Remember the misguided rhetoric about “death panels” during the healthcare reform debate?
Take a look at the CLASS Act, a national voluntary insurance program created by the law, which does just the opposite. In fact, it offers some glimmers of hope for those with Alzheimer’s. A recent analysis by the nonprofit Alzheimer’s Association shows that the CLASS Act will bring:
- Benefits for long-term care services and support, such as respite care, home care aides, and transportation.
- A pilot project called the Innovation Center to study ways to coordinate Medicare coverage for people with dementia, including Alzheimer’s
- No more deductibles for some preventive care, meaning that an annual wellness visit to provide a personalized plan and health risk assessment will be free under Medicare.
- A Cures Acceleration Network, which will focus on developing treatments and cures for Alzheimer’s (as we point out in “The Alzheimer’s Solution,” there are only four drugs on the market for Alzheimer’s, and they lose effectiveness over time and certainly do not cure the disease.)
And, finally, a key provision strikes at the heart of the fragmented nature of Alzheimer’s care: the law will create an Independence at Home pilot project to provide primary care services to Medicare recipients in lower-cost community settings, rather than expensive institutions. This jibes with the concept of the cognitive shop, or center, outlined in “The Alzheimer’s Solution” – a place embedded in the community that offers an array of diagnostic tools and support services from nonmedical patient navigators to nurses to physicians.
The measures proposed in the law are about more than just politics. They are in fact the beginning of an important national dialogue about healthcare – an important dialogue to have as society faces a potential Alzheimer’s epidemic.
