HomeCare Editors’ Top 5: Week of September 12

Senators Push for Pre-Claim Delay After “Complete Mess” in Illinois
Two U.S. Senators have called for a controversial home health pre-claim review demonstration program to be delayed in Florida, and they reiterated concerns over how pre-claim threatens providers and patients. (Tim Mullaney/Home Health Care News)

Gaps In Care Persist During Transition From Hospital To Home
For elderly patients, leaving the hospital is fraught with risk. Most are sent home or to nursing facilities after just a few days, still reeling from acute illnesses — not to mention the chronic conditions they are also confronting. (Anna Gorman/Kaiser Health News)

“A Lot of Our Plaintiffs Have Died Waiting To Get Out of the Nursing Home”
The suit, filed in 2010 by University Legal Services, AARP Foundation Litigation and the private law firm of Arent Fox, is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 13. It contends that an estimated 500 to 2,900 people with disabilities are “unnecessarily institutionalized in nursing facilities, segregated and isolated from their families and friends. These individuals desperately want to return to their communities.” (Tara Bahrampour/The Washington Post)

Raising An Alarm, Doctors Fight to Yank Hospitals Into the Modern Era
Walk into the intensive care unit in just about any American hospital, and you’ll be bombarded with beeping and blaring noises and flashing lights. It may look high tech. It’s not. (Usha Lee McFarling/Stat News)

Handymen, Homecare Help Seniors Trying to Age In Place
Where you live plays a big role in staying independent as you age. Now researchers say an innovative program that combined home fix-ups and visits from occupational therapists and nurses improved low-income seniors’ ability to care for themselves in their own homes. (Lauran Neergaard/AP The Big Story)