Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500 today, advocating for those with Alzheimer’s Disease as his Mother has the disease.  He was not in the lead until the very end of the race when the lead car ran into a wall after taking a turn wide.

Dan’s win brings nice publicity to the goals of the Alzheimer’s Association to educate and support those with this form of memory loss.

Understanding the types of memory loss and the ways to provide for care are important steps to take when caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease, which touches everyone from former presidents to race car drivers.

Seniors struggle with paying for their prescription medications, with many seniors having monthly drug bills of $500 or more.  High blood pressure, heart conditions and even memory loss can be treated with medications.  The drug companies lobbied heavily for Medicare insurance drug coverage benefits to meet their profitability needs.

Now, pharmaceutical company CEO’s share that they have raised prices “just for to make more profits”.  The entertaining part of these comments at a recent industry conference is that drug companies argued they needed to raise prices to cover the excise tax they agreed to pay in order to pass President Obama’s healthcare reform but they failed to mention the substantial increase in sales due to everyone having health insurance.

David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca, said that there is no good transparency on pricing in the United States market, one of the few countries where companeis can freely raise prices.

One of the benefits of national healthcare programs is that these countries will negotiate the drug prices.  Federal law in the U.S. prevents the government from negotiating with drug companies over theprice of drugs.  If a drug is approved by the FDA, medicare and Medicaid, the taxpayer, has to pay for it.  A simple reform law could allow Medicare and Medicaid to bargain with drug suppliers the same way insurance companies do — and would save billions in national healthcare costs, while forcing drug cmopanies to start competing with each other on prices as well as safety.

Drug company Shire (SHPGY) CEO Angus Russell said:  “Prices were just shoved up every year to make more money and meet earnings, to be blunt.”  He was referring to mass market drugs used to treat common conditions like high blood pressure.

Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) CEO Andrew Witty said that everyone else was raising prices but they did not and thinks that ultimately prices will come back down.

The costs of medical care is the reason for 60% of bankrupticies in the USA and when seniors run out of money to pay for care, their long-term nursing care is paid for by Medicaid.

Dr. Oz, who know has his own television show, after being introduced to the world on Oprah’s show, visited with Chicago residents on Thursday to discuss healthy living and health care.  He also shared some of his ideas for changes to our approach to health care which would make maintaining good health easier.

Caregivers have the challenge of monitoring the health of the seniors they care for and seniors and their family members have the challenge of tracking their medications and health conditions among all their doctors. 

Dr. Oz advocates genetic testing to help understand the diseases we all would be most likely at risk for, while also being mindful that our parent’s generation did not perhaps eat the same diet we eat today and may not have maintained a daily exercise program.  We know the healthy foods to eat today and we know that 30 minutes of daily exercise delivers many health benefits.  If you practice healthy eating and daily exercise, you can at least know what additional areas you should monitor based on your genetics.  For instance, Dr. Oz discovered he actuallyhas low risk for prostate cancer but is at a high risk for macular degeneration.  There are additional vitamins he can take to help with keeping macular degeneration from developing and he can be sure to have regular eye exams to catch the disease early, should it develop.

Dr. Oz also discussed the sharing of health records and indicated that many doctors do not want the health records emailed to a patient because they receive so many phone calls from the patients asking for explanations of the recorrds.  If they are in a format that is difficult to translate for the non-doctor, then they invite concern.  Dr. Oz’s practice delivers health records with detailed information to make it easy for patients to understand the information.  His hospital created a health vault to make it easy for patients to access their records.

Dr. Oz also discussed frivolous medical lawsuits which have driven up the costs of health care.  He discovered his hospital had paid more than $25 million in premiums for insurance protection from lawsuits and there had only be $3 million in claims.  The rest of the suits were settled to avoid the costs of litigation.  Dr. Oz suggests having a court where everyone can see the claims and a judge can settle them, to deter the large amount of frivilous suits.  Everyone makes mistakes in any industry and it is simple enough for a doctor to make good on a mistake but being sued for items that make no sense should be ended.

Dr. Oz’s website provides tools for healthy diets and exercising to help you enjoy life at all ages to assist you to plan for a healthy retirement.

Improving Advanced Illness Care: The Evolution of State POLST Programs. by: Naomi Karp – AARP Public Policy Institute, Charles Sabatino …

2011 Survey of 50+ Oklahoma Residents on Electric Utilities. by: Cassandra Burton, AARP Research & Strategic Analysis | from: Surveys and Statistics | May 2011. …

Caregiver resumes are not always required for senior care positions.  But by creating a resume, you will be able to show your professionalism and highlight your skills and experiences.  This will assist hiring companies to verify your skills and reasons for wanting to pursue a career in caregiving.

Caregiver turnover can be as high as 50% or more at senior care companies.  Some of this turnover cannot be prevented as senior clients may pass away or get better and many professional caregivers choose to take time off when this happens.  In addition, care needs can change quickly, causing changes in schedules and a caregiver may not be able to accommodate this.  Some positions are temporary for short-term respite care needs to relieve a family member.

However, professional caregivers who are dependable and compassionate can always find another caregiving position as also many new senior care job openings occur daily as seniors may have a new medical condition which requires care after they are discharged from a hospital or nursing home stay, such as a hip replacement, stroke or memory loss.

Senior caregivers should expect to change positions because of these specific industry nuances.  Learn how to create a quality resume and update it as you develop more skills.

You may use a free resume builder on Caregiverlist and apply for a senior care position in your area.

Patient Responsibility in Health Care: An AARP Bulletin Survey. by: Teresa A. Keenan, Ph.D., AARP Research & Strategic Analysis | from …

Healthy @ Home 2. by: Linda L. Barrett, Ph.D., AARP Research & Strategic Analysis | from: Surveys and Statistics | April 2011. Enlarge; …