The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced it would relieve the burden on healthcare providers and save them over $1 billion a year by removing Medicare requirements considered unnecessary, obsolete, or excessively burdensome, reports Healthcare Finance News . The rule would remove requirements for ambulatory surgical centers to perform pre-surgical assessments and instead defer to the operating physician's judgment to ensure that patients are assessed appropriately. Another provision would eliminate a duplicative requirement on transplant programs to submit data and other information more than once for "re-approval" by Medicare. A third proposal would allow multi-hospital systems to have a unified and integrated quality assessment and performance improvement program for all of their member hospitals instead of having individual staff for each separately certified hospital. An emergency preparedness proposed rule, meanwhile, would revise requirements for annual reviews to allow facilities to review their plans at least every two years.

Researchers found that it is possible to detect dementia from conversations in human-agent interaction using machine learning, according to a study published in IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine and cited by ScienceDaily . The researchers proposed machine learning algorithms for detecting signs of dementia in its early stages, developing a dementia detection system using interactive computer avatars. They created a model for machine learning based on features of speech, language, and faces from recorded dialogues with older participants. Using the technology, a computer was able to distinguish between individuals with dementia from healthy controls at a rate of 90 percent in six questions (two to three minutes per question).

An estimated 320,000 seniors across Minnesota covered by Medicare Cost will need to change health plans in the coming months because of a federal law eliminating the policy next year in most of the state. The 2003 law says Medicare Cost plans cannot be offered in areas with significant competition from Medicare Advantage plans. Congress delayed the law's implementation until 2019. About 20 million people in the United States are covered by Advantage programs, while only about 630,000 people had Cost plans in June, reports the Associated Press .

The retirement savings levels of working age Americans remain deeply inadequate despite economic recovery, according to a new study by the National Institute on Retirement Security . The analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found, among other things, that the median retirement account balance of all working individuals (not just individuals with retirement accounts) is $0. Even among workers who have accumulated savings in retirement accounts, the typical worker has a balance of $40,000. Furthermore, some 68 percent of individuals age 55 to 64 have retirement savings equal to less than one times their annual income, far below what they will need to maintain their standard of living over their expected years in retirement. The study also found that 57 percent (more than 100 million) of working age individuals do not own any retirement savings account assets.

Between a recent White House directive and more legislative proposals from Capitol Hill, plan executives and other retirement security advocates are encouraged that, while it might take months or years to see concrete change, Washington is paying attention to retirement issues, reports Pensions & Investments . The ideas coming out of Washington include promoting open multiple employer plans (MEPs), reducing paperwork burdens on plan sponsors, establishing tax credits to encourage small employers to offer retirement plans, setting higher default contributions for automatic enrollment and escalation in defined contribution plans, and updating timetables for required distributions.

Baby boomers are increasingly relying on nurse's aides, personal care attendants, and others to help them remain in their homes as they age. The category of personal care aide is projected to add more jobs by 2026 than any other occupation in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of these aides enter the home as virtual unknowns, reports the Boston Globe , undergoing no background check and receiving little, if any, training. Consumers often know more about what aides cost than whether they can be trusted. And with demand for home aides so high, those seeking care are simply relieved to find someone to take the job. However, this has opened many homes to criminals, as Boston Globe uncovered in its investigation.

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is compiling updates and resources from its federal partners and grantees for those impacted by Hurricane Florence updated. Up-to-date information on emergency preparedness can be found here . Emergency response information is available here . Last year, ACL's Independent Living Administration released guidance for Centers for Independent Living on allowable Title VII disaster response and emergency relief efforts for people with disabilities. That can be found here . FEMA, meanwhile, has prepared a Hurricane Florence page with important resources and updates. For that, and information about other resources, click here .

Citing concerns about access and affordability, the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association (Mass-ALA) has joined the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety in opposition to the proposed nurse staffing question appearing on this year's statewide ballot. "We are concerned that this ballot measure, which could dramatically reduce the availability of nurses beyond hospitals, would create new barriers to care for residents and erode the gains we have made as a Commonwealth in supporting seniors," said Mass-ALA President and CEO Brian Doherty. "We support nurses and value their contributions. We are also concerned about the ballot question's long-term effects on assisted living affordability."

Even at low doses, long-term use of aspirin may be harmful, without providing benefit for older adults who have not previously had a heart attack or stroke, according to a series of studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study involved more than 19,000 people ages 65 and older in the United States and Australia, reports the Washington Post . For older, healthy people, "the risks outweigh the benefits for taking low-dose aspirin," said Anne Murray, a geriatrician and epidemiologist at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, who helped lead the study. The primary risk is bleeding. The study confirmed that a daily baby aspirin increases the risk for serious, potentially life-threatening bleeding. Those who took daily aspirin also appeared to be more likely to die overall, apparently from an increased risk of succumbing to cancer, a finding that was especially unexpected given previous evidence that aspirin might reduce the risk for colorectal cancer. The researchers stressed, however, that the cancer finding might have been a fluke. Nevertheless, there is still strong evidence that a daily baby aspirin can reduce the risk of a second heart attack for those who have already had a heart attack or a stroke. And there is some evidence that daily low-dose aspirin may help people younger than 70 who have at least a 10 percent risk of having a heart attack avoid a heart attack or stroke, according to the latest recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

As more states legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use, the fastest growing group of users is people aged 50 years and older, with especially steep increases among those aged 65 years and older, reports NPR . Some cannabis dispensaries are tailoring their pitches to older individuals seeking alternatives treatments for their aches, pains, and other medical conditions. A licensed cannabis dispensary in Santa Ana, CA, called Bud and Bloom, pays for a free shuttle from various retirement communities in the area. Many of the individuals taking the bus are repeat customers; others are seeking education, says Kandice Hawes, director of community outreach for Bud and Bloom. Despite such enthusiasm, marijuana is not well-researched, says David Reuben, MD, Archstone professor of medicine and geriatrics at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. While cannabis is legal both medically and recreationally in California, it remains a schedule 1 substance, making it harder to study. The limited research that exists suggests that marijuana may be helpful in treating pain and nausea, according to a research overview published last year by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Reuben says he sees a growing number of people interested in using it for conditions such as anxiety, chronic pain, and depression. "I am in general, fairly supportive of this because these are conditions (for which) there aren't good alternatives," he says.