Notable & Quotable

“This is a critical time for us in home care. We need to convince Congress to make some changes to the Medicare competitive bidding program. We need to assure the passage of the [Home Oxygen Patient Protection] bill, No. 621 … Home care is an essential, cost-effective part of the solution to the looming health care crisis in America. It is our job to make sure Congress understands our plight.”
— Alan Landauer, chairman of Mt. Vernon, N.Y.-based Landauer Metropolitan and chairman of the American Association for Homecare. Speaking at AAHomecare’s Legislative Conference last month, Landauer (right) — shown with past association chair Tom Ryan (left) and Sen. Arlen Specter — also noted that “there has been a cloud of fraud and abuse that hangs over our industry … Congress must understand that CMS and the NSC must be held responsible.” Said Landauer, we are “the good guys.”

500 million people were age 65 and older in 2006, a number projected to grow to 1 billion by 2030.

Source: National Institutes of Health

80% of older adults have at least one chronic condition and 50 percent have at least two.

Source: HHS/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Coordinating Center for Health Promotion

1 of 8 U.S. federal health care dollars is spent treating people with diabetes.

Source: The National Changing Diabetes Program

100 million people will have Alzheimer’s by 2050.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Hawaii State with the best health care system. Mississippi was ranked last.

Source: Commonwealth Fund

11% Percentage by which health-care costs for employers are likely to rise during the next 12 months.

Source: Aon Consulting

Good TV shows can cause overweight. In general, people eat more when watching TV, but the more entertaining the show, the more food is consumed. Less food is consumed when shows are boring.

Source: Reuters/The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation