05 Apr 2002

Medicare recipients with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease can now receive reimbursement for physical and psychological therapy treatments, according to policy change first reported in the March 31 New York Times. Prior to the policy change, which was quietly put into effect at the end of last year, many private Medicare contractors would routinely deny coverage for patients with Alzheimer's disease on the assumption that people with AD were incapable of any medical improvement.

A coalition of patient advocate groups and the American Bar Association lobbied the Bush Administration to stop this practice. They were able to produce a host of recent evidence that mental health services, hospice care, or home health care can keep many patients functioning on their own and out of nursing homes, thereby providing considerable cost savings to the government and families. This additional Medicare benefit will be become increasingly important as physicians are able to diagnose the disease at earlier stages, when therapies are likely to be most useful.—Hakon Heimer

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