Senior Living

The nursing home ombudsman program is generally failing to do its job of protecting residents from abuse and neglect, according to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, part of the paper's weeklong investigative series on preventable deaths in nursing...

'Nursing Home Compare,' the government Web site that disseminates information about conditions in individual nursing homes, has major flaws that can mislead families seeking a safe facility, according to a Congressional report. More . . .

The federal government has begun issuing statistics on the quality of care in nursing homes, beginning with data on facilities in six states. More . . .

How much you need to live on after retirement depends in large part on where you live. A good place to gauge expenses in different areas is the Web site BestPlaces, which allows you to compare cost-of-living and quality-of-life data...

Around the country, a handful of new approaches are being tried to do away with the hospital model for nursing homes and replace it with care that gives meaning to residents' lives, according to an article in the Washington Post.

Medicare officials have issued guidelines allowing homebound beneficiaries to leave their homes for special occasions--such as family reunions, graduations or funerals--without losing their home health care benefits. More . . .

Most long-term care insurance purchasers younger than age 70 should make sure their policy has a 5 percent compound inflation rider, according to a recent AARP Public Policy Institute study. More . . .

A major new study from Canada concludes that care provided in a home setting is significantly less expensive than long-term residential care--sometimes less than half the cost. More . . .

Instead of hiring outside help, some elders are paying family members to provide their care, and government and private insurers are beginning to reimburse for such care arrangements, according to a Wall Street Journal article. More . . .