Senior Planning Services Resources

Paying for Senior Care: Medicaid Vs. Private Insurance

Post author By sps
Post date April 16, 2016

The cost of senior care strains many family budgets to the breaking point. You want to offer your loved one the best care possible, but cost is a major factor in determining the facilities that will work for your family. To help make senior care more affordable, there are several payment options to consider. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that a number of these options are available only for seniors and families who have taken the time to think ahead and plan according to their upcoming needs.

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How Does The Medicaid Spend Down Process Work

Post author By sps
Post date November 20, 2015

Medicaid is a joint federal and state health care safety net for low income seniors, children and disabled citizens. Since it is funded by both the federal and state governments, there is much variation from state to state as to what is covered and who is covered.

Medicaid Made Simple

How to Find the Right Home Care Aide

Post author By sps
Post date August 28, 2015

Geraldine was in her late 80s when she decided it was time to find the right home care aide for her needs. She especially needed companionship and help with housekeeping. She had always been very particular about who she allowed in her home and for how long.

Although her daughter had tried on several occasions to have home care aides come over to help with tasks such as mopping the kitchen floor and dusting around the house, Geraldine found it very difficult to allow someone else to do the work.

She was a very independent woman with a can-do attitude. Having grown up in the bay area of California, she was one of the first women in her family circle to go to college. She enjoyed reading books upon books about anything and everything. She secured a job as a typist and was highly adamant about learning new technologies.

She was among the first women of her generation to transition from a regular typewriter to an electronic typewriter and then ultimately a computer. Even in her late 80s she was sending out emails to relatives and friends.

In her late golden years, her favorite activities were dancing and talking on the telephone.

The right home care aide finally came when a newly trained home care aide arrived at her doorstep one summer morning. The home care aide treated Geraldine with respect and talked with her about family, work, and the local news. The defining line for Geraldine in finding the right home care aide was that she needed someone who was out-going, yet able to do tasks without making Geraldine feel incapable or disrespected.

At first, finding the right home care aide may seem limited to friends and nearby relatives. But this is not necessarily the best option and closes the avenues of help that your loved one may receive.

A friend may end up spending the whole morning chatting with the senior and not lifting a single finger to get urgent tasks completed around the house. Relatives may not have the resources or time to be able to consistently help out the senior causing frustration on both sides.

A great avenue to consider is online reviews of home care and word-of-mouth referrals. When someone can vouch for the home care aide’s experience, demeanor, and professionalism, it can make a world of difference to the senior.

After personal safety, another important item to look for in a home care aide is their compatibility with the senior in the home. Do they treat the senior with respect? Do they answer questions in a cordial manner? Are they able to work and listen/talk at the same time? Do they meet all or most of the wants of the senior?

Does your home care aide charge by the project or by the hour? I find it’s easier to pay by the project so that you know what tasks will be performed. Others, however, prefer to pay hourly rates so that they can include or take out specific services during a session. Speaking of cost, it’s also important to note that if you’re eligible for Medicaid, you may be able to use that to help defray the cost of in-home care services.

Home care aides may take care of a range of other responsibilities as well, such as: meal planning, light cooking, following up on doctor appointments and check-ups, and ensuring that the senior they are taking care of is in good health.

Even though some home care aides may not have the same chemistry with your loved one that they share with others, having a solid understanding of your loved one’s needs is a great way to begin the search process for the right home care aide. Keep communication open, and be willing to explore all of your options!

Please visit SeniorAdvisor.com for more tips on finding a caregiver for your loved one.

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Medicaid Liens and Estate Recovery

Post author By sps
Post date August 10, 2015

The amount of the Medicaid lien corresponds to the amount of money Medicaid had paid for the care and needs of the deceased Medicaid recipient during their lifetime.

Below we’ve provided an example to better illustrate the way it would play out in real life circumstances.

Say a deceased Medicaid recipient owned a property with $100,000 of equity. If the Medicaid recipient resided in a skilled nursing facility for 11 months, Medicaid would have paid approximately $110,000 with the average monthly Medicaid rate at nearly $10,000 a month. With this situation Medicaid would acquire full ownership of the property since they have paid more than the $100,000 of equity in the home to recover some of their losses.

If the Medicaid recipient was in a skilled nursing facility for approximately three months in which Medicaid paid out about $30,000, Medicaid would place a lien on the property for $30,000 and recover the money once the property sold. The remaining $70,000 would be left to the heirs.

Heirs may sell the home and use the proceeds to satisfy the Medicaid lien or if the wish to keep the home, they may payoff the lien with their own personal funds.

Company News

2015 Wine and Dine Healthcare Symposium

Post author By sps
Post date June 24, 2015

It was a pleasure to have you at our annual Networking/Healthcare Symposium. Each year we enjoy showing our appreciation to the healthcare industry, our business partners and clients – we hope you enjoyed as much as we did!

If you wish to view a complete album of the event click below:

The presentations from our seminars are available to be downloaded below:

Click here to download the Medicaid Compliance and Eligibility Power Point

Click here to download the Ethics of Self Determination Power Point

Click here to download the Advance Care Planning Power Point

We look forward to sharing with you our future events and continuing to service your facilities with the highest levels of expertise, skill and integrity.

LTC Consulting Services, Senior Planning Services & Streamline HR Management

Health and Wellness

Still Alice – Alzheimer’s on the Silver Screen

Post author By sps
Post date May 5, 2015

The 2014 Oscars made history for the world of Alzheimer’s disease as Julianne Moore won the Oscar for best actress in the film Still Alice, a film about the life of a woman diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Based on the book written by Lisa Genova, the world took real notice of a disease that is reaching epidemic levels around the world; leaving us all to ask “What if?”

Moore’s character, Dr. Alice Howland, was a 50 year old linguistics professor at Columbia University when she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. After finding that she inherited the gene from her father her three grown children had to choose if they wanted to find out if they too carried the gene. Her oldest daughter, pregnant with twins, tested positive; while her twins were negative for carrying the gene. Her son, a junior doctor tested negative and her other daughter made the decision to not be tested.

Testing For Alzheimer’s

There are genetic tests used to determine the risk factor of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; however, they are not 100% accurate in determining if you will definitely have Alzheimer’s.
Early onset Alzheimer’s generally occurs between the ages of 30 and 60.
Early onset Alzheimer’s is most often caused by a mutated gene inherited by a family member (usually a parent) and is called familial Alzheimer’s disease or (FAD).
Currently, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) feels that genetic testing will most likely never be able to 100% correctly predict the disease due to a number of other factors that can highly influence the development of Alzheimer’s and its progression.
There is an international group Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), which studies families with the genetic mutation known to cause early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnoses represent less than 5% of all Alzheimer’s cases.

Genetic testing for Alzheimer’s does not guarantee you will or will not be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, only if you are at increased risk. There are other factors that play into whether or not the known gene mutates into the gene which seems to create a breakdown that creates forms of amyloid plaques (consistent with all Alzheimer’s patients) in the brain.

To Test or Not To Test

In the beginning, Alice had a plan to end her life when she became ill. Strategically planning out the entire way to end her life once her mind was no longer working was what she thought was best. She came to this conclusion once she knew that she would die from Alzheimer’s disease. No spoiler here on whether she changes her mind or she chooses to live life to the end of her given time.

Many have different views on this idea and I don’t believe there is ever going to be an agreement on that thought. However, I can share what a woman told me about her own mother who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.

If my mother had decided to take her life when she could still realize she was slipping away, we would have missed much joy and laughter as a family.

Most of all, we would have missed her last birthday celebration. She not only smiled non-stop at the surprise party, but she ate like a trooper, opened gifts and seemed so very ‘there’ with us.

We would hve missed quiet times sitting outside in the gazebo while looking at the flowers, the birds, and the sky (smiling).

We would have missed playing UNO and ‘wheelchair races.’ Those few memories we made far outweighed the days where she wasn’t really with us and we missed her.

Whether portrayed on film, book or in real life, Alzheimer’s disease is not easy for anyone. Deciding whether or not to test to see if you are at risk is a very personal decision; for everyone who has Alzheimer’s or someone they love who is affected, we all hope for a cure to come.

Materials Referenced:

NIH – Alzheimer’s Genetics Testing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOYCE APPERSON, RN, GCM

Joyce Apperson is a Registered Nurse and Geriatric Care Manager with 15 plus years of experience working with advocating for seniors. She is the founder and President of Caring Connection, Inc., which provides in-home care and geriatric care management in Harford County, Baltimore County and Cecil County in Maryland. Joyce currently serves on the Harford County Advisory Board on Aging. In addition to writing articles here for the Caring Connection’s blog, Joyce has been a regular contributor on senior care topics to the County Gazette and an advisory board member for her local Area Agency on Aging.