The Medicare donut hole is that period that kicks in after Part D beneficiaries have racked up around $6,657.50 in drug costs. Medicare stops paying for medication until they reach another threshold. While in this coverage gap, many people opt for generic drugs because they’re normally cheaper than the brand names.

But a new policy gives beneficiaries in the donut hole 50-percent off brand-name drugs. So, the Post reports, they can end up being less expensive. For example, there’s the story of 80-year-old beneficiary Stan Dress:

When he filled his prescription for UroXatral, a medication to treat an enlarged prostate, the pharmacy substituted the generic, giving him a 90-day prescription of Alfuzosin for $224.97 instead of the $142.16 he had been quoted for the brand name.

Dress thought it was a fluke, but the same thing happened a few months later when he spent $196.07 for his high blood pressure medicine Losartan. The brand name version, called Cozaar, would have cost $140.35 – $55.72 less.

For more on saving money with Medicare, check out these posts:

• Find Cheaper Medicine With Online AARP Calculator
• New Medicare Benefit: Weight-Loss Counseling
• Which Medicare Services Are Free? Where to Find Out
• Medicare “Extra Help”: Seniors Not Signing Up

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents. If you have any questions about this post or are need help finding senior-care options for a loved one, call 1-866-483-4896 to speak with a care advisor in your area.

The program is accepting applications until February 6. According to a press release, participants must:

• Have multiple chronic conditions
• Be covered by original, fee-for-service Medicare
• Require someone’s assistance with two or more activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, eating or walking.
• Have had a medically-necessary hospital admission within the last 12 months
• Have received rehabilitation services in the last 12 months

The trial may accept as many as 10,000 people. You can read more in the press release and apply to the program at CMS.gov.

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

Additional monthly sessions will be covered for up to six months afterward if the beneficiary has lost at least 6.6 pounds (3 kg) during the first six months. …

Counseling must take place in a primary care setting such as a physician’s office. It will not be covered when provided in skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, emergency departments, outpatient surgery centers, or hospices.

The article, “Medicare Will Pay for Obesity Counseling,” says not everyone is happy about this development. Some are concerned about the extra money being spent, and some wonder whether it will work.

Are you interested in the weight-loss counseling, or do you think it might be good for your senior parents?

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

Denver’s ABC news program 7NEWS reports that local resident Gaylene Garbizo went to fill her mother’s Alzheimer’s medicine—the generic version of Aricept—at a pharmacy chain and saw that it was $276.

Garbizo said when she went to work later that day she started searching the cost of the drug online. That’s when she said she almost went into shock when she discovered she could get the same medication for about $15 at Costco. …

The $15 cost she found was Costco’s non-member price. She said it was around $8 for members. Non-members can use Costco’s pharmacy, but not other parts of the warehouse.

You can read the story, or watch it in a video, here: “Cash Can Be Cheaper Than Insurance For Prescriptions.”

You may also be interested in:

• Drug Prices Increase: Are Your Aging Parents Cutting Back?

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

Examples include 24-hour-a-day care, homemaker services like cleaning and laundry, personal care provide by home health aides like bathing and dressing and assistance to the bathroom, [Mary Johnson, a policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan seniors rights group] says.

You can read the post here: “Will Home Health Care Get Pricier?”
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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

Hospital Compare provides ratings and other information about hospitals. Recently, Medicare added some safety numbers to the database. But Kaiser Health News reports that not everyone approves of how the data’s being interpreted. Hospitals that treat sicker patients or do more surgeries may rank worse even if their care is up to par, some say. For example:

Atul Grover, head of advocacy for the Association of American Medical Colleges that represents teaching hospitals, said some of Medicare’s measures also make teaching hospitals look worse. “If you’re not appropriately risk-adjusting on this, you’re already selecting a patient population that’s more likely to die,” he said. “That’s why they come to us, because other people are reluctant to operate on those complex cases.”

You can read the story at MSNBC.com: “How Safe Is Your Hospital? New Website Lets You Check.” How would you pick a hospital?

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

The Dear Abby column offers a number of suggestions from readers—including checking with senior centers.

Many senior centers offer this service for medical appointments and procedures. The drivers are covered by insurance and are trained on customer service techniques. My husband has taken many people for this procedure. He typically leaves his number with the medical staff, who call him when the patient is ready to be picked up.

You can read all the suggestions here: “Singles Needing Volunteer Help Have Many Options.” You may also be interested in these previous OurParents posts:

• Rides for Seniors: How Your Parents Can Remain Mobile When the Car Keys Are Taken Away
• Transportation a Factor in Decision to Age in Place

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

In North Dakota’s The Jamestown Sun, one retiring nursing home administrator looks back at how nursing homes have evolved. The paper reports:

People used to go to the nursing home and stay there for long periods of time, perhaps until death. Now, many people stay in long-term care just long enough to get rehabilitation after an injury or illness, and some of them are repeat customers. About 40 percent of the residents of Eventide discharge and go home, or to assisted living.

You can read the article here: “Riffe Says Nursing Home Care Always Evolving.” Other types of care people use these days include assisted living and in-home care.

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who specializes in health and aging issues. She covers finding and paying for senior care for OurParents.

Elderly people are more vulnerable to extreme temperatures than younger adults, so if your aging parents don’t have air conditioning or don’t want to turn it on due to cost, you might consider pointing them to their local senior center.

In San Antonio, for example, the city “has pin-pointed 37 ‘cooling locations’ throughout the city,” reports the San Antonio Express-News. They include senior centers and libraries.

Though attendance at Commander’s House Senior Center has been steady, members have been sticking around longer than usual in the past month, recreation supervisor Gloria Sandoval said. The center’s hours have been extended to 6 p.m. at least through Tuesday.

“Folks typically leave after lunch or one or two activities, but they’ve been hanging out,” Sandoval said. “Which is a good thing for us — that’s what we’re here for.”

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who covers finding and paying for long-term care for OurParents.

For people who don’t require around-the-clock nursing care, home health care may be a viable alternative to a nursing home. DiGiorgi writes in a column featured at the Taunton Daily Gazette website:

In order to qualify for Medicare’s home health benefit, a senior must be considered “homebound,” meaning that leaving the home is difficult and done infrequently. A senior may attend medical appointments or leave the home occasionally for other special reasons and still be considered homebound. To qualify for the home health benefit, a senior must need some skilled nursing care periodically or skilled speech or physical therapy.

You can read her full column here: “Helping Seniors Stay at Home.” And you can search for home health care agencies in your area here. Look for those that offer skilled or health services. (Not all do.)

You may also find the following OurParents posts helpful:

• Choosing Home Health Care? Watch out for the Braggers, Says Blogger
• New Home Health Care Medicare Rule: See a Doctor

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Leigh Ann Otte is a freelance writer who covers finding and paying for long-term care for OurParents.