Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: he more than 6 million Americans living with Alzheimer 's disease face a future filled with progressive loss of their cognitive abilities ending with certain death (1).They will eventually require help in all aspects of daily living, and that help is provided by over 11 million unpaid caregivers (2).At this time, Alzheimer's remains a clinical diagnosis and unfortunately, many individuals who would meet the diagnostic criteria are not diagnosed (3).The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) accelerated approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm™) as a treatment for Alzheimer's makes early detection, accurate diagnosis and quality care even more critical, to ensure individuals receive the most benefit at the earliest point possible.Furthermore, the approval of this treatment opens up a new landscape in Alzheimer's care that comes with many implications for effective public policy to enhance access to quality care.This drug is a complement to comprehensive care, not a substitute for care.All individuals living with Alzheimer's, at every stage of the disease, should have access to high quality comprehensive care, including care planning, management, and coordination.However, access to quality dementia care is limited for many older adults, due to a shortage of specialty physicians (4).Primary care providers have limited capacity and expertise to assist in all the areas of need associated with dementia (5), and especially traditionally non-medical activities such as counseling, education, and referrals to community-based organizations (6).Meeting the growing demand for dementia care requires increasing the specialty workforce and improving capacity in primary care, including the expansion of successful collaborative and coordinated care models/programs that use primary care providers.Pilot programs for individuals with dementia have reduced hospital and emergency room visits and nursing home placement (7).A change in payment structure to value-based payment is also necessary to enable effective dementia care management.The Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer 's Act (S. 1125/H.R. 2517) would ask the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to implement a dementia care management model to test the effectiveness of comprehensive care management services.This dementia care management model would provide comprehensive care services including caregiver education and support,
Authors: B. Kallmyer, M. Daven, L. Thornhill, K. Clifford, R. Conant, Maria C. Carrillo
Institution: Alzheimer's Association
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,780
OpenAlex ID: W3187094024