Well they better get back the infrastructure of support theylost when medicare quite paying for homecare based bloodwork and glucose testing. This one change in medicare laws a few years back cost a lot of home health registered nurses their jobs.

flynn23 wrote:
] ] An underlying theme in the march toward home-based care
] ] is that looming shortages of nurses, doctors and other
] ] health professionals, combined with mushrooming rates of
] ] diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and other costly
] ] chronic conditions will strain the system, forcing
] ] patients to be better self-managers, health care experts
] ] say.

skullaria wrote:
] Well they better get back the infrastructure of support
] theylost when medicare quite paying for homecare based
] bloodwork and glucose testing. This one change in medicare
] laws a few years back cost a lot of home health registered
] nurses their jobs.

Most of those jobs were probably absorbed elsewhere in more lucrative positions. Subjective, I know, but probably true. There is a severe nursing shortage in this country, and most of the workforce is moving towards non-hospital non-direct care jobs, such as disease management and similar approaches.

The whole point of there being more investment and development around devices and remote patient monitoring is the sheer volume we're approaching. With a nursing shortage, and 70M baby-boomers about to enter end-of-life, there's absolutely no possible way to provide even shoddy care at these levels. Technology has to step in and help. And will.

A lot of the Medicare Reform Act tries to address this, and the one thing that the Bush administration has done well is put it's money where it's mouth is in building grants and offering up to $50M per year for the next two years to stimulate Healthcare IT. Of course a lot of that probably comes from the fact that Sen. Frist is one of Dubya's most trusted and respected confidants. But I tend to agree that this is a real problem that needs real action to address. Where does it weigh in with our other abysmal problems (education? foreign policy? corporate welfare? etc...)? who knows...

My point is just that the medicare laws severely affect nursing.

Sure the nurses easily got jobs elsewhere within the medical field, but the infrastructure for home health was greatly damaged. With the decreased caseload total decreased, home health agencies lost not only registered nurses, but LPNs and aides as well.

flynn23 wrote:
] skullaria wrote:
] ] Well they better get back the infrastructure of support
] ] theylost when medicare quite paying for homecare based
] ] bloodwork and glucose testing. This one change in medicare
] ] laws a few years back cost a lot of home health registered
] ] nurses their jobs.
]
] Most of those jobs were probably absorbed elsewhere in more
] lucrative positions. Subjective, I know, but probably true.
] There is a severe nursing shortage in this country, and most
] of the workforce is moving towards non-hospital non-direct
] care jobs, such as disease management and similar approaches.
]
] The whole point of there being more investment and development
] around devices and remote patient monitoring is the sheer
] volume we're approaching. With a nursing shortage, and 70M
] baby-boomers about to enter end-of-life, there's absolutely no
] possible way to provide even shoddy care at these levels.
] Technology has to step in and help. And will.
]
] A lot of the Medicare Reform Act tries to address this, and
] the one thing that the Bush administration has done well is
] put it's money where it's mouth is in building grants and
] offering up to $50M per year for the next two years to
] stimulate Healthcare IT. Of course a lot of that probably
] comes from the fact that Sen. Frist is one of Dubya's most
] trusted and respected confidants. But I tend to agree that
] this is a real problem that needs real action to address.
] Where does it weigh in with our other abysmal problems
] (education? foreign policy? corporate welfare? etc...)? who
] knows...

skullaria wrote:
] My point is just that the medicare laws severely affect
] nursing.
]
] Sure the nuses easily got jobs elsewhere within the medical
] field, but the infrastructure for home health was greatly
] damaged. With the decreased caseload total decreased, home
] health agencies lost not only registered nurses, but LPNs and
] aides as well.

but are you saying that you feel home health is a superior option than self-help? Considering that most seniors (let alone Medicare beneficiaries) can't afford home health, this seems like a stretch. That's like saying that you believe Lamborghini's are superior to Ford Fiestas. Can (should?) the government buy Lambo's for everyone?