25 Nov

Posted at 18:54h in Blog

It’s no secret that the holidays can be rough for older adults who live alone and don’t have family members nearby. For many seniors, it can be downright depressing to spend a holiday without loved ones around. Doing something for someone in this situation, even if it is a small and simple gesture, can make a big difference. We’ve put together some ideas of things you can do to make a senior’s holiday season a little brighter and to feel a bit less lonely. Bring a home cooked dinner to a homebound senior. If you can’t do it on Thanksgiving Day, perhaps the day after or the following weekend. Even better, make it a “date” by bringing dinner for two, and eat with them. More than the food, the senior will enjoy your company. Ask them questions about their past or their family. Most people love talking about their memories. If you can’t deliver a meal in person, you can send a special meal from one of the senior’s favorite restaurants via a delivery service such as GrubHub or DoorDash. Many seniors don’t cook for themselves, or they may use meal services, so having a meal from a restaurant will feel like an extra special treat. Ask if the restaurant can deliver a note from you along with the meal. Or you can use a prepared meal delivery service, such as Luke’s Local or Good Eggs, to deliver a freshly cooked, made-to-order dinner. There are several choices in San Francisco as well as throughout California. Instead of a late day meal, surprise a senior with a cup of freshly brewed coffee and a bagel or muffin in the morning, along with some simple Fall flowers or perhaps a holiday decoration that they can enjoy during the season. If the senior lives in a home with a yard, but can’t afford gardening services, show up with some gardening tools and clean up outside. Bring the senior a cup of hot cider and cookie, and invite them to sit outside and visit with you while you work. Most of us need a change of scenery now and again, and seniors are no different. Ask them if they’d like to go with you on a walk, or to a local park where they can watch kids or dogs play. Or take them on a local shopping trip to pick up something new that they want or need. It doesn’t have to be a big or a long outing, and it will give them a breath of fresh air. ...

23 Nov

Posted at 23:01h in Blog

If choice is a major concern for you regarding health care, you don't ever want to enroll in a Medicare Advantage Plan (MA). If you can't afford a premium for traditional Medicare supplemental policy, a Medicare Advantage Plan might be necessary for you. When you enroll in an MA Plan, your choices will be dictated by an insurance company. A Medicare Advantage Plan is intended to be an all-in-one alternative to Original Medicare. Private insurance companies offer these plans that contract with Medicare to provide Part A and Part B benefits, and sometimes Part D (prescriptions). Most plans cover benefits that Original Medicare doesn't offer, such as vision, hearing, and dental. You have to sign up for Medicare Part A and Part B before you can enroll in Medicare Advantage Plan.   Disadvantages of Medicare Advantage Plans In general, Medicare Advantage Plans do not offer the same level of choice as a Medicare plus Medigap combination. Most plans require you to go to their network of doctors and health providers. Since Medicare Advantage Plans can't pick their customers (they must accept any Medicare-eligible participant), they discourage people who are sick by the way they structure their copays and deductibles. Author Wendell Potter explains how many Medicare Advantage enrollees don't find out about the limitations of their Medicare Advantage plans until they get sick: "Although Mom saw her MA premiums increase significantly over the years, she didn't have any real motivation to disenroll until after she broke her hip and required skilled care in a nursing facility. After a few days, the nursing home administrator told her that if she stayed there, she would have to pay for everything out of her own pocket. Why? Because a utilization review nurse at her MA plan, who had never seen or examined her, decided that the care she was receiving was no longer 'medically necessary.' Because there are no commonly used criteria as to what constitutes medical necessity, insurers have wide discretion in determining what they will pay for and when they will stop paying for services like skilled nursing care by decreeing it 'custodial." One of the most critical health care considerations for an individual is choosing one's doctor(s) and other health care providers. One of the hallmarks of traditional Medicare is the free choice of provider – an individual can see any provider across the country that accepts Medicare. By design, however, MA plans generally contract with a limited network of providers to care for their enrollees (such as HMOs), and some charge more to see providers that don't contract with the plan (such as PPOs). Access to specialists can be limited, and providers can be terminated from the network mid-year, with little to no recourse for their patients. Consider Premiums—and Your Other Costs To see how a Medicare Advantage Plan cherry-picks its patients, carefully review the copays in the summary of benefits for every plan you are considering. To give you an example of the types of copays you may find, here are some details of in-network services from a popular Humana...