For individuals living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers, care planning is essential to learning about medical and non-medical treatments, clinical trials, and support services available in their communities.

Since 2017, Medicare has covered care planning for individuals with cognitive impairment including dementia. Clinicians now have the time and resources to provide a comprehensive set of care planning services to people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers. However, in the first year, fewer than 1% of seniors living with Alzheimer’s received the care planning benefit.

The Improving HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act would educate clinicians on Alzheimer’s and dementia care planning services available through Medicare. This will give clinicians the knowledge and tools to better help their patients and families living with dementia. Take action today.

Nearly half of all people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias are in hospice care at the time of their death. Less than half of surveyed nursing homes have some sort of palliative care program. For people with advanced dementia, such care — which focuses on managing and easing symptoms, reducing pain and stress, and increasing comfort — improves quality of life, controls costs, and enhances patient and family satisfaction. But, as the demand for such care grows with the aging population, more must be done to ensure an adequately trained workforce. The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act would increase palliative care and hospice training for health care professionals, launch a national campaign to inform patients and families about the benefits of palliative care, and enhance research on improving the delivery of palliative care.

Congress.gov

PCHETA

With a strong bipartisan vote in an otherwise partisan environment, the U.S. Congress just delivered a victory to millions of Americans currently living with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers.

By passing the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (P.L. 115-406), Congress has authorized $100 million over five years (FY20-FY24) to build and enhance the U.S.’s public health response to the Alzheimer’s crisis.

“The 114th Congress saw the advancement of critical legislation to increase access to care planning and support services. The Alzheimer’s Association, AIM, and our advocates led the way on the HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act (which was designed to provide comprehensive care planning services following a dementia diagnosis) to provide Medicare coverage for care planning services for those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments. Because of our efforts, congressional cosponsorship numbers soared, and in November 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a decision to pay for cognitive and functional assessments and care planning. In 2017, for the first time, people living with Alzheimer’s will have access to care planning with a medical professional covered by Medicare.

A new Medicare billing code–known as G0505–now allows clinicians to be reimbursed for providing care planning to cognitively impaired individuals.”