JustCare

Tag: Health care proxy

  • Health information you can trust

    Health information you can trust

    A recent Altarum Institute study underscores the difficulties of finding health information you can trust. It focuses on how to improve access to health information for lower income people. As we at Just Care see it, most of the findings apply to everyone regardless of income. The findings also highlight the need for an online hub that unlocks trusted and helpful health and retirement information and makes it simple and easy to access–Just Care’s goal.

    Like most of us, lower income people turn to family and friends they know and trust, particularly people with health care expertise, for answers to health questions. These people tend to be people’s first stop when choosing a doctor, deciding when to get treatment or how to treat a condition. And, frankly, that makes sense.

    Institutional sources of information can also be helpful. And, the study suggests that people with higher incomes turn to them more. But, which should you trust? So much information is misleading.  Just Care relies on information from independent experts, non-profit organizations and government sources you can trust. It is designed to be a jumping off point to help people choose a doctor, or to decide when treatment is appropriate. But, when it comes to checking out a few options, who better than the people you know and trust to provide this type of guidance?

    According to the study, people with lower incomes tend not to plan ahead. Again, it’s fair to say that most of us don’t plan ahead as much as we need to and as important as it is to do so. The process can be daunting, time-consuming and complex. That’s why Just Care aims to make it easy and offers advice on planning ahead for a hospital visit, for end-of-life decisions or times when you are seriously ill and are unable to speak for yourself, and explains why you need a health care proxy.

    Just Care aims to offer simple advice, whether it’s on planning ahead for emergency room visits, for a weather emergency, enrolling in Medicare and supplemental insurance, for long-term care services and supports, or how to get one’s affairs in order in case of emergency.

    It can be hard to make planning ahead for health-related needs a priority. Most of us have many other things we need to do or would prefer to do. To save money, time and stress, we need to squeeze in a little time for it.

    Just Care is here to help. Our goals is to make your  work as easy as possible. Check out our Advice A to Z page when you have a few minutes to spare. And, let us know what you think and what advice you’d like to see on our site. You can email us at [email protected].

  • What care do you want if you become seriously ill? Talk to your doctor

    What care do you want if you become seriously ill? Talk to your doctor

    One fourth or so of Medicare annual spending–about $33,500 a person–goes to the cost of care for the 1.8 million people over 65 who die each year.  The cost of their care is high largely because they often have complex conditions, and two-thirds of them die in the hospital.What care do you want if you become seriously ill? Medicare now covers advance care planning to ensure that older adults have their care wishes honored in the days, weeks and months before they die.

    Medicare will cover the full cost of a visit with your doctor to discuss your end-of-life wishes as part of your Medicare annual wellness visit. If you do a separate trip to the doctor, traditional Medicare covers 80 percent of the cost. If you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan, call the plan to find out your out-of-pocket costs. Here are six reasons why you and your loved ones should do advance care planning and create advance directives.

    The data suggest that most people do not plan ahead–through advance care planning–and do not understand their care options. For example, most people prefer to die at home if they are terminally ill. But, they often have not had the chance to decide their care wishes or to share them with trusted family members, doctors or others in their social network. And, they end up dying in the hospital. So, ask your loved ones about end of life care.

    Hospitals and nursing homes are required to ask patients on admission whether they have advance directives–living wills and health care proxies–under the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1991.   These care facilities must keep a record of whether patients have advance directives in their files. But, patients are not required to have them.

    About 40 percent of people over 65 have not done advance care planning and do not have advance directives. Each state has its own law regarding advance directives.  To find out how to get advance directives for your state as well as information on how to complete them, check out Just Care’s get help page here.

    Medicare also covers hospice services, including pain management, palliative care to offer comfort, pain and other symptoms management for people with complex and chronic conditions, and up to five days of respite care for caregivers. Hospice services are usually available in patients’ homes. Today, more than four in ten people with Medicare elect hospice care, more than double the rate from 2000 (23 percent).

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Honoring a wish to die in peace

    Honoring a wish to die in peace

    It’s critically important that you share your end-of-life wishes with your doctors and the people you love.  It is equally important that you complete and sign a written health care proxy and living will so that when you cannot speak for yourself, your end-of-life wishes will be honored.

    The experience of Luz Salazar Garcia speaks volumes. In 2003, at 76, Garcia had advanced diabetes that robbed her of her eyesight. She also had advanced glaucoma, high blood pressure and neuropathy. Her husband and daughter became her caregivers 24 hours a day at her Los Angeles-area home.

    Two years later, Garcia was hospitalized with kidney failure, breast cancer and multiple other conditions. Garcia was ready to die, and she let her family know.  But, a doctor persuaded her husband that he should try to keep her alive through kidney dialysis. Against Garcia’s wishes, the doctors went ahead with dialysis.

    Garcia was enraged. She shouted to make her wishes known. And, she resisted the efforts to treat her.  She kept removing the oxygen mask. She died shortly thereafter. She spent her final moments struggling to stop the treatment, not in peace as she had wanted.

    The lesson is clear that without a written directive, doctors and family members may intervene in your care in ways you would not want. To learn more about Luz Garcia’s story and end-of-life educational initiatives, click here. Here are six reasons why you and your loved ones should create advance directives, as well as a helpful toolkit of advance care planning resources that includes Spanish and Chinese translations. And, here’s a short Jon Stewart video with Atul Gawande explaining why you should ask your loved ones about their end-of-life wishes.

  • Making medical decisions for someone you love: Your rights

    Making medical decisions for someone you love: Your rights

    You shouldn’t have to pull strings to be able to make medical decisions on behalf of the people you love if they are unable to make them for themselves. And, it should be easy if you’ve been named their health care proxy. But, without a written health care proxy, it could be hard to make medical decisions for the people you love or even to speak with their doctors about their medical conditions.

    If there’s no legal document naming you as the health care proxy, sometimes called an “advance directive,” whether you have the right to act on behalf of someone you love depends on state law, even if you’re the caregiver. Some states allow next of kin to act on behalf of a patient who is unable to make medical decisions. However, if the next of kin disagree on the treatment, you might have to go to court to settle the matter.

    If there is no health care proxy, in many cases the doctor and hospital staff end up responsible for making medical decisions. Click here to learn about advance care planning and how to get a free health care proxy document for you and the people you love. For sure, advance care planning is important for end-of-life care.

    And, if you’d like to learn more about why you should have an advance directive, click here.