If you have original Medicare, the doctor you visit can make a difference in how much you have to pay. While you can go to any doctor who accepts Medicare payments, if the doctor does not “accept assignment,” you can end up paying a lot more. (This does not apply to beneficiaries who are in […]
Category: Elder Law
Social Security doesn’t just pay retirement benefits to retired workers; in some circumstances, it also provides benefits to a worker’s spouse or ex-spouse and to a deceased worker’s surviving spouse. Here are the ins and outs of spouse and survivor benefits.
Spousal Benefits
Spouses are entitled to benefits if the marriage lasted at least 10 years. A […]
Michigan recently began its long anticipated “Estate Recovery” program. The program enables the state to seek recovery of the cost of the medical care expenses paid to a person older than 55 years of age, via the state’s Medicaid assistance programs, from their estate’s assets at their death.
Although “Estate Recovery” was first mandated by the […]
Long-term care can be very expensive, but many long-term care expenses can be deducted from your taxes. Two important recent decisions by the U.S. Tax Court provide guidance on when care giving services are deductible. In one decision, the court ruled that payments to non-medical caregivers are still deductible as medical expenses; in the other, […]
Open enrollment starts a month earlier this year - so expect information about your options to arrive soon.
There are some big changes to the open-enrollment schedule for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D this year, so you’ll need to make key decisions about your 2012 coverage several weeks earlier than in the past.
Starting this year, […]
Most seniors prefer to stay at home as long as possible rather than move into a nursing home. For many families, this means eventually hiring a caregiver to look after an aging relative. There are two main ways to hire someone: directly or through a home health agency.
Hiring Directly
When you hire a caregiver directly, you […]
Thinking about a time when you will need help taking care of yourself is not fun. That is why most people put off discussing long-term care until it can’t be ignored. But it is better to start long-term care planning early. Here are some reasons to start planning now:
People are living longer and are more […]
For those in Medicare or about to join there are important changes, including new benefits, since the Affordable Care Act. A free guide to the changes in Medicare created by the Affordable Care Act is available from Consumer Reports. The 15-page guide is easily downloaded in PDF format or can be ordered by phone.The guide […]
Having difficulty keeping on top of your bills? Maybe a daily money manager can help. Daily money managers can assist elderly individuals with handling anything from routine bill-paying to more complicated tasks like filing medical insurance claims.A daily money manager — a member of a relatively new profession that now has its own professional association […]
Many people use the terms Alzheimer’s disease and dementia interchangeably, but they have very different meanings. Although dementia is a group of symptoms that include memory loss, the term itself doesn’t explain what is causing the symptoms. Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia, but here are many other causes.Dementia is a general term […]
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