CHARLESTON, W.Va.–After the CARE Act was unanimously approved and signed last week, AARP West Virginia state director Gaylene Miller explained how the new “common sense” bill would support caregivers and patients alike.
The CARE Act is a bill with stipulations that support caregivers when loved ones are hospitalized. Miller said the first requirement of the law is to designate a caregiver.
“The legislation requires that upon hospitalization that a health care facility records the name of a caregiver on the medical record of the loved one,” she explained. “So the patient has the opportunity to designate a lay caregiver.”
She said the first part of the law encourages communication between the hospital and the caregiver, and leads to the second part of the law, which is notifying the caregiver when the patient would be discharged.
“Most importantly, the bill requires that the hospital gives that caregiver education and instruction on the medical tasks,” Miller said. “Things like medication management, injections, wound care, or transfers, which they’re going to need to perform when they get home.”
She said that it’s important because the patient not only gets better home care but it also saves money in Medicare and Medicaid with readmission to the hospital, and that the law received widespread support.
“We were really excited that the bill got bipartisan support,” she said. “Care giving reaches across all kinds of groups and it’s an issue that really resonates because we know that all kinds of people are struggling with these care giving tasks.”
Miller said that more than 300,000 family caregivers in West Virginia are faced with the challenges of caring for loved ones every day.