Kaiser Health News is reporting that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has temporarily halted some efforts to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments made to Medicare Advantage health plans, so the agency and insurers can focus on patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private health insurers under contracts with Medicare, covering more than 24 million Americans, most of them seniors. Critics warn that the move is an "abdication of oversight." Some of these plans have said they will waive copayments for COVID-19 testing and care. CMS announced earlier that there would be a 1.66 percent rate increase for these plans in 2021. However, CMS audits are the tool used to curb overcharging by these plans, to which the government pays more than $200 billion a year. Those audits are years behind schedule, even as recent reports suggest that the government has overpaid these plans by nearly $30 billion in the past three years alone.

The COVID-19 crisis presents unique challenges for LGBTQ seniors, reports QNS . "Food insecurity was a problem for a lot of LGBTQ elders prior to this and then this just exacerbated it," noted Steven Wilkinson at Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders (SAGE). A significant number of LGBTQ seniors also are HIV-positive and immune-compromised, while the isolation of SAGE clients who are especially vulnerable to avoid infection means that those used to eating meals at senior centers can no longer do so. Meanwhile, New York City started a program to directly deliver five meals weekly to senior center patrons 60 or older, but some have had difficulty accessing that option. "We're also dealing with people who are feeling socially isolated," Wilkinson said. "The calls that were five minutes now can run 30 or 45 minutes because they're missing their friends at centers and they're missing just being social." Many current SAGE programs are continuing on a remote-only basis, including exercise classes, writing courses, Spanish and English as a second language, and support groups.

Many baby boomers who are losing their jobs due to the coronavirus' economic fallout are coming to the realization that this constitutes the end of their working career, reports Forbes . For those suddenly retired, columnist Robin Ryan writes that there are a number of coping strategies. Boomers are recommended to grieve over the loss until they accept it, asking friends or spouses to support them. Boomers also should consult with their financial planner, who may advise that they establish a budget and reduce expenses as they weather the economic storm. Financial counseling will give boomers the knowledge they need to manage their lives once the pandemic is over. Boomers also should formulate two plans — a short-term plan and a long-term one — on how to live during and after the crisis.

Seniors in continuing care communities must contend with mandates to protect them from the COVID-19 epidemic, reports Kaiser Health News . Cancellation of group activities, bans on nonessential visitors, dining room closures, and other strictures to prevent contagion are making residents feel cooped up. Initial resistance to the restrictions among residents appears to have abated amid reports of increasing infections and deaths nationwide in such senior care communities. But full compliance is not guaranteed. "Every community will find there are certain people who have difficulty complying with requests," said Kristin Hambleton with Presbyterian Senior Living, which operates 12 continuing care retirement communities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio. "We are addressing each of those people on an individual basis and discussing with them how their choices can impact the people they live with and the staff that works here." A loss of regular contact with other people can encourage loneliness or depression, while changes in health status that might have been noticed if residents did not show up for dinner now could go overlooked. A lack of stimulation also can cause declining motivation and cognition. In response, communities are having staff check in regularly with vulnerable residents, offering to arrange video visits with loved ones, organizing Zoom interest groups for residents, and creating programming like exercise sessions broadcast over closed-circuit, in-house TV stations.

Rapper and New Orleans (NOLA) native Master P is offering the city's senior population free hand sanitizers and a deep cleaning of their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, reports WBRZ . TMZ said any NOLA resident older than 60 can sign up for a free deep cleaning and receive two types of hand sanitizers, simply by showing their identification. Master P's foundation, Team Hope NOLA, also has been making cash contributions and buying groceries for area seniors during the crisis.

AFP Online (April 10) cites a new study by Chinese scientists, which found that the coronavirus can travel up to 13 feet — more than double the distance current guidelines say people should leave between themselves in public. Led by a team at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, the researchers examined air and surface samples from hospital wards with COVID-19 patients in Wuhan. Their preliminary results were published late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases , a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They add to a growing debate on how the virus is transmitted, with the scientists themselves warning that the small quantities of disease they found at the 13-foot distance are not necessarily infectious.

The Pennsylvania Department of Aging over the weekend launched an online coronavirus resource guide for older residents, according to WBNG-TV . The state agency says this guide has a plethora of useful information related to seniors' health, safety, and well-being. More specifically, the new resource provides older adults, their families, and caregivers with information on subjects ranging from meals and prescriptions to protective services and how to stay active and connected in this time pf pandemic. Various scams that seniors should be aware of are also highlighted. The guide can be found on the Department of Aging's website under "COVID-19 Resource Guide for Older Adults."

A study's initial findings in JAMA Neurology found the brains of people with early Alzheimer's disease have high concentrations of amyloid protein plaques even before other symptoms appear, reports United Press International . These high levels correlate with a family history of disease, lower scores on thinking and memory tests, and reductions in daily mental function. The Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease (A4) study, which runs through late 2022, is looking into whether the drug solanezumab can slow mental decline associated with elevated amyloids if people start taking it before Alzheimer's symptoms manifest themselves. "A major issue for amyloid-targeting Alzheimer's disease clinical trials . . . being addressed with the A4 study, is that previous trials may have been intervening too late in the disease process to be effective," noted U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) Director Richard Hodes. The researchers used amyloid positron emission tomography imaging to screen nearly 4,500 older adults, and identified and enrolled more than 1,300 with high amyloid levels in the brain, but no Alzheimer's symptoms. "A4 demonstrates that prevention trials can enroll high-risk individuals — people with biomarkers for Alzheimer's who are cognitively normal," said NIA's Laurie Ryan. "Ultimately, precision medicine approaches will be essential."

The Trump administration announced over the weekend it will require health insurers to provide free antibody tests that could provide better insight into the scale of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic, reports Politico Pro . Health experts concur that widespread antibody testing, which can detect who has developed immunity against the virus, is essential for being able to ease up on social distancing measures and allow healthy men and women to return to the workforce. The White House said it had authority from recent emergency rescue packages to mandate private insurers to provide such testing without out-of-pocket costs. However, as of press time, the new guidance had not made clear whether the free tests would be extended to uninsured Americans. It remains uncertain how much immunity an individual gains from the novel disease post-infection.

While urban centers like New York City and Seattle have been ravaged in the first couple of months of the coronavirus pandemic, Politico Pro warns that a broader swath of smaller markets already in poor health are now facing heightened risk. A new analysis, combining health data from researchers with a tracker of Covid-19 infections from the New York Times, determined that one in three of the counties now seeing rapid spread of the virus also have some of the highest rates of heart disease among adults 65 and older, which physicians say can leave people more vulnerable to complications. Throughout the country, infections are projected to double within a week in over 240 counties with more than 50 or more Covid-19 cases, according to the Times data. Almost 90 of those counties already have elevated rates of heart problems, with 2016 data showing that 20 percent or more of their senior residents on Medicare were hospitalized for cardiovascular disease over a two-year period. These same communities have a lower median income than the U.S. average and a higher population of non-white residents. Health officials lament that the true rates are likely significantly higher as testing shortages have permitted many infected people to go undetected and continue to spread the virus.