FRIENDS

Established in 1995, Caregiver Media Group has become the recognized media authority on caregiving through Today’s Caregiver magazine, caregiver.com, the Fearless Caregiver Conferences and companion book, as well as the company’s award-winning custom publications. Today’s Caregiver magazine includes up-to-the-minute advice and interviews with celebrity caregivers such as Dana Reeve, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, and Debbie Reynolds, information on caregiver.com includes topic-specific channels, free weekly email newsletters, and chat rooms.

www.caregiver.com

CarePages.com is the first site dedicated solely to helping caregivers and patients, their families, and their friends facing health care issues and other life events. It offers free, self-created web pages that make it easy for these individuals to talk to and comfort each other, plus unique resources to guide them on what to do and say. Today, millions of members from 190 countries participate in this nurturing community.  CarePages, Inc. is part of Revolution Health Group LLC, whose goal is to empower people to take control of their health care. For more information, please visit www.CarePages.com.

CarePilot is the Internet's leading source of information on local home health agencies and services. Helping select the right care option for an aging relative or friend is a daunting task and a major decision.With one out of every two people in the United States 65 and older expected to ultimately need long-term care, CarePilot enables individuals to search for, compare, and select from more than 8,000 Medicare-certified home health care providers in communities throughout the U.S.

Caring Today magazine offers practical advice to the family caregiver. Launched in 2003, it is a magazine family caregivers can turn to for straight talk and sound advice for dealing with the issues involved in providing care for family and/or aging parents. It features gear and gadgets, and health and nutrition information, plus help with long-term financial and legal planning.

Caring Today magazine also offers support and inspiration to the caregiver through shared stories and ways to keep life in balance. Caring Today is published six times a year. It is available in doctors' offices, hospitals, and home care agencies across the country and also by subscription.

www.caringtoday.com

The Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) is leading the national charge to develop and deploy technologies that can improve the aging experience in America. CAST has four focus areas:

1. Driving a national vision of how technologies can improve the quality of life for seniors while reducing healthcare costs
2. Accelerating technology R&D pilots with seniors to fulfill this vision
3. Advocating to remove barriers to the rapid commercialization of proven solutions
4. Promoting national dialogue about standards to ensure interoperability and widespread access to aging services technologies

Established in 2003, CAST has become a national coalition of more than 400 technology companies, aging services organizations, research universities, and government representatives.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, better known as CMS, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

CMS' mission is to ensure effective, up-to-date health care coverage and to promote quality care for CMS beneficiaries.

CMS has oversight for Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

To learn more about these programs, how to enroll, program benefits, and other helpful tools, go to CMS.gov

To learn more about the "Health Implications of Caregiving" program, download this PDF >>

To read the CMS Fact Sheet on the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, click here.

More information on physician pay issues is available here.

More information on therapy caps is available here.

More information on Durable Medical Equipment (DME) is available here.