 worry and trips to the doctor or ER than it helps.
Too Much Medicine?
Approximately 21% of medical care is unnecessary, according to physicians who responded to a survey by Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical School. This includes prescriptions, tests and procedures.
Overtreatment costs $210 billion in U.S. but it can also cause harm to patients from side effects to unnecessary treatments including surgery as well as stress and anxiety.
Side effects from prescriptions can range from simple dizziness to nausea and more. Sadly, side effects can have a cascading effect in that a doctor may treat a side effect with more medication because he did not realize the symptom was a side effect from a medication. Adding new prescriptions may result in complicated drug interactions. You can see how this snowballs.
Over-testing with x-rays, imaging and scans can lead to worry, stress, more testing and sometimes unnecessary treatments. Even a finding of cancer from a screening test may not warrant treatment depending upon the age of the patient, other conditions and the nature of the cancer itself. Some cancers develop so slowly that an elderly patient may be fine without treatment.
Why do physicians overtreat? Fear of malpractice, pressure from patients and lack of access to a patient’s medical history.
What can you do?
- Ask your doctor about options before you start a new drug or agree to a procedure ‘Do I need to decide/act today?’
- Understand the downside of your treatment options – many seniors suffer more from certain treatments than from the illness.
- As you grow older, evaluate how you want to live your life and end your life. Would you prefer to be home with your family or in a hospital fighting for every breath? Tell your doctor and your family what you want. Include your wishes in your estate planning documents.
Plan Before Crowdfunding for Someone Who is Disabled
Many of us have been quick to send a few dollars to a Crowdfunding effort for a child who lost a parent or victims of a natural disaster but if you are thinking of doing something similar for a family member or a friend with a disability, make sure you don’t disrupt the person’s benefits.
If a Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid beneficiary has direct access to funds raised through Crowdfunding it is likely that the funds will be considered a countable resource -- even if the campaign was launched for a specific purpose such as buying a vehicle. There really isn’t any way to prevent the recipient from using the money for other things.
If you want to launch a Crowdfunding for someone with a disability, set up a supplemental needs trust for the beneficiary first and then direct the money from the Crowdfunding into the trust account. Be sure to work with an attorney who has experience with SNTs like the attorneys here at Estate & Elder Law Services. We often work with clients to help them remain eligible for benefits.
Visit our web site to learn more about trust-based planning and give us a call when you are ready to get started. 302-651-0113.
Doctor’s Office Dementia Tests are Often Wrong
If you’ve been to the doctor lately, you probably were asked to take a simple test to detect early signs of dementia. You might have been asked to look at a picture and make observations or answer a series of questions.
But a new report finds that those ‘fast tests’ often get it wrong – about one-third of the time!
The findings are related to three widely used quick dementia tests: the "Mini-Mental State Examination" (intended to assess mental orientation and verbal memory); the "Memory Impairment Screen" (which tests verbal memory); and "Animal Naming" (which gives patients one minute to quickly name as many animals as they can).
Each test seems to have a different bias such as age, ethnicity or education level.
The study concludes that while quick tests need to be improved, they can still play a role in detecting dementia if the doctor understands the bias with each test AND uses them as a screening tool, not a diagnostic tool.
As a patient, you should be aware that the tes