THOSE WHO follow the reporting of medical developments in the search for a cure to Alzheimer’s disease have learned to be wary of headlines that promise breakthroughs. Overly optimistic reports, such as the linking of aluminum cook-wear to Alzheimer’s have been reported prominently and then discredited, less prominently. The same is true of headlines promising legal breakthroughs. It is important to read such reports in depth and with a critical eye.
The front page of The New York Times carried the following headline on March 21, 2002: “Medicare Is Now Covering Treatment for Alzheimer’s.” This overly optimistic headline was misread by many to mean that Medicare had agreed to cover long-term custodial care at home or in a nursing home. One of the seminal forces that contributed to the formation of the field of elder law was the impoverishment caused by disparate treatment of patients by disease. There have been calls for remedial legislation ending the distinction between skilled and custodial care. The headline seemed to herald a significant expansion of Medicare benefits. The reality of the situation is that no such change has occurred. What has happened is important, but not the landmark change the headline suggests. Medicare has agreed to stop denying benefits that it should have been covering. Medicare has admitted computers were programmed to routinely deny legitimate claims based upon the sole fact that the patient had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
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