A recent AARP survey estimated that two-thirds of workers between the ages of 45 and 74 reported witnessing or experiencing ageism, which is a growing problem in the U.S. workforce, according to author Chip Conley in the Harvard Business Review . "The brisk march of progress from the industrial to the tech era has created a strong bias toward digital natives who understand gadgets and gigabytes better than those of us who didn't grow up 'byting' from the Apple in childhood," he writes. "One paradox of our time is that baby boomers enjoy better health than ever, remain vibrant, and stay in the workplace longer, but feel less and less relevant. They worry, justifiably, that bosses or potential employers may see their experience and the clocked years that come with it as more of a liability than an asset." Conley stresses that a change in attitude toward modern seniors must happen, and "mining mastery in organizations fosters more meaningful collaborations between generations and creates the conditions for greater wisdom and success." He writes, "Given that someone who is moving into a retirement home today is, on average, 81 years old, we have many productive seniors in our midst who are growing whole, not just old."

The U.S. House has passed a major opioid bill to expand treatment options, block the flow of fentanyl into the United States, and reduce the number of addictive pills in circulation, reports the Washington Times . The measure combines more than 50 individual bills and clears a path for Senate action and approval from President Trump. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) says the bipartisan passage indicates that Congress is serious about halting the opioid epidemic. Overdoses from opioids killed more than 42,000 Americans in 2016, and the official 2017 count will probably be higher. House leaders expect the Senate to consider the legislation, which calls for a moratorium on Medicaid-payment limits for drug treatment at certain centers, sets up a Web-based "dashboard" of national efforts and strategies to fight the opioid crisis, and connects overdose victims with follow-up treatment. It also mandates that the U.S. Postal Service must demand advanced electronic data on every package from foreign posts by 2021, so customs agents can better target shipments of deadly synthetic opioids from abroad. The House package costs $3 billion, on top of approximately $4 billion that Congress allocated for the opioid crisis in a spending bill earlier this year. However, the legislation is paid for, mainly via changes that return money to Medicaid by permitting states to keep a greater amount of rebate dollars.

Medicare is being revamped by Congress and the Trump administration to provide extra benefits to people with multiple chronic illnesses, reports the New York Times . The additional benefits can include social and medical services, home improvements like wheelchair ramps, transportation to doctor's offices, and home delivery of hot meals. The new law, the Chronic Care Act, has received support from both parties, as well as Medicare officials and insurance companies that operate the Medicare Advantage plans serving one-third of the 60 million Medicare beneficiaries. "This is a way to update and strengthen Medicare," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), an architect of the law. "It begins a transformational change in the way Medicare works for seniors who suffer from chronic conditions. More of them will be able to receive care at home, so they can stay independent and out of the hospital." One-half of Medicare patients are treated for five or more chronic conditions each year, and they account for 75% of Medicare spending, according to Kenneth Thorpe, the chairman of the health policy department at Emory University. Under the new law and Trump administration policy, most of the new benefits will be reserved for Medicare Advantage plans, which will be able to offer additional benefits tailored to the needs of people with conditions like diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, heart failure, rheumatoid arthritis, and some types of cancer.

Humana has partnered with TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe to purchase two hospice chains that together would create the industry's largest hospice operator, reports the New York Times . The partners will take over a branch of Kindred Healthcare that offers both home health and hospice care, while in April they announced plans to buy Curo Health Services from Thomas H. Lee Partners. However, a series of government lawsuits charging negligence and malfeasance against certain hospice providers adds controversy to such moves, as companies have been accused of signing up people who are not terminally sick, refusing visits from a nurse, or even denying a needed trip to the hospital. Oregon Health & Science University Professor Joan Teno warns a profit-driven company delivering care tends to focus less on quality and more on profitability. Both of the companies Humana plans to acquire have been entangled in litigation brought by the federal government. Kindred was fined $3 million in 2016 by federal officials and shuttered some facilities after the government said it could not ensure that it was not overbilling Medicare. Meanwhile, Curo paid $12 million in 2017 to settle charges that it paid kickbacks to reward doctors for sending people to its hospices.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that one in four American workers will be 55 or older by 2024, and companies are reconsidering their accommodations of older employees as they work beyond traditional retirement ages, reports the Christian Science Monitor . "People are getting to their sixties with another 15 years of productive life ahead, and this is turning out to be the most emotionally-rewarding part of life," says Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch. "They don't want to just hang it up and just play golf. That model is wrong." A 2016 survey of human resource professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management found only 35 percent of U.S. companies have examined the short-term impact of the departure of older workers while only 17 percent have considered longer-term impact over the next decade. Since then, employers have sharpened their focus in this area, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's Alex Alonso. "In most boardrooms, there is urgency around the topic these days, but the conversation is around how to sustain the enterprise, with a focus on how to manage a multi-generational workforce," he says. Still, leading-edge employers are beginning to consider creating alternative career routes for older workers with more flexible assignments and schedules, creating opportunities for them to mentor younger workers, and offering phased retirement. "We're definitely seeing growing concern about the drain of human capital among larger companies, and interest in new models for older workers that retain them longer," says Linda Fried with the Mailman School of Public Health.

The White House has proposed merging the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Education into the Department of Education and the Workforce as part of a larger effort to make the federal government "more efficient, effective, and accountable," reports Pensions & Investments . The plan calls for combining all existing DOL and Education programs into a single department with four main subagencies concentrating on K-12, higher education/workforce development, enforcement, and research/evaluation/administration. The enforcement arm would include worker protection agencies from Labor responsible for enforcing laws related to workers' pay, safety, benefits, and other protections, along with federal employees' compensation programs. The Employee Benefits Security Administration would be folded into the Department of Education and the Workforce's enforcement subagency. Opponents to the proposal include Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who said, "The Department of Labor is no more equipped to oversee elementary education policy than the Department of Education is prepared to enforce standards for coal mine safety. The logic behind this proposal is painfully thin." The proposal also would restructure the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by transferring its policy function into the Executive Office of the President. OPM administers the federal pension systems.

A study published in Lancet Psychiatry showed that the progress of major depressive disorder (MDD) got worse linearly with age, so that individuals aged 70 and older had the worst outcomes, after adjusting for clinical, social, and health factors, reports Medscape . The researchers employed data from two cohort studies with a total of 1,042 participants aged 18 to 88. Four indicators were used to characterize development of depression over time: the presence of six-monthy depression diagnoses after two years; a chronic course of depressive symptoms; time to remission; and depression severity change, expressed as the depression severity score at two-year follow-up minus the baseline depression severity. Older age was determined to be significantly associated with a worse two-year course for all four indicators, and the progression of MDD exacerbated linearly with increasing age. The effects were expressed in the presence of a chronic course of depression, and average depression severity change with dysthymia as the predominant driver of depression. Individuals aged 70 years or older had worse outcomes than those in the 18 to 29 range. Rush University Medical Center Professor John Zajecka notes the study "reinforces the notion that traditional antidepressants may not work in all people."

A study published in JAMA Otalaryngology associated cardiovascular comorbidities with accelerated hearing loss in people older than 80, suggesting those conditions could be treated to decelerate this age-related decline, reports Cardiovascular Business . The researchers studied 433 individuals older than 80, average age 89 and 67 percent female. In comparison to people with no cardiovascular comorbidities, those with at least one condition averaged additional hearing loss of 5.47 decibels when quantified by low-frequency pure-tone average (LFPTA). The comorbidities included coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension, diabetes, history of cerebrovascular accident, and smoking. Subjects with at least one comorbidity had a LFPTA hearing loss of 1.90 decibels annually, compared to 1.18 annually in those without any cardiovascular disease. CAD had the highest correlation with hearing loss of any of the conditions studied, and its presence was linked to exacerbating word recognition equivalent to three additional years of age-related decline. Moreover, the comorbidities appeared to affect men more than women, with CAD in men associated with 8.81 decibel hearing loss in mean LFPTA and 6.82 decibel hearing loss in high-frequency pure-tone average, versus a 4.27 decibel LFPTA loss in women. Meanwhile, only men with hypertension and diabetes had statistically significant hearing loss compared to healthy controls. Most of the mechanisms suggested to explain the connection between CVD and hearing loss are based on the notion that CVD damages blood flow to the cochlea.

A study published in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing suggests oncology nurses should discuss self-care needs with family caregivers and guide them to all available resources, reports Oncology Nurse Advisor . The researchers interviewed 20 family caregivers of persons with solid tumor cancers, and used a quality-of-life tool featuring four domains of well-being: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. They determined care for family caregivers by oncology nurses is required across all the domains, and caregivers may have many physical, psychological, social, and spiritual problems which nurses can acknowledge and encourage them to get counseling. The findings emphasize the fact that cancer exacts a financial cost, and oncology nurses may need to advocate for and offer support to help address the financial pressures and burdens imposed on family caregivers and those with cancer. The researchers cite nurses as essential for evaluating financial strain and getting social workers or financial counselors involved.

A study published in Neuron notes the presence of two common herpes viruses in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer's, reports National Public Radio . The researchers also found evidence suggesting the viruses can interact with brain cells in ways that could accelerate the disease. "The data are very provocative, but fall short of showing a direct causal role," says National Institute on Aging Director Richard Hodes. "And if viral infections are playing a part, they are not the sole actor." The team originally was using genetic data to search for differences between healthy brain tissue and brain tissue from people who died with Alzheimer's, for the purpose of identifying new drug targets. Instead, the team kept finding clues that brain tissue from people with Alzheimer's contained higher levels of viruses. They learned that levels of the HHV-6 and HHV-7 herpes viruses were up to twice as high in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer's. "We mapped out the social network, if you will, of which genes the viruses are friends with and who they're talking to inside the brain," says Mt. Sinai Professor Joel Dudley. The team ascertained that the herpes virus genes were interacting with genes known to elevate the risk for Alzheimer's, and that these risk genes appear to make a person's brain more exposed to infection with the two herpes viruses. Dudley notes once the viruses are activated, they seem to influence the buildup of the plaques and tangles in the brain associated with Alzheimer's.