AARP Eye Center
AARP Mississippi is celebrating passage of the Caregiver Act, which took effect July 1. The law allows hospital patients to designate a family caregiver and requires the hospital to notify the caregiver before the patient is discharged or transferred to another facility.
In addition, the hospital must make a reasonable attempt to prepare the caregiver for follow-up tasks at home, such as managing medications or dressing wounds.
About 565,000 Mississippians provide unpaid care for loved ones, at a value of $5.2 billion per year.
Lawmakers in 15 other states have passed similar legislation also backed by AARP: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia.
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