The Medicare Caregiver Training Program has proposed family caregiver training provided at no cost to caregivers. Although these measures do not help to get the family caregiver monetary resources, it is a huge first step. Making caregiving training services available through Medicare is essential to assisting access to these vital services for caregivers who need them.
The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services broadly defines caregivers as family members, friends, or neighbors who provide unpaid assistance to a person with a chronic illness or disabling condition. According to the AARP, data from 2020 shows nearly 42 million Americans provided unpaid care to people 50 and older. Family caregivers are the backbone of services and support in this country, helping older adults, people with disabilities, and veterans live independently in their homes and communities. The physical, emotional, and financial challenges they face in caregiving cannot be overstated.
A new proposal from the Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services addresses this failure to support caregivers as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Executive Order to Support Caregivers. For the first time, it would authorize Medicare payments to healthcare professionals to train informal caregivers who manage medications, assist loved ones with activities such as toileting and dressing, and oversee the use of medical equipment.
The proposal covers individual and group training and is a long-overdue recognition of informal caregivers’ role in protecting older adults’ health and well-being. Caregivers continually have to face caregiving tasks they are unsure how to handle. The training would help reduce self-doubt, anxiety, and stress from not knowing the correct care. The hope is that the caregiver training would happen at each location or level of care change in the loved one’s life. For example, hospital to home, rehabilitation, retirement community, nursing facility, etc.
“We know from our research that nearly 6 in 10 family caregivers assist with medical and nursing tasks such as injections, tube feedings, and changing catheters,” said Jason Resendez, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving. But fewer than 30% of caregivers have conversations with health professionals about how to help loved ones, he said.
Even fewer caregivers for older adults – only 7% – report receiving training related to their tasks, according to a 2019 report in JAMA Internal Medicine. Medicare would cover the cost of the education and training. The expectation is that Medicare will start paying for the training services in 2024.
Over 60 organizations support this change, including AARP, the Family Caregiver Alliance, the National Alliance for Caregiving, the National Council on Aging, and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers. You can read this letter from AARP to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for complete details.
Some of the issues with this new proposal that will need to be resolved:
- Can training be provided to more than one family caregiver? Many times, there is more than one person providing care.
- The broad definition for caregivers states that being unpaid is a requirement. However, this should not be a defining qualification because other family members often try to help the caregiver by giving them money.
- What should the frequency of training be? Should it be a one-time visit or ongoing training? As a caregiver, you know that your education and training needs change over time.
- The consensus is that the training should be done at home, whenever possible.
- The only people making money on this proposal are the practitioners. The caregivers also need some form of compensation.
- How does a practitioner’s office offer in-home training while busy with other patients?
To learn more about the Medicare Caregiver Training Program, you can visit these sites:
Regulations.gov, Docket No. CMS-2023-0121, Proposed Rule, Medicare and Medicaid Programs; CY 2024 Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule… posted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servies, July 13, 2023
U.S. News & World Report, New Medicare Proposal Would Cover Training for Family Caregivers, August 9, 2023
ABC Action News WFTS Tampa Bay, Family Caregivers Want to Know What Government Proposed Caregiving Training Will Look Like, September 21, 2023
