Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Medicare

To screen, or not to screen (for dementia), that is still the question

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A lead­ing group of med­ical experts on Tues­day declined to endorse cog­ni­tive screen­ing for old­er adults, fuel­ing a debate that has sim­mered for years.

The U.S. Pre­ven­tive Ser­vices Task Force said it could nei­ther rec­om­mend nor oppose cog­ni­tive screen­ing, cit­ing insuf­fi­cient sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence of the practice’s ben­e­fits and harms and call­ing for fur­ther stud­ies.

The task force’s work informs poli­cies set by Medicare and pri­vate insur­ers. Its rec­om­men­da­tions, an accom­pa­ny­ing sci­en­tif­ic state­ment and two edi­to­ri­als were pub­lished Tues­day in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion.

The task force’s new posi­tion comes as con­cern mounts over a ris­ing tide of old­er adults with Alzheimer’s dis­ease and [Read more…] about To screen, or not to screen (for demen­tia), that is still the ques­tion

Study: Hearing aids may help older adults delay dementia, depression, anxiety, and falls

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Hear­ing Aids Linked to Low­er Risk of Demen­tia, Depres­sion and Falls, Study Finds (Michi­gan Health Lab):

“Old­er adults who get a hear­ing aid for a new­ly diag­nosed hear­ing loss have a low­er risk of being diag­nosed with demen­tia, depres­sion or anx­i­ety in the fol­low­ing three years, and a low­er risk of suf­fer­ing fall-relat­ed injuries, than those who leave their hear­ing loss uncor­rect­ed, a new study finds. [Read more…] about Study: Hear­ing aids may help old­er adults delay demen­tia, depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and falls

September 17th @ UC Berkeley: Disrupting neurodegenerative diseases

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Quick heads-up about a great event next month for those based in the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area.

  • When: Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 17, 2019 / 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM PDT
  • Where: Pauley Ball­room, UC Berke­ley
  • What: 2019 UC Berke­ley Aging Research & Tech­nol­o­gy Sum­mit: Dis­rupt­ing Neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive Dis­eases

Alzheimer’s and neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases are [Read more…] about Sep­tem­ber 17th @ UC Berke­ley: Dis­rupt­ing neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases

Next: FDA-cleared mobile brain monitoring tools to detect cognitive impairment

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neuronetrix

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FDA Has Cleared New Cog­ni­tive Screen­ing Tests (Alz­fo­rum):

“The Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion recent­ly cleared, mean­ing it deemed safe, two tests that may help doc­tors screen for cog­ni­tive decline. One is the so-called Cog­ni­sion sys­tem from Neu­ronetrix, a com­pa­ny based in [Read more…] about Next: FDA-cleared mobile brain mon­i­tor­ing tools to detect cog­ni­tive impair­ment

Brain health center closes after Medicare challenges its medical claims and treatments

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Neurexpand

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New Brain Cen­ter Clos­es Amid Medicare Dis­pute (Bethes­da Mag­a­zine):

“Neur­Ex­pand Brain Cen­ter, the brain fit­ness and devel­op­ment cen­ter that opened in August in Friend­ship Heights, abrupt­ly closed this month amid a dis­pute with Medicare.

Neu­rol­o­gist Majid Fotuhi, NeurExpand’s founder, said that Medicare reviewed the practice’s clin­i­cal pro­gram and [Read more…] about Brain health cen­ter clos­es after Medicare chal­lenges its med­ical claims and treat­ments

Medicare updates reimbursement criteria for “maintenance” therapy services

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ReimbursementA Qui­et “Sea Change” in Medicare (The New York Times):

“In Jan­u­ary, Medicare offi­cials updat­ed the agen­cy’s pol­i­cy man­u­al –the rule book for every­thing Medicare does– to erase any notion that improve­ment [Read more…] about Medicare updates reim­burse­ment cri­te­ria for “main­te­nance” ther­a­py ser­vices