Aging Parents’ Care — Remote Patient Monitoring

by Kevin K. Johnson, CSA

The National Institute on Aging estimates around 7 million Americans are long-distance caregivers. Aside from economic factors that often drive people far from their hometowns, shifting demographics in the country could exacerbate the issue: Over the next four decades, the share of people 65 and older is expected to rapidly expand while the number of people under 20 will roughly hold steady. That means there will be a far smaller share of people between 20 and 64, the age group that most often is faced with caregiving. That means an increasing burden on the employee that is tasked with the care of an elderly loved one. Long-distance caregiving also has a regional or even cross-town implication in which case, the 7 million figure explodes. We want to know that our loved ones are managing without having to make a personal visit or trust a voice over the phone.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) refers to a wide variety of technologies designed to manage and monitor a range of health conditions. Point-of-care (e.g., home) monitoring devices, such as weight scales, glucometers, and blood pressure monitors, may standalone to collect and report health data, or they may become part of a fully integrated health data collection, analysis, and reporting system that communicates to multiple nodes of the health system, and provides alerts when health conditions decline.

Think of RPM as a 5-step process:      Collect → Transmit → Evaluate → Notify → Intervene

Technologies that support RPM are particularly useful for the elderly, chronically ill, and people who have trouble accessing traditional sites of care and for caregivers to be assured that their loved ones are well. RPM technologies provide essential support for the coordination of care, behavior change (of providers as well as patients), and evidence-based decision support for patients. There are features of remote patient monitoring that can be used by patients, providers, and caregivers. An ideal remote patient monitoring solution takes into account the needs of all three.

As the workforce is increasingly impacted by eldercare issues , without being intrusive, I believe that RPM technologies will begin to play a greater role in helping us to provide the oversight we need that assure our loved ones are fine. I’ll be providing detailed information on specific RPM solutions in future blog postings. I’ll be illuminating practical solutions that can be leveraged in each of the 5 specific process areas that comprise Remote Patient Monitoring.

Reasons We Work with Employers!

by Kevin K. Johnson, CSA

Reasons we work with employers!

As I’ve noted in prior postings, lost employee productivity is very expensive for employers; over $30 billion per year and growing!

Did you know that more than one in six American workers act as caregivers, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released in July 2011, and 24% of those caregivers say that providing care to an aging family member or relative keeps them from being able to work more. As the sandwich generation (those employees who care for young children as well as their aging parents) grows, employers might want to consider offering special-needs seminars as a benefit. Otherwise, they might be at risk of losing talented employees who simply can no longer manage the dual responsibilities of a full-time job and caregiving.

Anywhere from 18% to 23% of caregivers cut back their hours or leave the workforce to provide care in a given year.

Additionally, 22% of caregivers report being exhausted when they go to bed at night, according to the Center on Aging Society. Caregivers also are less healthy than non-caregivers (see our May 19, 2011 blog post): They are 49% more likely to have been diagnosed with depression, while adult caregivers younger than 30 are 63% more likely to have high blood pressure and 61% are more likely to have recurring neck or back pain.

We enjoy working with employers to provide education that addresses these issues. We greatly appreciate working with our partner company’s to assist them in managing this growing issue.

Annual Care Costs in 2011

written by Kevin K. Johnson, CSA

Recently I hosted discussion sessions with employees at client companies. Two topics have been of particular interest with employees. One topic is ”the cost of caregiving services” for both an elder loved-one.  A second topic has been ”how to plan for the required care” for an elder loved-one and for themselves when necessary. 

I thought I would detail some of the costs that employees are concerned about in this blog posting. The issue of “how to plan for the required care” is a larger issue. I’ll discuss that one in our monthly newsletter.

Some of the employees I spoke with had reached the point where they wanted to compare the costs of various alternatives of care. For example, “can my mother stay in her home” and “how much does that cost?” “If she can’t stay in her home, what are the options and how much do they cost?”

ANNUAL CARE COSTS

Genworth recently published information on median costs for several categories of eldercare services. For reference, I’ve included costs for three states.

	Ohio	California	Florida
Home Health Aide	$41,367	$48,048	$41,184
Adult Day Health Care	$12,969	$20,020	$15,600
Assisted Living Facility*	$39,900	$42,000	$31,950
Nursing Home Care**	$69,350	$77,745	$76,777

* Private, one bedroom               ** Semi-private room 

This information provides a frame of reference for alternative comparison on price only. Determining which alternative is best for a specific situation is a more complex issue that we help employees work through.

Home for the Holiday’s … Gather Critical Information on Your Aging Parents

Written by Kevin K. Johnson, CSA

Many years ago I was recruited out of my home town of Cleveland, Ohio and for the next 18 years I only saw my parents periodically; holidays, mother’s day, father’s day, etc…  When I called my parents from out-of-town, they always said they were “fine”, “wonderful”, “doing well”. After a few years, when I visited them for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, it became clear to me that they were NOT “fine”, “wonderful”, and “doing well”! I eventually moved back to Cleveland in large part to be available to assist with caregiving requirements for my parents.

At the end of the year I particularly encourage people to take time to gather critical information regarding their aging parents and have it just in case you need it. This information may not be easy to attain. Parents can be very private so you will have to assist them in understanding that all they have to do is gather the relevent information, then keep it in a safe, secure location that either they or you can access in an emergency.

Also, take time to do this for yourself and your family when you get home.

Remember, life happens fast and in unexpected ways!

Here’s a list of some of the typical information your parents will need to have available. This is also good information for you and your immediate family to keep in a safe secure location!

Bank Accounts and Numbers – You may also want to note where hard copy checks are being stored, if applicable.

Birth Certificate – If you can’t find yours, you can order an official copy.

Brokerage Account Numbers, Account Web Sites and Passwords, Broker Contact Info – Most brokerage accounts have online account information that can be easily accessed.

Computer/Web Site Passwords – These are important for your executor to have in order to close down any open online email services, subscriptions, PayPal accounts, online bank accounts and the like.

Family Contacts – Provide the contact information of professionals who have assisted the family and who the executor will likely need to contact.

Health Records – Provide your executor with all personal health records: this information will be important to the future generations of your family. If you have children who are minors, take the responsibility now to organize their personal health records.

Home Alarm Code and Location of Instructions – It could be pretty embarrassing for your executor to trip off your alarm or not know how it works should you not be around.

Insurance Policies – Make sure life and health insurance policies can be located along with any agent or company information.

Military Discharge Papers – These will come into play if military benefits are due to your beneficiaries.

Organ Donor – If you are a donor, without proper documentation, your wishes will not be observed.

Safe Deposit Box Number and Key – Some have one safe deposit box, others have many. Regardless of your situation, make sure you leave clear instructions as to where yours is and how the executor can access it.

Social Security Number and Card – This is important for identification and benefit claims – not just your Social Security number, but those of your beneficiaries, including minor children.

Trust Documents – If you have created a trust, regardless of type, your executor will need to be able to locate and access the governing documents.

There are a number of other actions that I recommend when I speak to groups and families. The information listed above is a very good starting place. Remember, with issues such as these, pre-emptive action will be extremely valuable for you and your loved ones in the future.

Holiday’s usually include great time visiting with family. Gather this information and make your holiday visit as productive as possible.

Caregiving Statistics

written by Kevin K. Johnson, CSA

Our “Eldercare and the Workplace” blog developed from my personal experiences as a member of corporate management and also from my current experience as a caregiver for my parents; both in their 80′s. My last blog posting focused on the issue of “Alzheimer’s Disease and Workplace Productivity“, and focused on quantifying the specific percentage of workers that are impacted by that specific form of dementia. While researching that narrow topic I wondered about just how prevalent caregiving was overall. While I know caregiving is a major issue for people from all walks of life, and that caregiving was costly to employers (productivity), I wondered what percentage of our population was really impacted by the need to provide caregiving services to elders.

A 2009 comprehensive study (most current information) by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP found that 44.4 million Americans age 18 or older are providing unpaid care to an adult. If we had to pay for this care, it would cost approximately $257 billion per year. From previous research that I’ve presented in a prior blog posting on this site, employer lost productivity due to employees providing caregiving services to their elders approaches $33 billion per year.

Very generally speaking, the typical caregiver is a 46-year-old Baby Boomer woman with some college education who works and spends more than 20 hours per week caring for her mother or father who lives nearby. Additionally,

• Female caregivers provide more hours of care and provide a higher level of care than male caregivers.
• Almost seven in ten (69%) caregivers say they help one person.
• The average length of caregiving is 4.3 years.
• Many caregivers fulfill multiple roles. Most caregivers are married or living with a partner (62%), and most have worked and managed caregiving responsibilities at the same time (74%).

Regarding “caregivers and work” almost 60% of all caregivers either work or have worked while providing care.

• 62 percent have had to make adjustments to their work life, such as reporting late to work or giving up work entirely.
• Male caregivers are more likely to be working full or part-time than female caregivers (66% vs. 55%)

Regarding the question of “who do caregivers care for” most caregivers (89%) are helping relatives.

• Nearly 80% of care recipients are over fifty with the other 20% 18-49.
• Caregivers who help someone age 50 or older say the most common health problems the person they care for has are diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
• One quarter of caregivers helping someone age 50 or older reports the person they care for is suffering from Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other mental confusion.

Finally regarding “caregivers’ unmet needs“:

• The most frequently reported unmet needs are finding time for myself (35%), managing emotional and physical stress (29%), and balancing work and family responsibilities (29%).
• About three in ten caregivers say they need help keeping the person they care for safe (30%) and finding easy activities to do with the person they care for (27%).
• One in five caregivers say they need help talking with doctors and other healthcare professionals (22%) or making end-of-life decisions (20%).

Today’s workplace is challenging enough. Employers are squeezing every bit of productivity possible from the workplace to meet their objectives. These statistics tell us one reason why maximum workplace productivity is a growing challenge to employers.

It’s why we work so hard to help employers successfully manage this invasive workplace issue.