Page 4 - Access Summer 2015

4
Wish list of exciting programs and services for Michigan’s older adults
On Thursday, June 4th, many older adults will converge at the state capital in Lansing to celebrate Older Michiganians Day. Some will be advocating for programs and services that would benefit the state’s older adult population, which the U.S. Census Bureau projects will swell to 24% of the state’s population in 2030. So it makes sense to make Michigan a better state to age well. If you’d like to pave the way for change, the first step is to learn about what works and share with others. The next step is to advocate by contacting city and state officials.
While we currently have existing programs that are cutting edge in solving aging issues, there are others across America that are helping elders thrive. Here are four solutions currently underway in other parts of the country that captured our attention:
Purposeful, multigenerational communities
In 1960, Phoenix, Arizona became home to “Sun City”, a new kind of segregated community for adults age 50+, touting a retirement lifestyle, complete with amenities such as a golf course, recreation center, pool, auditorium and more. Within the first two days of its grand opening, Sun City raked in $2.5 million. A year later, the neighborhood had 2,500 residents; ten years later, 15,000 residents; and within 30 years time, Sun City became the seventh largest city in Arizona.
But that paradigm arose just 25 years after the Social Security Act deemed 65 the retirement age. Today, due to the switch from pensions to 401k’s, a shrinking of the middle class and the aftermath of the financial crisis that began in 2007, many of America’s 72 million baby boomers will not be able to retire. Others are looking forward to making their later years purpose-filled.
Residents of Hope Meadows have found that sense of purpose. This multigenerational, planned community is set on 22 acres that was a military base in Rantoul, Illinois, but is now a vibrant community. Older adults, foster families and adoptive families of children with special behavioral and emotional needs blend together to form this tight-knit neighborhood. There are 80 units nestled in this secure and nurturing environment, where children are loved and looked after, adoptive and foster parents are guided and supported; and older adults find purpose becoming the extended family that these children have never had. Serving a unique purpose, everyone pitches in to help one another. Older adults reduce housing costs for volunteer time served.
This innovative multigenerational concept has garnered financial support from the W.K. Kellogg and Heinz Family foundations, prompting the development of similar communities in other parts of the country. Treehouse at Easthampton Meadow located in
Boston, Massachusetts was patterned after Hope Meadows. Bridge Meadows in Portland, Oregon opened in 2011, offering apartment living to older adults and adoptive families of foster children.
There are several other multigenerational communities in the works with different focuses. Osprey Village near Hilton Head, South Carolina will
be home to developmentally disabled adults, senior citizens and non-disabled residents as everyone works together to help one another.
Bastion in New Orleans is another community in the planning stage, bringing together veterans with severe traumatic injuries, their families, and older adults. A navel support base will be transformed into residences for 155 people. All of these communities encourage connected, engaged and purposeful lives. For more information, visit online at www.generationsofhope.org.
Hospitals that offer surgical warrantees
Imagine going in for an operation that comes with a 90-day surgical warranty.
This scenario is a reality for knee replacement surgery patients at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Washington, Hoag Orthopedic Institute
in California and Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania where patients have an added sense of security knowing that after their operation, any avoidable, surgery-related complications will be covered by the hospital. At Orthopaedic Institute
at Mercy in Maine, a facility that numerous national organizations have distinguished as delivering quality care, offers a one-year warranty on surgeries.
In order to qualify for the warrantee, patients must receive all care, from diagnosis to rehabilitation, from the hospital granting the warranty and obtain coverage by a bundled-service agreement through their employer or private insurer.
Sometimes surgical warrantees are available under a bundled payment arrangement. The bundled payment system came out of the Affordable Care Act as a way to reduce costs and prompt better care. For example, under this arrangement, the surgeon, the hospital and anesthesiologist are not paid separately. Instead, a bundled payment follows an episode of care for a specific condition. This payment system provides incentive for health providers to collaborate their efforts. Bundled payments are offered through Medicare, private insurance policies, and employment-based insurance.
The implant itself is not covered under most hospital surgical warrantees, however, manufacturers like Biomet out of Indiana, offer a lifetime warrantee on their Oxford® Partial Knee implant.
Surgical warrantees were originally introduced through the Geisinger Health System in February of 2006 for elective heart bypass surgery. What began