News
H.C.R. 2004 News No. 1 (June/14/2004）
- Examination of the Care Insurance
- Safety and User-Friendly Home Care & Rehabilitation Equipment Sought After
- H.C.R. 2004
Examination of the Care Insurance
In preparation for the Long-Term Care Insurance law revisions for fiscal year 2006, the system is being reviewed. With the increasing number of elderly persons certified as being in need of a low level of care services, close consideration is being given toward enhancements to prevent the need for care and to improve rehabilitation services. Benefit standards for home and institutional services and out-of-pocket payments of users are also being analyzed as well. Most elderly persons prefer to live independent lives at home. As more and more attention is being given to home care and rehabilitation equipment and home renovations, improvements to the consultation support structure are imperative. Moreover, in an effort to raise the quality of care services, it is important to take further steps in disclosing details regarding services and other information on service providers. It is also vital to have the existing system (of care managers, home care support centers, and so forth) function so that users may be able to select and employ services appropriate to their conditions and needs.
A support aid system for the physically challenged became effective last April and a budget has been secured to ensure operations of the system to cope with the increase in usage of home care services, such as home helpers. A budget of 60.188 billion yen (6.9% increase over last year) for home care and 287.118 billion yen (2.4% decrease from last year) for institutions has been secured for the 2004 fiscal year. Furthermore, a project for the physically challenged to be able to participate in society and be employed has been budgeted (6.2 billion yen) for communication support aids and IT to be used to obtain information. During the 2004 fiscal year, concrete discussions will take place on how the long-term care insurance and the support aid system for the physically challenged should function together. However, it will be necessary to have considerable deliberation to determine whether the differences in the various services and types of disabilities will be compatible.
Safety and User-Friendly Home Care & Rehabilitation Equipment Sought After
Last year we conducted a survey on home care and rehabilitation equipment users and a great number of persons responded that they would like to see safety and user friendliness in equipment. In particular, users complained that they were not able to find equipment they needed, equipment was incompatible with their needs, about difficulty in using equipment, and concerns encountered when using equipment without a clear understanding of instructions, which lead to dangerous situations.
As a result of the implementation of the long-term care insurance, the (monthly cumulative) number of cases of rental products rose from 12.67 million for fiscal year 2001 to 20.55 million cases for fiscal year 2002, which is a 160 % increase. According to this data, the use of home care and rehabilitation equipment is on a steady rise. As the number of cases is on a rising trend, it is crucial for care managers to be able to select the most appropriate home care and rehabilitation equipment for users. It is of public opinion that precise information and consultation services are not sufficiently being provided to enable users and care givers to be able to use equipment safely. Users have expectations that home care and rehabilitation equipment will be developed and manufactured according to their needs and desires.
H.C.R. 2004
The 31st Int. Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition 2004 will be held for 3 days from Wednesday, October 13 to Friday, October 15, 2004, at Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake, Tokyo. Our 30th exhibition was a turning point and we re-examined our original resolve in addition to pondering over the meaning and role of H.C.R with the objective of holding exhibitions that are trusted and needed by many. It is our sincere desire to endeavor to ever enhance the quality of our H.C.R. exhibitions to the further progress of the development and distribution of home care and rehabilitation equipment to support the care and independent living of the elderly and physically challenged.
We began accepting applications for H.C.R. 2004 on March 1. The deadline to apply for participation is the end of April. As of April 15, we received applications from 202 domestic companies and 23 overseas companies, which is about the same situation as we had last year. We hope many companies will participate in this year’s H.C.R. as a place for home care and rehabilitation equipment users, manufacturers, and service providers to come together for interchanges.
31st Int. Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition
H.C.R. 2004
| Date: | Wednesday, October 13 to Friday, October 15, 2004 |
| Venue: | Tokyo Big Sight, East Halls 3-21-1, Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
| Entrance Fee: | Free to the Public (Pre-Registration Not Necessary) |
| Expected Exhibitors: | 600 Companies (500 Domestic, 100 Overseas) |
| Expected Visitors: | 130,000 |
| Application Period: | Monday, March 1 - Friday, April 30, 2004 |
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Health and Welfare Information Association |