Sunrise Senior Living Families Get Information
Sunrise Senior Living At Sheepshead Bay Family Day
Judith Grimaldi, Esq. of Grimaldi & Yeung LLP
Judith Grimaldi, Esq ran down the changes in Medicare and Medicaid. Henni Fisher,LCSW, BCD, Alzheimer`s and Aging Resource Center of Brooklyn filled in the blanks and fielded questions. Caryn Isaacs, Patient Advocate discussed how a Patient Advocate can help with decisions when faced with hospitalization, rehabilitation and home care. She introduced special guests Eilish and Ken Natton, who went through the process of getting their home ready for Eilish, who lives with Parkinson’s Disease. Several people from the neighborhood came in to see what Sunrise had to offer. They were treated to live entertainment and wonderful food. The family day health fair which included Sea Crest Health Center and Shore View Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care, Ramps/Lifts for Better Living, Mickey Green, Mutual of Omaha, Visiting Nurses and more was arranged by Anvernette Hanna, Director of Community Relations at Sunrise Senior Living of Sheepshead Bay and Bonnie Nogin, Quality Recreation Solutions.
Donations
As you open your pockets for the next natural disaster, please keep these facts in mind:
The American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses
The United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary along with numerous expense benefits.
UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1,200,000 per year (100k per month) plus all expenses including a ROLLS ROYCE .. Less than 5 cents of your donated dollar goes to the cause
The Salvation Army’s Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion dollar organization. 96 percent of donated dollars go to the cause.
The American Legion National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!
The Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!
The Disabled American Veterans National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!
The Military Order of Purple Hearts National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!
The Vietnam Veterans Association National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!
Sometimes there isn’t any help.
The past few months have been busy with helping one of our favorite clients move. We set up a new blog for BeverlyTaylorJDL at worpress. Beverly just turned 86. We are going through everything she wants to have preserved and getting prices for things that will be sold to free up some space.
Peter is also moving, back to New Hampshire. He is recovering from knee surgery and can now live independently. We’ll be helping him pack up over the Labor Day holiday.
We’ve arranged for White Glove Consulting to help Arnold get the social services he needs, after a year of rejections and setbacks.
It’s great when you can help someone and accomplish what you set out to do. But sometimes, you just have to recognize that nothing more can be done. Issues related to mental health are something we’ve only dealt with in regards to seniors, dementia, Alzheimer’s, hoarding and personality changes. For the past few months, we’ve been helping a younger patient find health services. She came to us complaining of chronic fatigue and insomnia. As usual, we started with getting a medical clearance. Then, we arranged for a psycho-social exam for housing. We’ve gained an appreciation of the adult home business. They are truly dedicated people. The psychological assessment opened up a new diagnosis that changed our approach entirely. We were able to find many services that would have helped the patient. However, in our journey with her we found that she had a history of resistance to care and substance abuse. She was also under the influence of people who enabled her behavior.
After discussions with the psychiatrists, attorneys, the Department of Health, Abuse Victim Advocates and Mental Health Specialists we decided to end her services. This was a very difficult decision and one that included her family. They assured us that many had tried to help, but it was time to throw in the towel. The family will now move towards appointing a legal guardian. I’ve been told that we did help in many ways, just maybe not in the way we hoped.
Unexpected Illness & End of Life Planning
If you follow Caryn on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, you probably have read about the client who was diagnosed with a benign meningioma. She was 77 years young and enjoying her retirement from the local University. Her children and grandchildren all lived with her in the home her late husband had purchased when he returned from the war.
Her youngest daughter had inherited her husband’s diabetes and recently she required a lot of medical care. The daughter was still working, but had used up all her FMLA and was hoping to get disability soon. The family had already used all their credit paying for these medical bills.
Then, one day Mom fell down and couldn’t get up. At the hospital, they found the tumor, but it was considered inoperable because the patient had many other health complications. I got the call for help when Mom’s Medicare was almost set to run out. The discharge planner at the hospital was pressuring the family to apply for Medicaid and move their mother to a nursing home. Mom was very upset about the idea and became very loud about her feelings. As happens, the doctors put her attitude down to dementia.
I met with the son and the daughter who was sick herself, but was the one everyone counted on to understand all the issues since she worked in health care too. Mom was suffering from many symptoms of the meningioma, physical and mental. To make matters worse, Mom’s social security check wasn’t in her account. I suggested they check with the discharge planner, and sure enough her check had been diverted to a rehab facility she was in briefly during this event.
The first steps I suggested, was for the sister to get the doctors to give the dementia diagnosis in writing. Then someone needed to go to the social security office and be made the payee. They also needed to arrange for a Power of Attorney and Health Care Agent. All the while, the hospital staff kept changing the plan from Mom going to a rehab, going to a psychiatric adult home and going in for more tests. Mom was now on a respirator, so she couldn’t express her wishes.
At this point, I suggested that the family ask the doctors about hospice care. It took the hospital another two weeks, while they did more tests before they arranged for the transfer to a hospice facility. As if that wasn’t enough, the family dog died at home. Mom was at the hospice for another week, when she passed peacefully with her whole family around her. The house was safe and her assets intact since hospice is covered by Medicare.
Now, this should have been a satisfactory ending to the story, but what happened next is why this story is about the need for preplanning. As far as anyone knew, Mom had never made out a will. The children thought she had some kind of life insurance policy, but no one could find it. The funeral parlor accepted a deposit and said they would take assignment of the insurance policy for the rest. The son called me just as the wake was about to begin. They couldn’t find the policy and her employer didn’t have any record of one. He couldn’t find any of the paperwork about the house either. The funeral parlor stopped the service and offered the family a lesser costing arrangement and the family made do with that.
Now, they have to go to the probate court to appoint an administrator, which will probably be the sister. She will have to research all of Mom’s assets including finding the deed and her creditors before she can distribute the estate. The family doesn’t have any access to Mom’s accounts, and their credit is all gone, so they can’t hire an attorney for help.
This story could have been so different if there was just a little preplanning. Mom, knowing she had three children who lived in her house with their children could have made a simple will. She could have appointed one of the children as her Health Care Agent, so they could have avoided the unnecessary medical treatment and bills. They could have made sure her final wishes were followed in regard to her funeral and spent the time mourning her now, instead of scrambling for paperwork. I can only imagine that Mom has her dog in her lap and is shaking her head for not doing that planning.
Hoarders
I have an unusual amount of new clients who could be considered hoarders. Here is an article about this condition and the senior population.
http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-02-2011/the_hoarders_among_us.1.html
New impact study shows how Republican plan effects patients.
District by District Impact of Republican Medicare Plan and Medicaid Cuts.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., Ranking Member of the Health Subcommittee, have released new analyses detailing the impact of the Republican Medicare and Medicaid proposals on each congressional district.
Click here to view the full text of the letter sent by Reps. Waxman and Pallone to their colleagues to assist them in understanding the ramifications of the Republican Medicare and Medicaid proposals.
Will Affordable Care Act make Health Insurance Affordable?
Jonathan Gruber and Ian Perry
Abstract: Using a budget-based approach to measuring affordability, this issue brief explores whether the subsidies available through the Affordable Care Act are enough to make health insurance affordable for low-income families. Drawing from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the authors assess how much “room” people have in their budget, after paying for other necessities, to pay for health care needs. The results show that an overwhelming majority of households have room in their budgets for the necessities, health insurance premiums, and moderate levels of out-of-pocket costs established by the Affordable Care Act. Fewer than 10 percent of families above the federal poverty level do not have the resources to pay for premiums and typical out-of-pocket costs, even with the subsidies provided by the health reform law. Affordability remains a concern for some families with high out-of-pocket spending, suggesting that this is the major risk to insurance affordability. FROM THE COMMONWEALTH FUND
GOVERNOR CUOMO ANNOUNCES ON-TIME PASSAGE OF HISTORIC, TRANSFORMATIONAL 2011-12 NEW YORK STATE BUDGET
Redesigning Medicaid and Health Care
Total Medicaid spending including federal, state and local spending of $52.6 billion represents a decrease of $337 million, or minus 1 percent. Future growth in Medicaid will be limited to the 10-year rolling average of the Medical CPI, currently 4 percent. As with education, the budget includes a two-year appropriation.
The budget includes a cap of $15.3 billion on Department of Health Medicaid state expenditures, which represent the largest and one of the fastest growing component of state spending.
The budget process brought together health care providers, labor, government and other Medicaid stakeholders to form Governor Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT). Tasked with identifying ways to provide critical health care services at lower costs and control unsustainable growth, the MRT recommended a series of proposals to fundamentally restructure and reform New York extensive Medicaid program.
Overall, the budget implements a majority of the MRT recommendations. The budget reflects $2.3 billion in spending reductions supplemented by $425 million in lower-than-expected expenditures to achieve the Governor’s original savings target of $2.85 billion.
The budget implements significant reforms including a major expansion of patient-centered medical homes, better control of home health care services, and care management for individuals with complex and continuing health care needs. New models of integrated care, such as Accountable Care Organizations, will help assure long-term control of health care spending.
Savings will be assured by an overall spending cap, enabling the Commissioner of Health to make additional savings actions during the year, if necessary. Here is the briefing book by subject.
http://publications.budget.state.ny.us/eBudget1112/fy1112littlebook/index.html
AGINGICON.COM
Have you lived a life of accomplishment, doing what fulfills
you? Have you reached an age where things are harder to do?
Are you a leader and you know that you cannot do it alone?
Then, you are an Aging Icon.
My name is Caryn Isaacs.
Having been at the helm of developing hundreds of healthcare
businesses and running several multi-million-dollar companies,
my journey includes pioneering a physician-owned HMO and
active engagement in Healthcare Reform.
As a Patient Advocate, my company, GetHealthHelp, LLC,
specializes in crafting solutions that enable Aging Icons to
continue pursuing their passions.
An example is a 98-year-old author, playwriter and poet who is
suffering from fibromyalgia and thought that all her work
would be forgotten. I found a way for her legacy to continue by
publishing them as books and now working on having them
made into films.
If this sounds like something of interest, let’s meet to talk
further.
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