A new White House initiative invests $206 million to help meet shortfalls in health care for senior citizens. Forty-two academic institutions tasked with improving geriatric care and training much-needed health care providers will receive the funds.
The Growing Need for Elder Care in America
Americans are living longer. More than one in six people in the U.S. is over age 65, an increase of 1,000% since 1920 when the average life expectancy was just 54. And the population of people over age 85 is projected to more than double before 2040.
The increase in older Americas has experts predicting a shortage of health care providers and infrastructure.
One report projects a shortage of 30,000 geriatricians, who specialize in caring for people over 65, by next year. The future of geriatricians looks bleak, too. Most medical students have little exposure to the subspecialty, and low reimbursement rates for Medicare patient care make it among the lowest paid medical specialties.
Grants Aim to Recruit, Train Workforce
But the infusion of funds and attention by the Biden-Harris Administration has the potential to improve situation.
The Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program is the cornerstone of a coordinated effort “to identify opportunities to improve health workforce recruitment, retention, and career advancement.” It will provide special attention to physicians, nurse practitioners and other health care clinicians who “provide age-friendly and dementia-friendly care for older adults.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra has been especially vocal about the need to secure a strong and capable health care workforce, pledging his fullest support for this initiative. Supporting efforts to reform Medicare and reduce red tape like burdensome prior authorization would go a long way toward helping keep physicians in the workforce.
Support for “Aging in Place” Can Reduce Demand on Facilities
In addition to a larger workforce, more assisted living and nursing homes will be needed to support the glut of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other cognitive disorders.
Pandemic-era burnout and staffing challenges impacted nursing homes especially hard: the nation lost some 600 care homes over the past six years. Additional federal funding may be necessary to encourage new facilities to open and to help existing homes meet higher costs. Even still, helping seniors “age in place” could relieve pressure on the system.
To this end, some of the programs receiving the new federal grants are also training family members to be primary providers of care to their loved ones. By helping family members to collaborate with primary care providers, community health workers and in-home helpers through the grant, can enable more seniors to stay in their own homes well into their later years, even with some physical or cognitive challenges.
A multi-pronged, ongoing effort will be necessary to fully address the challenge of providing quality care for seniors, but the Biden-Harris Administration deserves credit for the most recent round of grants toward this aim.
