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Nevada Lawmakers Pass CARE Act

This week, Nevada lawmakers have unanimously passed Senate Bill 177, the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable Act, also known as the “CARE Act."

The new law requires hospitals to enter the name of a patient’s home care provider in their medical record. This caregiver will then receive information and instruction on follow-up care after the patient is released from the hospital.

Barry Gold is an official with the American Association of Retired Persons in Nevada.

“This will help the family caregiver who’s tasked with really providing a lot of the care for someone when they’re at home," Gold says.  "It gives them the opportunity to have a smooth transition home, provide better care--which will result in better health outcomes and could avoid a return trip to the hospital, or worse.”

Gold says the new law will also help to cut down on the high cost of medical care in Nevada.

“So that’s over 500,000 people a year that are taking care of their loved ones for no money and that’s saving the state an estimated $4 billion a year of unpaid care—that’s 4 billion with a B.”

The Nevada Hospital Association, the Alzheimer’s Association and other patient advocacy groups supported the bill.

Anh Gray is a former contributing editor at KUNR Public Radio.