Families and caregivers, including adult children and the aging parents they care for, will benefit from a new Maine law that took effect Oct. 15. The CARE Act — formally titled the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable Act — requires hospitals to work with a designated caregiver before discharging a patient back home. The law is part of a national initiative supported by the senior advocacy organization AARP to enable aging Americans to thrive in their own homes and communities.
In effect, the CARE Act encourages patients, especially the frail elderly, to name a caregiver to help with their follow-up care after discharge. It requires hospitals to ask patients — or their legal guardians — at admission if they already have such a caregiver or want to name one. If they do, the name becomes part of the patient record and the hospital notifies the caregiver when the patient is expected to be discharged. Before discharge, the caregiver receives detailed information and hands-on instruction about the patient’s discharge orders, including medications, dressing changes, diet, activity and follow-up appointments.
The primary goal, said bill sponsor Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, is to help keep all patients safe and well in their homes and communities and to reduce hospital readmissions. While some elderly Mainers are supported by professional home-based caregiver services, Gattine said that “there is also a huge network of friends, family members and neighbors who help folks get by in the community.”
Many informal caregivers play a part in keeping patients well, he said, but too often lack access to critical information from the hospital.
Hospitals agree with the goals of the new law, said Maine Hospital Association spokesman Jeff Austin, and have the additional incentive of new Medicare rules that monitor readmission rates.
“Hospitals love having competent, available caregivers at home to finish the care people need to keep from returning to the hospital,” Austin said. But, he added, the Maine Hospital Association worked to amend the initial language of the bill so that hospitals are not required to delay discharge if a named caregiver is is not “reasonably available.”
“For the majority of patients, not a lot has changed,” Austin said. “But for those who go into the hospital alone, [the new law] broadens the previous obligation to ensure the patient has every opportunity to identify a caregiver.”
Lori Parham, director of AARP for Maine, said the law is part of a national strategy aimed at improving working conditions and support for both professional and lay caregivers. Similar laws have been enacted in at least 17 other states, she said.
There are more than 178,000 unpaid caregivers providing support to elderly Mainers, according to a recent AARP survey.
“Too often there is a disconnect between the acute care setting and the community environment,” Parham said. “This law is in place to give family caregivers more information, to help them when they bring a loved one home from the hospital.”
AARP provides many resources for family caregivers, including the downloadable publication “ Prepare to Care: A Resource Guide for Families.”
