“$200,000 sign-on bonus program seeks to entice nurse aides to long-term care,” by Kathleen Steele Galvin, McKnight’s Senior Living   Quote: “The North Dakota Department of Health will spend up to $200,000 to recruit temporary nurse aides and certified nurse aides for long-term care facilities in an effort to help combat a caregiver workforce shortage.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Sign me up! But wait, $200K is the budget for the whole program. Individual aides only get $2K. But still. This is what it takes apparently to attract enough caregivers during a pandemic.  
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“Question Answered,” by Stephen A. Moses   Quote: “Q: Is income more difficult to hide than assets for estate/medicaid planning purposes? “A: There’s no need to ‘hide’ income. Medicaid subtracts personal health and LTC expenditures from income before applying the “low income” standard. Most people who apply for Medicaid LTC have very high personal health and LTC expenditures. So the vast majority of Americans qualify based on income without any special planning. The rule of thumb is that anyone with income below the cost of a nursing home qualifies based on income. “Medicaid planning is done mostly for assets, but
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“A ‘Medicaid annuity’ may be a useful option when your spouse needs nursing home care,” by Sarah O’Brien, CNBC   Quote: “Medicare generally doesn’t cover long-term care. The median monthly cost of a private room at a nursing home is more than $8,800. Medicaid steps in to help with that expense for people with limited assets and income. For couples who face depleting their own assets, using a Medicaid-compliant annuity could be a way to preserve assets and still qualify for Medicaid.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: How can private LTC insurance compete
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  “Terry Savage: Retiree medical costs are soaring,” by Terry Savage, Chicago Tribune    Quote: “If you’re a retiree dealing with Medicare, you’ve just noticed that your increased (5.9%) Social Security benefit is being reduced substantially by rising costs for Medicare Part B and Part D (your drug plan), as well as by increased costs for drugs that may be only partially covered by insurance. Additionally, most Medicare supplement policies raised their monthly premiums for 2022. And this is just the start, according to a new report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Medicare covers only about two-thirds of healthcare costs
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  “‘Great retirement’ in U.S. driven by older female baby boomers,” by Alex Tanzi, Bloomberg     Quote: “The surge in U.S. retirements during the COVID-19 pandemic was led by older White women without a college education, according to research by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. … Overall, there were 3.3 million, or 7%, more retirees as of October 2021 than in January 2020, a number that exceeds the expected demographic shift of the large baby-boomer cohort out of the labor force. Here are some of the other findings: … Americans retired early for many reasons during the coronavirus crisis,
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  “BREAKING NEWS: OSHA to withdraw COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” by Lois A. Bowers, McKnight’s Senior Living    Quote: “The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is withdrawing the COVID-19 vaccination-and-testing emergency temporary standard it originally announced in November, the Labor Department agency said publicly Tuesday. The announcement is scheduled to appear formally in the Federal Register tomorrow but is available online as a PDF now. … The Supreme Court upheld an emergency regulation from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that requires COVID-19 vaccination of healthcare workers at federally funded facilities such as nursing homes.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President,
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  “The Difference Between Elder Law and Estate Planning,” ElderLawAnswers   Quote: “Elder law planning is concerned with ensuring that seniors live long, healthy, and financially secure lives. It usually involves anticipating future medical needs, including long-term care. Elder law attorneys can help you develop a plan to pay for future care while preserving some of your assets. They can also assist you with qualifying for Medicaid or other benefits to pay for long-term care.”   LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform: There you have it. Elder law equals Medicaid planning.            
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