Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Retirement and health care: Concerns are off the charts

Excerpt from: USA Today (click for full article)

 

Many people nearing retirement don't have a good feeling about whether they have saved enough to make it through retirement.

Add to that worries about health care costs in retirement, and those concerns are off the chart. They should be.

"I've seen people pay as much as $5,000 to $15,000 a month for their medical care in retirement," says Katherine Dean, national director of wealth planning for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual survey, more than half of retirees surveyed this year are not confident that they have saved enough to pay their medical expenses during retirement.

WEBINAR: The California Coordinated Care Initiative: What Advocates Need to Know – Basics

Excerpt from: NSCLC (click for full article)

 

The state of California is moving forward with implementation of the Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI), including the recently federally-approved dual eligible demonstration project, now known as Cal MediConnect.

The CCI is currently set to begin on October 1, 2013. The CCI fundamentally changes the way that Californian dual eligible beneficiaries and other low-income seniors and persons with disabilities get their health care.  NSCLC is providing a webinar training series to inform and educate advocates of the upcoming changes and help them understand how their clients will be impacted by the CCI.

The series will begin with a number of Basics webinars that will cover:

• What is the CCI?
• Who is affected by the CCI?
• How are beneficiaries affected by the CCI?
• How does enrollment work?
• What can advocates do to help their clients?

Register for the date and time most convenient for you. More dates for the Basics webinar will be released in the future. Attend as many as you like, but they will all cover the same material.

Behind the decision to accept cuts to in-home support services

Excerpt from: San Francisco Bay Guardian (click for full article)

 

For the last four years, advocates for those with disabilities have successfully fought to stave off the 20 percent cut in In-Home Support Services that then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed to help balance California's budget, each year winning legal injunctions preventing the cuts while the case wound it way through the federal court system.

Their main argument is that such deep cuts in these vital services would discriminate against disabled or elderly Californians by forcing them into nursing homes rather than allowing them to receive services at home, which they contended was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (I discuss this and other systemic devaluing of caregiving in last week's Guardian).

While disabilities rights groups and other opponents of the IHHS cuts issued public statements that put a happy face on the settlement, emphasizing that it had avoided much deeper cuts, many advocates privately grumbled about accepting still-deep cuts to this popular and important program. After all, these cuts will hurt the families of those with disabilities (it is often relatives who are paid as caregivers by the program) and likely result in greater long-term costs from nursing home care and more emergency room visits.

Elder Law: Approach Medicaid Knowing What Mistakes to Avoid

Excerpt from: The Elder Care Firm (click for full article)

 

Medicaid is a comprehensive health care program that covers a wide range of people who require nursing facility medical care and meet certain financial eligibility guidelines. Medicaid is an imperative resource for seniors, covering more than 65 percent of all nursing home care. Nursing care currently costs approximately $100,000 a year. Most individuals that require long-term skilled nursing care must eventually utilize this program. With close to inevitable dependence, it is of the utmost importance to know what common mistakes to avoid.

Should Long-Term Care Be an Entitlement?

Excerpt from: U.S. News (click for full article)

 

The elderly have always needed help in their later years. It has come mainly from family members, and this continues to be the case. But today's family is far smaller and more likely to be geographically scattered than in the past. These trends are expected to become more pronounced. Add in rising numbers of older Americans and the outlook is for a nation increasingly unable to have the time or money to take care of its older citizens.

Obamacare recognized this problem. Led by efforts of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the law included an employer-based long-term care insurance program. Employees would have paid the premiums and the level of coverage was modest. But it would have added a layer of protection that does not exist for most people.

To get votes to pass the program, however, it was approved as a voluntary benefit and not as coverage everyone had to get. This universal aspect of insurance is crucial to health care reform. If only sicker people had to get health insurance, their costs would be very high. Healthy people would not feel the need to buy it and would not offset the expenses incurred by those most likely to use the product.

Why Elder Law Attorneys Aren't Just for Seniors

Excerpt from: Agingcare.com (click for full article)

 

An Elder Law attorney is an attorney who specializes in providing legal services for the elderly and disabled. They assist with getting Advance Directives in place so that how you are taken care of - and by who - are chosen by you, and not just left to chance, or a court hearing.

Assuming that family members will just "take care of things" can lead to many unnecessary problems, primarily stemming from the burden on your loved ones when they're forced to make decisions for you, without knowing what you would have wanted.

It is also vitally important to locate an attorney that specializes in Elder Law. There are general practice attorneys who may have some experience with Elder Law, but the regulations are ever changing and can be highly complex. The easiest way to find an expert in any state is the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (headquarters in Virginia) at naela.org or (703) 942-5711.

Ask the Expert- Does My Mother Still Have Rights?

Excerpt from: Farr Law Firm (click for full article)

 

Since your mother is clearly legally competent, she should make her own decisions about where she wants to live.  Everyone is presumed to be legally competent unless a court determines that they are not.  If she moves home and adult protective services (APS) becomes involved, they will determine whether she is safe.  From your description of her, she is clearly still safe living on her own.  However, if APS determines that she is not safe, they may ask you or your sister to initiate guardianship proceedings to determine her competency and to have someone appointed to make decisions for her, in which case you and your sister would probably wind up fighting over who gets to be guardian of your mother and conservator over her real estate and financial assets.

A much better alternative in your mother's situation is to ensure your mother goes to an Elder Law Attorney to sign a Financial Power of Attorney (POA). A Financial Power of Attorney, along with an Advance Medical Directive (AMD), are documents that prevent the need for Guardianship and Conservatorship, and are part of what is called "Incapacity Planning." To sign a POA and AMD, your mother must be able to understand the consequences of appointing an agent, and be able to communicate her wishes that she wants a certain person to handle her financial and legal and medical affairs.

Elder Law: Approach Medicaid nursing home coverage with care

Excerpt from: post-gazette.com (click for full article)

 

Medicaid (referred to as Medical Assistance in Pennsylvania) is a comprehensive health care program that covers a wide variety of people who need nursing facility medical care and meet certain financial eligibility guidelines.

For seniors, Medicaid is a very important resource covering more than 65 percent of all nursing home care. As you've read in our previous columns, nursing care currently costs approximately $100,000 a year. Therefore, most people who require long-term skilled nursing care eventually must deal with this program. Therefore, the stakes are high and it is important to know what common mistakes to avoid.

Elder Law: 'Let me drive'

Excerpt from: The Sentinel (click for full article)

 

It seems that every year we hear of some older driver involved in a tragic accident where pedestrians were injured or killed. These reports inevitably bring up questions about the safety of older drivers, so let’s look at that issue.

What does the research tell us? The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2008 that more than 5,500 older adults were killed and more than 183,000 injured in motor vehicle accidents. While these are large numbers, they need to be put into the context of the total number of older drivers.

The CDC said that in approximately the same time period (2009) there were 33 million licensed older drivers. This means that the percentage of those injured or killed is very small.

In another study, the AAA followed crash rates for a 15-year period (1995 – 2010). They found that the mileage-based crash rates for drivers in their 70s was the same as drivers in their 30s. For drivers in their 80s the mileage-based crash rate was the same as drivers in their 20s.

Retirement Is No Holiday From Debt

Excerpt from: Wall Street Journal (click for full article)

 

Patricia Dudek, an attorney specializing in elder law in Farmington Hills, Mich., sees many seniors running into debt problems because their financial plans never accounted for sharply rising property taxes. Seniors can appeal to their local tax collector to lower their bills, she notes, and many states offer seniors special property-tax abatements.

The next step is managing the debt itself. Many turn to credit-consolidation companies rather than do it themselves, but it's an avenue that requires treading carefully.

"You have to be really cautious," says Ms. Dudek, "there are some scams out there."

The No. 1 rule of thumb: Never make a big upfront payment to a debt consolidator. The New York Better Business Bureau provides tips on debt-counseling programs and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling can
provide help locating a debt counselor.