Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures 2010

In 2009, unpaid Alzheimer's caregivers provided 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care, this healthcare service contribution to the country is estimated to be worth $144 billion.....

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures 2010

• 5.3 million people have Alzheimer's disease. See Sobering Statistics about Alzheimer's Disease
• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. See Dementia and the Eight Types of Dementia
• Alzheimer’s disease was the seventh-leading cause of death across all ages in the United States in 2006.
• Alzheimer's disease was the fifth-leading cause of death for those aged 65 and older.
• There are 10.9 million unpaid Alzheimer's caregivers in the United States.
• In 2009, Alzheimer's caregivers provided 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care, this healthcare service contribution to the country is worth almost $144 billion.
• Unpaid Alzheimer's caregivers are usually family members but also include friends and partners. See Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten?
• More women than men have dementia.

The 2010 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures provides a statistical resource for United States data related to Alzheimer’s disease.

To view and obtain a copy of the full report -- Go here.

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80 Percent of Medical Bills Contain Errors -- 20 Percent Don't ( + Video)

.....Or you can do nothing. This is the equivalent of going into your wallet, taking all the money out of your bill fold, and flushing the money down the toilet.....

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Problems with medical billing errors drive me crazy. Not our bills, but the medical bills of relatives and friends. I understand why people might be frustrated or confused. Did you ever try to read a typical medical bill? The only person that can read a medical bill is a person that is trained to read one.

Here is the real issue, only 20 percent of medical bills are correct.

If you took a 100 question multiple choice test and checked A for every answer, it is likely that you would get 25 percent of the questions correct. I am assuming that you didn't bother to read the questions. You would do better by guessing every question on a multiple choice test then a typical medical billing company can do when sending out medical bills. And you weren't trying.

Common errors include double billings, fat fingers ($847.00 instead of $84.70), and just plain old exorbitant charges that can be negotiated down.

When someone complains to me about their hospital medical bill I start by telling them--you are complaining to the wrong person. Then I explain to them what to do about it--pick up the phone and call whoever is billing you. Or you can do nothing. This is the equivalent of going into your wallet, taking all the money out of your bill fold, and flushing the money down the toilet. Wave to your money as it disappears down the toilet drain. Feel good? Make you happy?

I learned a long time ago, you can negotiate down the price of any hospital medical bill. To be honest, its the game they play. A hospital medical bill is like negotiating with a painter on the price to paint your home. If you accept the price the painter gives you without negotiating you are making a mistake. All painters will reduce their estimate if you negotiate.

With a hospital medical bill, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and say--I refuse to pay that amount. Experience tells me that you can get a 20 percent reduction just by opening your mouth--by being proactive. By the way, being proactive does not mean being mean. Start by remembering this, the person on the other end of the phone is just like you or me--they are doing a job. So treat them with respect. You can get more with sugar then you can with vinegar.

If you run into a brick wall trying the above then use my favorite word -- Supervisor. You have to get to the person that "can" make a decision. it is rare that this will be the first person you call about your bill. In fact, the medical billing company will say No several times before they accommodate you.

Medical billing companies know and understand that most people will give up when they hear the word NO. They are counting on it. They train their people to say NO.

This usually means you have to say supervisor several times before you get to the right person. My experience tells me that when you finally get to the right person they are nice, professional and ready to resolve a problem. It is also true that they understand since you took the time to find them, you mean business and won't likely being going away any time soon. It doesn't hurt to say repeatedly along the way, "if you don't get my bill reduced, I am going to hire a professional medical billing advocate".

There is a gigantic business that you might be familiar with -- it is called medical billing advocacy. Ever wonder why this business is gigantic? Because 80 percent of medical bills are incorrect.

By the way, I wouldn't discourage you from becoming a medical billing advocate. They are producing more and more incorrect medical bills each day as the population ages. You can do this job from home.

If you decide to hire a medical billing advocate, never pay any money upfront. If the person you contacts asks for money upfront, hang up the phone. Don't waste time listening to the sales pitch -- hang up.

A good medical billing advocate will charge an hourly fee based on results, or will charge you a percentage of the amount they save you on your medical bill. There are lots of scam medical billing advocacy companies that will take your money and run. You need to be cautious and take the appropriate steps to identify a reputable company to handle your problem for you.

Last year I ran across an excellent video that explains medical billing advocacy. If you know someone that needs this help send them the link to this article. You should also consider bookmarking this page in case you need the advice in the future.

In the video, a woman is told her breast cancer operation will cost $5,000. After her breast cancer operation she received a bill for $12,700. She hired a medical billing advocate who spotted errors that amounted to $5,000. Simple errors like keypunch errors (fat fingers), duplicate charges for the same medication, and exorbitant charges that could be negotiated down by as much as 80 percent.

Watch.

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More About the Alzheimer's Reading Room

• How do Alzheimer's Caregivers Think and Feel?
• Advice and Insight -- Alzheimer's Reading Room
• The Alzheimer's Hamster Within YOU
• Dealing with Difficult Behavior Caused by Dementia and Alzheimer's
• Communicating in Alzheimer's World
• Dr Oz Alzheimer's Memory Quiz (Test)
• Test Your Memory (TYM) for Alzheimer's or Dementia in Five Minutes
• Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients
• Alzheimer's World -- Two Circles Trying to Intersect
• Alzheimer's Disease -- The Front Row
• Is it Really Alzheimer's or Something Else?
• Alzheimer's Clock Draw Test -- Detect the Signs of Alzheimer's Early
• 60 Good Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room

The Art of Dementia Care

Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. Bob has written more than 1,200 articles with more than 9,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room

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Iowa State Students Create a Memory Care Garden for Alzheimer's Patients

You can sometimes connect with a person in the late stages of Alzheimer's by using something from their childhood as a memory trigger--a song or porch swing.....

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

For some time now, I have been trying to think of ways to get more students on this website, and how I might work with students to improve what we were doing here. Students of every age and particularly those that have been touched by Alzheimer's disease.

Max Wallack is only 13 years old. He is providing us with important insights into Alzheimer's disease when he writes on this website. There are many millions of students that are being touched by Alzheimer's disease as I type these words.

I want to get more students involved with the Alzheimer's Reading Room. I am now hoping to find some teachers and benefit from their experience and advice. My first attempt to get students involvement failed -- miserably. Then came Max. Max re-energized and convinced me that I should continue trying.

I ran across this article on the Iowa State University website. For me, this is exciting and important.

Therapeutic gardening is being used effectively with patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Gardening is a good example of "more there", and a good way to help improve the behavior of a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease. There is substantial research indicating that patients recover faster after surgery if they have a view of trees, or are surrounded by plants and flowers.

When you read the article below think broadly. This might give you some ideas on things you can be doing to improve the life of a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and ways to improve your own life as a caregiver. Some of you might want to consider starting a similar project in you own city or town.

Please feel free to tell us about your own experience, or about other projects and programs involving students.

Iowa State class creates a memory care garden for Alzheimer's patients

For the students in Bridget Belkacemi's landscape architecture studio class at Iowa State University, the creation of a memory care garden for Alzheimer's patients is a learning experience they aren't likely to forget.

For the past three months, the 12 students have worked with staff at the Presbyterian Village in Ackley to design and create a therapeutic garden for the facility's newest wing--the dementia care unit. A garden space with a concrete circular path existed, but the garden had not been completed.

Belkacemi, a lecturer in landscape architecture, was looking for a service-learning or outreach project for her six-credit studio for fifth-year students, when she heard about Presbyterian Village from a colleague.

"Last year my studio retrofitted the Hobo Museum in Britt," said Belkacemi. "This time, I wanted to do a healing garden for a nursing home, something calming that would have a really great impact in a community."

Belkacemi called the class "Breathe Studio."

"Breathe seemed like the right word because this type of garden is about stepping away from the hustle and bustle and allowing yourself time to breathe and take in the therapeutic benefits of the garden," she said. "And in Alzheimer's disease, the last thing your brain forgets to do is breathe."

Last fall, she met with Presbyterian Village administrators, who liked her idea and proposed to raise $8,000 for the project. When the class started in January, students created a questionnaire and design checklist for staff. The answers helped guide their choices for various landscape elements and memory triggers.

The concept of memory care gardens started in the 1980s, Belkacemi explained.

"You can sometimes connect with a person in the late stages of Alzheimer's by using something from their childhood as a memory trigger--a song or porch swing, for example," she said. "And because the gardens keep patients more active, they help produce positive responses in the patients."

For the garden design, students carefully chose each element to elicit soothing memories of childhood in a German farming community in Iowa--from a clothesline and hand pump to corn plants and lilacs.

The students created two functional areas within their plan for the 36-foot-by-52-foot space (which includes the 8-foot wide circular sidewalk). One area is a viewing garden, the other a working yard.

The viewing garden has a front porch area with a shade trellis system, a glider and movable chairs.

"The plants in this section will be ones that attract birds and butterflies. There will be a humming bird feeder and birdhouse in the center," Belkacemi said. "The plants are memory triggers-- hydrangea, lilacs, hollyhocks and delphiniums. They are typical flowers in rural Iowa communities."

The working yard features a garden shed with tools and plastic watering cans, a wheelchair- accessible planting box, a working hand pump and a clothesline.

"We'll have Iowa fruits and berries to pick, like thornless raspberries, elderberries and wild plum. There will even be a couple of corn and soybean plants for the farmers," Belkacemi said. "And a wheelchair-accessible planter will contain the bulk of the vegetable garden. Tomatoes, string beans, beets, and peas are just some of the vegetables to be included."

Under the building's portico, students are crafting a transitional zone with benches and shade where patients can don gardening hats and gloves while adjusting their eyes to the brighter outdoor light. And, by taking advantage of a hillside and planting weeping plants (weeping willow, spirea and forsythia), they can create an enclosed space for the entire garden.
Presbyterian Village staff have been involved in the design throughout the process.
"Staff are really excited about the garden because it will feel more like home for the patients who are farm wives and town ladies and were avid gardeners," Belkacemi said.

During the weekend of April 18, Belkacemi worked with Ackley volunteers and FFA students to prepare the garden space by amending the clay soil--digging it up, loosening it to create air space, and mixing in mulch and compost. During the weekends of April 25 and May 2, students from the class will plant the garden and install the trellis, shed and other elements.

The students--most are landscape architecture majors-- say they've learned things in the Breathe Studio not covered in other studios. They've gained hands-on construction experience--from preparing construction documents to building garden structures. They've also learned more about specific plants.

"Not only are we learning more about plant material, we're learning in a human-garden sense," said Mary Bumgardner, St. Paul, Minn. "You really have to think of the significance of a plant's memory triggers, the edible qualities, the safety issues. It's been very interesting."
The service project at the core of the Breathe Studio attracted the students to the class, according to Angela Roberson, a senior from Mesa, Ariz.

"One thing I found appealing that has become more engrossing during the class was the idea that we're helping and what we're doing is going to make a difference in some way. We're taking an active role; I think that's kind of cool," she said.

"We knew we were signing up for a healing garden class," Roberson said. "But I've honestly been pleasantly surprised. This course has definitely surpassed my expectations."

http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2009/apr/garden.shtml
Contacts:
Bridget Belkacemi, Landscape Architecture, (515) 294-7230, bridgetb@iastate.edu
Teddi Barron, News Service, (515) 294-4778, tbarron@iastate.edu

Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room
Enter Your Email Address

More About the Alzheimer's Reading Room

• How do Alzheimer's Caregivers Think and Feel?
• Advice and Insight -- Alzheimer's Reading Room
• The Alzheimer's Hamster Within YOU
• Dealing with Difficult Behavior Caused by Dementia and Alzheimer's
• Communicating in Alzheimer's World
• Dr Oz Alzheimer's Memory Quiz (Test)
• Test Your Memory (TYM) for Alzheimer's or Dementia in Five Minutes
• Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients
• Alzheimer's World -- Two Circles Trying to Intersect
• Alzheimer's Disease -- The Front Row
• Is it Really Alzheimer's or Something Else?
• Alzheimer's Clock Draw Test -- Detect the Signs of Alzheimer's Early
• 60 Good Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room

"I Remember Better When I Paint"

Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. Bob has written more than 1,200 articles with more than 9,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room

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Hospice by the Sea Wins and Dotty Has a Good Time

We had a good time. It was a wonderful effort by ordinary people. And amazingly, Dotty was more alive and aware then she has been in quite a while.....

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

We made it to the Hospice fund raiser last night. As they announced the names of all the resident volunteers here at the Pines of Delray I was really impressed. A long list of people chipped in to make it happen.

The Pines of Delray is about a half a mile long and a quarter mile wide. A tiny place. When I put that into perspective and see how much money was raised it shows me what can be accomplished by a small group of people. More than is usually imagined. I wondered to myself, I wonder what would happen if we could get the entire country pulling in the same direction?

The interesting thing is this is a middle class demographic. The generosity is impressive.

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Suspecting Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Trial (BMS-708163)

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

This is a very interesting Phase II clinical trial. Basically, the researches are looking for people that are suspecting Alzheimer's either on their own or because someone around them suspects Alzheimer's. In other words, the person is experiencing memory loss, or senior moments that are disconcerting.

"By learning more about the early stages of the illness, we may be able to delay or prevent full Alzheimer's," said George Grossberg, M.D., director of geriatric psychiatry and principal investigator for the study at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. "With this study, we want to know if a medication can help people who may be having a few senior moments, before those issues develop into daily memory problems that affect their ability to function on a regular basis."

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