LILIAN AND BENJAMIN HERTZBERG PALLIATIVE CARE INSTITUTE
PALLIATIVE CARE NEWSLETTER SPRING 2016
Amy S. Kelley, MD Casts a Spotlight on Dementia Costs Healthcare costs for people living with dementia are more than 60 percent higher than those with cancer or heart disease, according to a study led by Dr. Amy S. Kelley, Associate Professor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and a Brookdale National Leader in Aging Research. The study reveals the devastating effects of dementia on patients and on their families, many of whom bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities and significant out-of-pocket costs not covered by insurance. Dementia is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. It has no cure, nor any effective treatments to slow its course. It can last years and sometimes decades. Dr. Kelley and her team of researchers looked at patients on Medicare and used data from the Health and Retirement Survey, a federally funded study. They found that the average total cost of care for a person with dementia over the last five years of life was $287,038. For a patient who died of heart disease it was $175,136, and for a cancer patient it was $173,383. Medicare paid almost the same amount for patients with each of those diseases — close to $100,000 — but dementia patients had far more expenses that were not covered. On average, the out-of-pocket cost for a patient with dementia was $61,522 — $30,000 higher than the cost for someone with heart disease or cancer. This is because dementia patients need
around-the-clock assistance. Caregivers are needed to help with basic activities like eating, dressing and bathing, and provide constant supervision to make sure they do not wander off or harm themselves. None of these costs are covered by Medicare. For many families, the cost of caring for a dementia patient often “consumed almost their entire household wealth,” said Dr. Kelley. There are 15 million Americans currently caring for someone with dementia, one in five will have to quit their job and 36 percent say their careers have been hurt, according to Caring.com. Dr. Diane E. Meier, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, said most families are unprepared for the financial burden of dementia, assuming Medicare will pick up most costs. “What patients and their families don’t realize is that they are on their own. We need to begin to address this issue now to protect families from financial ruin.” The study gained substantial media attention, contributing to awareness of the struggles of patients with dementia, their families and their caregivers. The study findings were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in October 2015. ■
BROOKDALE DEPARTMENT of GERIATRICS AND PALLIATIVE MEDICINE