Compared with people aged 65 and older without Alzheimer’s, those with the mind-destroying disease are much more often hospitalized and treated in skilled-nursing centers. Their medical costs also often include nursing home care and Medicare-covered home health visits.That all adds up to at least $33,007 in annual costs per patient, compared with $10,603 for an older person without Alzheimer’s.Ecumen's Janelle MeyersRelated to these rising statistics, Ecumen’s Janelle Meyers was recently interviewed by the Twin Cities’ Channel 12, which covers the Northwest suburbs on the increasing demand in Alzheimer’s. Janelle leads Ecumen’s Prairie Lodge community in Brooklyn Center and was instrumental in leading the development of our behavioral Alzheimer’s care there. Janelle’s inteview is in this newscast, about the third story in.
If you haven’t yet emailed or left a message for your Congress person regarding making long-term care and services part of health care reform, here’s another reason, a new report issued today by the Alzheimer’s Association:The health care costs of Alzheimer’s disease patients are more than triple those of other older people, and that doesn’t even include the billions of hours of unpaid care from family members, a new report suggests.