“The Rough Lives of Older Americans in ‘Nomadland’,” by Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue “In her powerful new book, Nomadland, award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are — as the subtitle says — ‘surviving America in the twenty-first century.’ Not quite homeless, they are ‘houseless,’ living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses,
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“U.S. Pays Billions for ‘Assisted Living,’ but What Does It Get?,” by Robert Pear, New York Times “Federal investigators say they have found huge gaps in the regulation of assisted living facilities, a shortfall that they say has potentially jeopardized the care of hundreds of thousands of people served by the booming industry. The federal government lacks even basic information about the quality of assisted living services provided to low-income people on Medicaid, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, says in a report to be issued on Sunday. … Assisted living was not part of the
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“CMS Tries to Flush ‘Sick Creep’ Out of Medicare Advantage Rates,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are trying to squeeze what they say is unjustified risk score inflation out of the Medicare Advantage program in 2019. CMS officials have included a 2.26% risk score “normalization” factor in their advance notice for the Medicare Advantage program bidding process for 2019.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): The article concludes: “But the addition of the risk score normalization factor could reduce the ‘expected average change in revenue’ to 1.84%, from 2.75% for
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“What to Say Now About LTCI Rate Increases,” by Margie Barrie, ThinkAdvisor “Q. The topic of rate increases must be part of the conversation when I work with clients. When they request more details, how should I explain the reasons for past rate increases and the probability of future increases? A. Our clients need to be told to expect rate increase and to understand the reasons why. As long as rate increases occur, we will probably see negative articles in the press. So, it will be helpful if our clients understand the challenges that actuaries and carriers encounter when setting
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