Medicare Offering a Helping Hand Online for Family
Caregivers of Aging Americans
Ask Medicare to provide a one-stop shop for
caregivers to find information
Sept.
22, 2008 Millions of baby boomers find it necessary to become the
caregivers or at least the advisors for aging parents. It is a time
consuming challenge but help has arrived in the form of a new online
initiative by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide
easy access to information about Medicare and other essential resources
to help with caregiving.
Caregivers are often overwhelmed and as part of
this new education effort called Ask Medicare will bea single,
go-to place for help and information, said Kerry Weems, CMS acting
administrator.
There is a genuine need for credible and easy to
use information that provides answers to a wide range of questions
toward helping beneficiaries make better use of Medicare. The Ask
Medicare Web site was designed with family caregivers in mind.
The CMS, part of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), launched the new caregiver initiative through a
live Webcast hosted by Acting Administrator Weems. During the live
online forum, national partner organizations, including HHS
Administration on Aging, AARP, and the National Alliance for Caregiving,
joined CMS in answering questions from caregivers.
Information to Help You Care for Others
Most caregivers do not think of or identify
themselves as caregivers; yet, so many of the resources available to
them use that term. If a person helping someone on Medicare does not
relate to the term caregiver, they may miss a lot of resources, said
Weems.
Extent of Family
Caregiving
● Today, an estimated 120 million adult
Americans (57 percent) are either providing unpaid care to an
adult family member or friend or have provided this care in the
past.
● Currently, 22 percent of the
population -- approximately 46 million Americans -- is providing
care to an adult relative or friend.
● Thinking ahead, 66 percent of the
population -- or more than 138 million Americans -- believe they
will need to provide care to someone in the future.
Caregiving
Landscape
● Caregiving is prevalent across all
economic levels and ethnic groups. Fifty-nine percent of
non-Hispanic Whites in the U.S. are or have been caregivers, as
compared with 53 percent of African-Americans, and 51 percent of
Hispanic adults.
● The majority of caregivers are women.
According to a 2005 survey commissioned by Johnson & Johnson
Consumer Products Company, 56 percent of all caregivers are
women and the majority is over the age of 45.
● Most caregivers are over the age of
45. Today, one-fourth (27 percent) of caregivers are between the
ages of 45 and 54 while 29 percent are 55- to 64-year- olds and
23 percent are aged 65 and older.
● Generally, one person tends to
provide the majority of informal care in family situations.
(Source: National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, 1997).
● Most care recipients are related to
the person who cares for them. More than a third of adult
caregivers (37 percent) are caring for their aging mothers (29
percent) or fathers (8 percent).
Source:
Strength for Caring (Johnson & Johnson - Opinion Research
Corporation, 2005)
Many family caregivers see their roles of providing
help or service to someone they care about as simply the right thing to
do because the person is a family member or a friend. Family caregivers
provide help that includes:
● buying groceries;
● picking up prescriptions;
● taking someone to the doctor;
● helping an elderly parent navigate benefits and plan for the future;
● looking after someone with a disease or disability; or
● caring for a parent in their home.
The Ask Medicare Web site will provide links
to key partner organizations that assist caregivers and beneficiaries,
and present personal stories from caregivers in the community.
Support information and tools to help caregivers
address common problems will also be available. As part of the
initiative, CMS will launch an e-newsletter for caregivers that will
deliver information into subscribers email boxes.
Through Ask Medicare and the new
e-newsletter, CMS will help provide more information to caregivers,
helping to streamline caring for Medicare beneficiaries and ultimately
improve their quality of life and that of their loved ones, said Weems.
Sept.
22, 2008 Millions of baby boomers find it necessary to become the
caregivers or at least the advisors for aging parents. It is a time
consuming challenge but help has arrived in the form of a new online
initiative by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide
easy access to information about Medicare and other essential resources
to help with caregiving.