Category: Aging

Photographer’s 12-Year Quest to Document Her Life Produces a Rich Portrait of Aging

Twelve years ago, Marna Clarke was seized by a desire to examine what she looked like at age 70 — and to document the results. This creative project has sustained and engaged her since.

Nursing Home Surprise: Advantage Plans May Shorten Stays to Less Time Than Medicare Covers

Private Medicare Advantage health plans are increasingly ending coverage for skilled nursing or rehab services before medical providers think patients are healthy enough to go home, doctors and patient advocates say.

Severe Sleep Apnea Diagnosis Panics Reporter Until He Finds a Simple, No-Cost Solution

An industry has grown up around sleep apnea, stirring concerns about overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

Britain’s Hard Lessons From Handing Elder Care Over to Private Equity

Four Seasons Health Care collapsed after years of private equity investors rolling in one after another to buy its business, sell its real estate, and at times wrest multimillion-dollar profits from it through complex debt schemes. The deal-making failed to account for the true cost of senior care.

Death Is Anything but a Dying Business as Private Equity Cashes In

Investors are banking on increased demand in death care services as 73 million baby boomers near the end of their lives.

Covid Still Kills, but the Demographics of Its Victims Are Shifting

Californians were far less likely to die from covid in the first seven months of 2022 than during the first two years of the pandemic. Still, the virus remained among the state’s leading causes of death in July, outpacing diabetes, accidental death, and a host of debilitating diseases. We break down who’s at risk.

Clearing Pollution Helps Clear the Fog of Aging — And May Cut the Risk of Dementia

Two studies published this year provide evidence that older adults’ cognitive health may benefit if air quality is improved.

‘An Arm and a Leg’: The New Cap on Medicare Drug Costs

In this episode, Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KHN, guides listeners through decades of dealings between Congress and Big Pharma.

While Inflation Takes a Toll on Seniors, Billions of Dollars in Benefits Go Unused

With prices of necessities rising dramatically, many older Americans are having trouble making ends meet. They often don’t know that help is available from a variety of programs, and some sources of financial assistance are underused.

‘It’s Becoming Too Expensive to Live’: Anxious Older Adults Try to Cope With Limited Budgets

Three women explain how life’s surprises can catapult their efforts to carefully manage limited budgets and lead to financial distress.