Today the Obama Administration announced the release of the National Alzheimer’s Plan. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius reaffirmed our nation’s commitment to conquering Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with a specific goal of finding effective ways to prevent and treat the disease by 2025.
For more information about the plan and to watch a short video from Maine’s own Dr Coleman, Click Here!
Archive for the ‘Estate Management’ Category
Medicare in Maine: learn what’s new in Medicare at free workshop
Monday, March 12th, 2012Caroline Irwin from Coveside Senior Solutions will be discussing the latest in Medicare news at Home Instead’s March Educational Series at the Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham on Thursday, March 29, 2012, from 5-6pm.
Some of Caroline’s discussion points:
- Do you understand your current Medicare coverage?
- Are you confused by your Medicare choices?
- Do you wonder which plan is right for you: Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage?
- Do you review your Medicare coverage annually?
- Do you qualify for extra help with your prescription drug costs?
- Are you concerned about healthcare when you travel or winter elsewhere?
Many Maine Medicare beneficiaries find their healthcare coverage options confusing as well as overwhelming. This Medicare and YOU 2012 seminar will take the confusion out of Medicare by discussing the four components of Medicare and how they work (Parts A, B, C, and D), the types of cost share options available (Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage, and Prescription Drug Coverage), what to look for when shopping for a plan, and the qualifications for extra help with prescription drug costs.
Marcie Yager of Home Instead Senior Care will be hosting the free event at the library. Please RSVP to her at myager@homeinsteadmaine.com or 839-0441 to reserve your seat.
Long Term Care Insurance in Maine: What you don’t know just might lose you a few hundred thousand dollars.
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
By Nova Ewers, Beach Glass Transitions, LLC
Patricia Nelson-Reade, R.N., CELA, recently gave a presentation on Long Term Care planning to the Cumberland County Networking Group for Senior Service Providers at Sedgewood Commons in Falmouth, Maine.
Today Patty told the group about The Long Term Care Partnership Act. The gist: this act can help you save hundreds of thousands of dollars potentially. Yet, most people are unaware of its existence – including quite a few insurance professionals.
Here are the details:
The Long Term Care Partnership Act “permits purchasers of ‘approved’ long term care insurance policies to protect from Medicaid an amount of assets equal to the amount of the long term care insurance if the purchaser relies on Medicaid after exhaustion of the long term care insurance.” (quoted from Patty’s blog). So in other words, if you purchased an LTCI policy with a $300,000 payout, and you have activated a claim on your policy, you may access MaineCare when your assets are equal to or below $310,000 as opposed to the normal asset limit of $10,000 for a single person without an approved LTCI policy.
Sounds great, right? But the problem is that with the passing of this Act in 2009, it only covered policies sold after the enactment date, which does little for the vast majority of policy holders out there. And insurance companies were refusing to reissue older policies with new policies that could be endorsed in the Partnership Program, even if the old policies met the eligibility criteria because the insurance companies had no incentive to do so and were not required by the Act to do so. So in 2011, Maine added a statute to the Act that said insurance companies must reissue all policies that qualify for the Partnership Program as long as the policy holder submits a request by the determined deadline – September 28, 2012. Read More…
Maine Retirees Pension Changes- Maine Association of Retirees file suit over pension changes
Saturday, February 18th, 2012A 15,000-member group that represents retired state workers and teachers filed a lawsuit yesterday against the state retirement system over changes made last year to cost-of-living payments.
In a class-action suit filed in federal district court in Bangor, the Maine Association of Retirees opposes the freeze of cost-of-living adjustments for three years and a new 3% cap on cost-of-living increases after that, according to MaineToday Media. The suit claims the changes go against the contract clauses of the U.S. and Maine constitutions on public employee pensions. The plaintiffs want the court to award retroactive cost-of-living adjustments. Read More here….
2012 Tax Update: Maine Tax and Medicaid Law
Monday, January 23rd, 2012Learn how to avoid “cracks” in your nest egg at a free seminar for seniors Wednesday, February 8, from 10 a.m. – noon at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Brunswick, 2 Columbus Drive.
The workshop has been especially planned for seniors. John Nale, an estate planning attorney, and Bruce Macomber, a national speaker on retirement issues, will be joining retirement planning specialist Jac. M Arbour in discussing a 2012 update of estate tax laws, medicare and medicaid issues, and nursing home costs. The two hour discussion on asset preservation will cover lots of information on taxes, probate and Wall Street risks. The organizers say that nothing will be sold at this workshop.
To make reservations or learn more, call 207-620-7265.
Maine Seniors in Danger: The Smallest Room in the House May Be the Most Dangerous for Seniors
Friday, January 20th, 2012We all want the best for the senior loved ones in our lives. For many seniors, living independent lives at home is their main desire. Seniors are able to do so provided they are physically and mentally able to care for themselves. Sometimes, depending on their situations, seniors need help and guidance from friends and relatives, or from even caregivers who can facilitate the potential of seniors living home alone for as long as possible.
The key to seniors maintaining independent lifestyles depends on many factors and most importantly their safety in doing so. With that being said, it should be noted that one of the most common dangers older seniors face is falling. In fact, research shows that injuries and subsequent complications due to falls are the leading causes of death in seniors who are 65 and older. Furthermore, one out of three seniors in this age group fall each year. While not every tumble guarantees an injury, these statistics should prompt you and your senior loved ones to make every effort to prevent falls occurring within their homes.
The first place to evaluate is the bathroom. While this is the smallest room in the house, bathrooms potentially offer the most opportunities for falls to occur. Bathtub edges may be hard to step over for some seniors. Once in the shower or tub, wet surfaces can cause seniors to slip. Some seniors may not be able to stand steadily while bathing. Others may have trouble sitting down on toilets or standing up again after using them. Wet floors after showers or baths and even bath mats can cause seniors to slip and fall.
Comfort Keepers offers these ideas and solutions for safety in the bathroom:
Bathtubs and Showers
Install grab bars in proper places to aid in safe entry and exit of tubs and showers. Consider replacing a bathtub with a walk-in shower for seniors who have trouble stepping over high bathtub sides. Non-skid mats or decal applications should be applied on the floors of showers and tubs to help prevent slipping while bathing. Seniors who have trouble standing to bathe should use sturdy shower chairs made specifically for this purpose. Make sure soap, shampoos, towels and other bathing necessities are within easy reach.
Toilets and Floors
Seniors who have trouble sitting and standing up can have raised toilet seats installed to make this process easier. Grab bars should be installed for additional support. Make sure the toilet paper dispenser is easily accessible. Use a bathmat for the bathroom floor just outside the shower or tub to prevent slipping on slick floors after bathing. Place a non-skid material between the bathroom floor to prevent the mat from sliding or creasing.
While none of these safety features guarantees a no-fall zone, they certainly add layers of protection and aid for seniors at risk for falling. Your local home improvement store or durable medical equipment company carries safety devices made for specific purposes, and to ensure the safest results these items should be used instead of homemade devices. Another crucial element is installing safety aids properly and also teaching your loved ones how to use them. The discussion may be a bit hard to broach but the end result fosters safe, independent living for seniors in their own homes for as long as possible.
LePage’s MaineCare cuts would hit Maine seniors hardest.
Friday, December 9th, 2011MaineCare now helps many pay for medicine and a place to live in Maine.
By Susan M. Cover scover@mainetoday.com
MaineToday Media State House Writer
Through its MaineCare program, the state now covers a portion of the $600 monthly cost for drugs including insulin, which she needs for her diabetes. LePage is proposing to reduce or eliminate two programs that pay for prescription drugs as part of a plan to eliminate a projected $221 million budget deficit in the Department of Health and Human Services over the next 18 months.
While LePage’s plan would end MaineCare coverage for 65,000 Mainers and hit nearly all age groups, advocates for the elderly say senior citizens in Maine will be especially hard hit if lawmakers approve the cuts.
Read the rest of this Portland Press Herald Article here.
Rich Vs. Poor in America: now it’s the seniors fault
Monday, November 7th, 2011An Associated Press article that ran in this morning’s Portland Press Herald is titled Wealth Gap Widest Ever Between Young, Old and goes on to have what I think is an amazing subhead: young adults bear the brunt of the economic downturn while the federal safety net buoys retirees. Really, you have to read the article. Let me know if you’re as completely annoyed as I was!
Essentially, the article states that the huge and growing gap between wealth held by those over 65 and wealth held by those under 35 is somehow the fault of our seniors, because they held jobs, saved money, and paid off their mortgages.
The wealth difference was highlighted in a recent report. From the article:
The report, coming out before the Nov. 23 deadline for a special congressional committee to propose $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years, casts a spotlight on a government safety net that has buoyed older Americans on Social Security and Medicare amid wider cuts to education and other programs, including cash assistance for poor families.
“It makes us wonder whether the extraordinary amount of resources we spend on retirees and their health care should be at least partially reallocated to those who are hurting worse than them,” said Harry Holzer, a labor economist and public policy professor at Georgetown University who called the magnitude of the wealth gap “striking.”
Like all averages, the average in the article is deceptive. To get a median net worth in households of people 65 and over of $170,494, there have to be lots of people below that level. And to be honest, a median net worth of $3,662 in households headed by 35 year olds probably does reflect college debt and sometimes upside-down mortgages, but those debts are choices made on on the premise that jobs would be available and housing would increase in value.
What’s really scary is that senior care in Maine costs around $6,500 a month on average in assisted living. So even if your household does have a net value of $170,000, that’s only a few months over two years of senior care. $170,000 is just not that much!
And as far as the federal safety net buoying seniors, many of those programs have been cut repeatedly in the past few years, and MaineCare (Medicaid) hasn’t paid the full cost of care for years now, leaving doctors, nursing homes, private pay residents and hospitals to cover the gap.
In all, the article is a bit inflamatory, somehow making seniors the bad guys, the fat cats, the selfish horders. Untrue and unfair.
Reverse Mortgages in Maine
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011Check out this great article on reverse mortgages from the April issue of Maine Ahead. Author Sharron Eastman makes some simple points: understand how reverse mortgages work, don’t be ruled by myths, look for an FHA guarantee and ask how the money will be used.
Sedgewood Commons:A Maine Dementia Care Community Hosts Silent Art Auction
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011