ElderWeb

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced the launch of a new Web site to help Indiana residents find discounted or no-cost prescription drugs. The Web site asks users for age, income and insurance information to determine their eligibility for low-cost drugs. Patients and doctors can enroll in discount programs through the Web site or by calling a toll-free number. Daniels said that he opposes programs that help residents purchase medications from abroad, saying that he didn't want to take the chance that anyone is hurt by counterfeit or expired medications.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Daniels is a former executive with Eli Lilly and Co., and the web site indicates that it a collaborative effort of a group of pharmaceutical companies and health organizations.

The site is located at http://rxforindiana.org/.

Doctors are strongly encouraged to initiate discussions about end-of-life directives with their older patients, according to a study in the January issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study was led by William M. Tierney of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

Researchers found that doctors think patients should initiate such a conversation and patients think the doctor should bring it up, so no one is doing it. In additions, they found that some doctors thought their patients won't like such conversations, and that they might worry patients needlessly, especially older patients. However, the study reports that elderly or chronically ill patients who had such conversations with their primary care physician were happy they did.

They surveyed 686 patients who were at least 75 years old or at least 50 years old with serious underlying diseases, along with their 87 primary care physicians, and found that 98% of the participants had never spoken with their primary care physician about end of life details. 51% of the patients who discussed end-of-life directives evaluated their later office visits as excellent, but only 34% of those who did not have such discussions rated later visits as well.

The Indiana State Department of Health is providing Report Cards for all certified nursing facilities within the State of Indiana. Because survey results are technical in nature, they are sometimes difficult for consumers to interpret. In an effort to make survey results more available and understandable, a summary and scoring system was created for presenting key survey results, called the "Nursing Home Report Card.". This system was developed by the Indiana State Department of Health in conjunction with the Indiana Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and the Indiana Health Care Association, which represent nursing facility providers throughout Indiana.

The information provided includes survey results compared to prior years and to state averages, name and ownership changes, federal and state licensure actions and certification actions, and more.

Indiana has implemented a new program to help people over age 65 without drug insurance to pay for the cost of prescription medicines. The new program, called HoosierRx, began in September, and is available to people with incomes below $940 a month for single people and $1,266 a month for married couples. Those who qualify can receive refund certificates every three months, starting January 2001. The refunds will cover up to half of those seniors' prescription costs in each quarter, up to $1,000 a year. The program is funded by Indiana's portion of the tobacco settlement.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Indiana Attorney General's office conducted a sweep of 46 funeral homes in the Indianapolis metropolitan area to test for compliance with the FTC's Funeral Rule. Nine of those homes appeared to be in violation of the Rule. The sweep-- part of an ongoing nationwide law enforcement program -- was coordinated by the FTC's Midwest Region and the Indiana AG's office, with assistance from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Using test shoppers, the FTC, the Attorney General's office and AARP volunteers visited the funeral homes to determine whether the homes provide consumers with a copy of an itemized general price list and show consumers itemized casket and outer burial container price lists -- key requirements of the FTC's Funeral Rule. (The Funeral Rule is designed to ensure that consumers making funeral arrangements receive price lists and are informed that they can purchase only the goods and services they want or need.)