New state-by-state resource for caregivers

For anyone who’s helping look after an older relative, the Family Caregiver Alliance’s state-by-state Family Care Navigator, which we mentioned in a blog post last month, is now up and running. Just click on this map for information on services available in your or your relative’s state.

Feds list more low-quality nursing homes

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched a new feature on its Nursing Home Compare Web site last week listing 134 homes it considers “special focus facilities,” or SFFs.

SFF is fedspeak for homes with a history of poor performance or repeated violations of health and safety rules.

To see the list, which is in pdf format, go to this page and scroll down to the downloads section and click on "Special Focus Facility Background Info and List - Updated 4/23/08."

For basic advice on choosing a nursing home, see our special 2006 report.

Helpful resources for caregivers

If you’re helping look after an older relative and happen to subscribe to our Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter, watch for your June 2008 issue. It features an article on caregiving when you and your relative live miles apart.

But whether you’re in a distant state or the very same house, caregiving presents some challenges. Here are three useful resources we came across at the recently concluded 2008 Aging in America conference. 

• The Family Caregiver Alliance offers numerous fact sheets and other information. The group also plans to launch a new, state-by-state list of resources called the Family Care Navigator in the near future.
• The National Center on Senior Transportation, a government-funded program administered by Easter Seals, offers this guide to local transportation options for older people and their caregivers.
• If you need help assessing an older person’s needs or arranging for appropriate services, you may want to consult a geriatric care manager. The National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers provides this guide to the field, along with an online directory of members that you can search by city or Zip code (click on “Find a Care Manager”).

Smart moves for older homeowners (who’d rather not move)

For an upcoming report on products and services that can help older people make their homes safer and more convenient and thereby live there longer, one of our staffers recently covered the annual Aging in America conference in Washington, D.C.

We know that “upcoming” might not be soon enough if you’re already dealing with these issues for an older family member or perhaps for yourself. So, in the meantime, here are three of the most useful resources our staffer found:

• For a general overview of home modifications, as well as how to pay for them, the Eldercare Locator, sponsored by the U.S. Administration on Aging, offers this helpful fact sheet.
• Falls are the No. 1 cause of injury-related death among men and women over 65. Even when falls aren’t fatal, they often result in impairments that keep people from returning to their homes. The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence at the University of Southern California provides this list of resources.
• Vision loss is another common problem as we age. The AFB Senior Site, sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind, has many simple, low-cost solutions to make a home safer for a visually impaired resident.
  

Health gift-card fees can make you sick

Adding a new twist to the growing gift-card industry, the Healthcare Visa Gift Card from Pennsylvania-based insurer Highmark is designed to be used exclusively for health-care products and services. But as gift cards go, this new one is much like the old ones, with enough fees and restrictions to give you indigestion.

Though the health-care gift card is billed as "a unique way to let loved ones know just how much you care," it’s little more than a bank-issued gift card with all the typical ailments. Want to buy one? That’ll cost you $4.95, plus a minimum $1.25 shipping fee. Lose it? Pay $4.95 for a replacement. Want to close out the account and take the balance? That’s another $6.95. Still have a balance after eight months? A monthly $1.50 fee will be deducted from what’s left.

So what do you get for all this? Not much. Unlike other bank-issued Visa gift cards, which are valid at most merchants that accept Visa, the Highmark card is supposed to be used only for health-related purposes, such as doctor and hospital visits, dental work, eyeglasses, medications, ambulance services, health spas, and so on. It can be loaded with as little as $25 or as much as $5,000.

It sounds good in theory, but there’s a big problem. The Visa electronic payment system isn’t capable of limiting the individual products purchased with a card, at least not yet. So Highmark does the next best thing: It limits card usage to businesses that typically market health-care services and products. But falling into that category are discount stores such as Target and Wal-Mart, supermarkets, and wholesale clubs (not to mention the candy aisle of your local pharmacy). That means your elderly aunt can use the card to support her cigarette habit, satisfy her sweet tooth, or buy just about anything else her heart (as unhealthy as it may be) desires.

What to do. If you would like to help a loved one pay for health care, there are better ways to do it than buying a gift card. You can simply write a check to his or her doctor for the next visit or pick up the cost of a prescription.

If you really prefer to give a gift card, consider one from a health-care retailer, such as a pharmacy. While you won’t prevent recipients from using the card to buy soda and Cheez Doodles, you will avoid saddling them with a bunch of fees and other annoyances common to the Healthcare Visa Gift Card and other bank-issued cards. —Anthony Giorgianni

Feds list poor nursing homes

The federal government has released its first ranking of what it characterizes as poor-performing nursing homes. The list, published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, singles out 52 facilities across the U.S.

For basic, step-by-step advice on choosing a good nursing home, see Consumer Reports’ special September 2006 report.