enhanced through Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance and public funds. The government introduced Medicaid and Medicare for the elderly and terminally ill to prevent them from having to reimburse high medical bills once they visit health care facilities. Medicaid and Medicare, private long-term insurance are forms of financing policies that pays for health-linked services. Medicaid is offered at both the federal and the state level. It is an insurance program for the underprivileged, and it is the most prevalent public program that covers long-term care for the disabled and aged in the society.

Medicaid, on the other hand, constantly shows a powerful bias towards organizational services notwithstanding the public demand for provision of care in homes. The highest budget on Medicaid supports community-centered care segment and nursing homes. Community and home-based care receives low financing. Medicare, as long-term care policy, is not a key component for long-term care. Medicare covers only sensitive care costs and its skilled home health and nursing facility care aims at offering short-term health coverage for post- acute care after hospitalization of a beneficiary. On the other hand, private long-term care insurance is a policy that covers a small portion of a patient's bill.

2. Medicare offers an array of coverage and options to receive health insurance coverage. Explain eligibility and its various components. To satisfy this question, you must include the major parts to the program and the benefits to each of these parts

Medicare is a federal social program of insurance provided by the government of the United States from 1965. Medicare ensures access to health coverage for people above sixty-five years and young persons with disabilities. Medicare also covers people with terminal illness such as those suffering from renal diseases. The policy spreads financial burden linked to sickness across the members of the society to guard everyone. All people enrolled in Medicare policy enjoy distinct benefits. As at 2008, Medicare served over 44 million people. The program benefits specific individuals and low-income people and is directed at the national level. Medicare has two major portions for medical insurance and hospital, and two more portions that offer prescription drugs and flexibility.

Part A, which includes the HI (Hospital Insurance), facilitates payment of hospital stays, which entails supplies, meals, semi-private room and testing. Part a of Medicare also facilitates payment of health care which include speech, occupational and physical therapy provided on part-time base and considered as medically important. Part A also covers skilled nursing facility care and some medical equipment such as wheelchairs and walkers. Part A is accessible without a monthly premium payment given that taxes on payroll cover these expenses.

Part B of Medicare also known as SMI ( Supplementary Medical Insurance), facilitates payment of medically important visits, costs for home health care, outpatient visits and other services beneficial to the disabled and the aged. Part B covers nursing and physician services, long-term medical equipments such as wheelchairs, certain vaccinations, renal dialysis, and outpatient hospital process, blood transfusion, laboratory, diagnostic and X-ray tests. Other services covered by Medicare include chemotherapy, specific hormonal treatments, ambulance transportation, immunosuppressive drugs, eyeglasses and prosthetic devices. Part B calls for a premium of 96.40 dollars paid on monthly basis. The patient must also attain a deductible of 135 dollars annually before the commencement of the coverage. Part B enrollment is voluntary.