Written by: Gina-Marie Reitano, Esq. Most of us are familiar with the terms Medicare and Medicaid, but we don’t necessarily know what the difference between them are. In a nutshell, Medicare is something everyone gets, either two years after being declared disabled by the Social Security Administration, or at age 65. This is the standard form of health care for the elderly, although there are many options and many versions, which will be explained […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Medicare
Seniors Serving as Caregivers
The U.S. population is aging, and so are caregivers. Bob Tiller, an 80-year-old retired lobbyist for nonprofits, manages care for his 101-year-old mother. Both live in continuing care communities, he in Silver Spring, Md., and she in western Pennsylvania. If there is an emergency, Mr. Tiller gets the phone call and makes the five-hour drive. “I’m the one who is officially responsible, the one who has to make sure her income taxes are filed, and needs […]
Continue readingLong Term Care Insurance
Written by Norine Wong Home care and nursing home care are dizzyingly expensive. But how on earth can you put away enough money to pay for them? One answer is Long Term Care Insurance. This is a product that most people have never heard of, which is not surprising considering it is a product that addresses something we never think about in advance. Long Term Care insurance is designed to cover expenses incurred by […]
Continue reading
What’s the deal with “Omicron.”
No, it’s not another conspiracy. Omicron is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the different variants of the COVID virus are now being named with Greek letters, in the same way that hurricanes are named alphabetically. (2021 hurricane list of names: Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Elsa, etc). Why the Greek alphabet? Why were Nu and Xi skipped? The Greek alphabet was selected because it is neutral, it doesn’t carry the emotional or political baggage of destination names (examples […]
Continue reading
What happens if Mom or Dad insists on Leaving the SNF?
Nobody wants to be in rehab. But that doesn’t mean that rehab isn’t necessary sometimes, and it doesn’t mean that rehab is bad. It just means that people value their privacy (which isn’t available in SNFs), and they want to be in their own homes. It’s normal. So I view this in three categories: People who want to leave, and are able to care for themselves. People who want to leave but cannot physically care […]
Continue reading
What Happens (Or SHOULD Happen) When Mom Goes to Rehab?
The days of holding patients in a hospital until they are cured are long gone. Patients are now discharged when they are “stable,” meaning that they are not actively dying. But stable, and able to go home are not the same thing. Frequently, patients are too weak to take care of themselves at home, or are not mentally capable of living alone. In those cases, patients are sent to a “Skilled Nursing Facility” (SNF) aka […]
Continue reading