Senior Prescription Savings

Systems for public financing of long-term care (LTC) and for regulating and monitoring the quality of LTC services in four developed countries--England, Australia, Germany and Japan--are examined in this AARP Public Policy Institute Issue Paper by a team of researchers headed by Joshua M. Wiener of RTI International. (89 pages)

People who continuously participate in community groups are often spared losses in psychological well-being after developing functional limitations, according to an article published in the latest issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (Vol. 62B, No. 1).Individuals who were ongoing members of religious organizations in particular showed higher levels of personal growth than those who were not. [click link for full article]

AARP at a news conference on Wednesday said that examining how Medicare reimburses physicians and managed care plans and giving the government the authority to negotiate prescription drug prices under the Medicare drug benefit are at the top of the group's legislative agenda this year, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) - Ontario's deputy chief coroner says a recent outbreak of C. difficile at a Mississauga, Ont., hospital could be linked to an earlier outbreak in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) - A spokeswoman for a hospital in Mississauga, Ont., says at least one of four patients who recently tested positive for C. difficile bacteria after death had the same strain that's killed some 2,000 people in Quebec.

TORONTO (CP) - The same virulent strain of C. difficile that has claimed some 2,000 lives in Quebec since 2003 was positively identified Wednesday in a Toronto-area hospital that's battling more than a dozen cases of the deadly bacterium.

TORONTO (CP) - Can a Royal dissing by Prince Charles take some of the fun out of a Happy Meal? With all respect, apparently not. "It's just a fast-food place - I don't think it's bad," said Matthew Davison, 26, who was chowing down on a cheeseburger in Halifax.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) - Fourteen patients at a Mississauga, Ont., hospital have been diagnosed with C. difficile, a bacterium that turned deadly in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Quebec. Medical officials were unable to determine if C.

USA Today on Thursday examined "boomerang" retirees -- "seniors who moved away early in retirement and are returning home" because they are "lonely, in failing health or want to be near family" -- and efforts by communities that "are seeing this return migration of older retirees ... to accommodate them" (Nasser [1], USA Today, 2/22). According to [click link for full article]

AARP will celebrate a re-opening of their Lakewood, Calif., Service Center next week following the purchase of the facility used by the organization since 1985.