HME Bookshelf

Making Medicaid Work: A Practical Guide for Transforming Medicaid

Researched and written by medical and legislative authorities including Rishabh Mehrotra, president and CEO of health advocacy group SHPS, and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and founder of the Center for Health Transformation, this guide compiles best practices and emerging health care trends into a roadmap for comprehensive Medicaid reform.

As the program continues to provide services to 50 million Americans and long-term care for 20 percent of the nation’s seniors — all at unsustainable costs — its authors hope the text will spur open dialogue on Medicaid reform.

Among their recommendations for the $320 billion program, which is expected to grow to $580 billion by 2016? Shifting expenses to Medicare.

“Only 50 percent of doctors will accept a new Medicaid patient — compared to more than 70 percent for Medicare and privately insured patients … Shift some of the cost burden — particularly costs associated with long-term care for the frail elderly — to Medicare or other government programs.” — Making Medicaid Work, page 11

With health care reform ranking near the top of America’s “to-do” list, Making Medicaid Work: A Practical Guide for Transforming Medicaid gives a glimpse into the authors’ view for the future of all government health care programs. Copies are available via the SHPS Web site at http://www.shps.com/corp/home/index.stm.

The Comfort of Home Caregiver Guide Series

Whether a patient suffers from chronic lung disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis or stroke, The Comfort of Home series has a step-by-step guide for the in-home caregiver.

Divided into three parts — “Getting Ready”, “Day By Day” and “Additional Resources” — the books in the series outline the best practices for specified home care, practical tips for activities of daily living as well as pointers for more difficult challenges and wide-ranging lists for resources, further reading and study. Each installment is illustrated for easy reference and includes money-saving ideas to prevent injuries and infections, which might result in extensive — and expensive — hospital stays.

The series was written by Maria M. Meyer, philanthropist and president/publisher of CareTrust Publications, and Paula Derr, RN, clinical educator and co-owner of InforMEd. Many of the books feature third authors, each a topic-related specialist or a specialty organization. The series is available, online at www.comfortofhome.com.

Home Telehealth: Connecting Care Within the Community

Compiled from the works of a long list of contributors, Home Telehealth addresses the needs and challenges the home care and hospice industries will face with the pending influx of baby boomers. Throughout its illustrated sections — ‘Basics”, “Techniques” and “Applications” — the book details the ways in which telehealth may be the wave of the future for medical care.

By means including PDAs and electronic health records (EHRs), telehealth applications are poised to revolutionize modern medicine, with applications in the areas of home dialysis, diabetes, home health monitoring, home-based telecardiology, remote asthma monitoring and other areas. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the various aspects and offerings of the new technology. Copies are available through the publisher, The Royal Society of Medicine Press Limited, online at http://www.rsmpress.co.uk.

The Future Of Long-Term Care In America

With sources including the AARP, the National Alliance for Caregiving, the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s Center for Aging Services Technology, The Future of Long Term Health in America takes a comprehensive look at the directions long-term care is taking and the implications of continuing on the nation’s same course.

The book provides stats on the advantages of home care and home- and community-based services. For instance: “About 63 percent of Medicaid long-term care spending is for institutional care versus 37 percent for HCBS. This goes against good sense and good economics. It makes sense that people are better off physically and emotionally when the care they need is available to them in familiar places where they want to be.

“As they age, most people want to be at home. Generally, nursing homes are more expensive than HCBS. In many cases, HCBS can be delivered at a lower cost.” — The Future Of Long Term Health In America, page 8

This book is available through the publisher, Genworth Financial, or online at Amazon.com.

Dialysis Without Fear

Written by Daniel Offer, M.D., Marjorie Kaiz Offer and Susan Offer Szafir, this book visits the misconceptions and realities of dialysis, including treatment options, transplant decisions, dietary restrictions and the implications of dialysis on work and finances.

The book is formatted for patients and their families (there are more than 400,000 patients on dialysis in the United States alone) and is designed to empower those undergoing treatment to live the best life possible. Offer, himself a dialysis patient, taps into his medical training to walk the reader through each step of the dialysis process, noting how each decision can affect not only the patient but the patient’s family and loved ones.

An excellent resource for patients, Dialysis Without Fear contains a glossary of terms and an appendix of helpful resources. Copies are available through the publisher, Oxford University Press, or online at Amazon.com.

Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America

Chosen as one of the best consumer health books of 2006 by The Library Journal, the book examines the controversial cases of Terri Schiavo, Nancy Cruzan and Christine Busalacchi, among others, to assess the complex legal and ethical conundrums of modern medicine.

Using court records, personal interviews and firsthand accounts, Unplugged helps readers understand the implications of current laws and proposed legislation, various medical options (including hospice) and the typical end-of-life decisions that must be made from an informed and caring stance.

The book is written by William Colby, the attorney who represented the family of Nancy Cruzan in the first right-to-die case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, but is not intended is an advocacy piece. Rather, the book employs research and scholarly references in an attempt to raise dialogue about the issue. The book is also highly recommended by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Copies of the book are available through the publisher, Amacom, online at www.amacombooks.org.

How Many Wins Have You Had Today? A Book About Winning

For anyone — patient, caregiver, HME provider, doctor, nurse — who loves a tale of triumph amid adversity — all from the first-person experience of a paraplegic. Paralyzed from the neck down in a 1977 water skiing accident, Jeff Eben lost his ability to pursue high school and collegiate athletics. But, through the combined forces of hope and determination, Eben pushed forward, earning a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a master’s in Educational Administration. Today, Eben is a husband, father, teacher, coach, administrator, author and speaker. Copies are available through Garden of Eben Publishing Co., Clovis, Calif., or online at www.jeffeben.com/gep.htm.