“Medicare Advantage star ratings show insurers’ performance hasn’t improved,” by Maria Castellucci, Modern HealthCare “The CMS said about 44% of the 384 active Medicare Advantage contracts in 2018 that also have Part D prescription drug coverage earned 4 stars or higher for their overall rating. This is a drop from 2017 when about 49% of the 363 active Medicare Advantage plans earned 4 stars or higher. Although the overall number of 4-star or high plans dropped slightly, more beneficiaries will be covered by the highest performing Medicare Advantage plans in 2018, the CMS said. Nearly 73% of Medicare Advantage enrollees
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“Health, nursing home quality make Colorado ‘Best State for Aging’,” by Lois A. Bowers, McKnight’s Senior Living “High-quality nursing homes and a healthy senior citizen population put Colorado on top of U.S. News & World Report’s ‘Best States for Aging’ ranking, the magazine said. Alaska came in last on the list. Maine, in second place, and Hawaii, in third, ranked where they did because of their strong Medicare programs and the high life expectancy of their residents, according to U.S. News. Iowa and South Dakota rounded out the top five. . . . See all of the rankings here and
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“Majority of Americans believe health insurance or Medicare will pay for long-term care,” by OneAmerica, Advisor Magazine “A recent survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of OneAmerica® asked adults how they would pay for assistance with daily living due to illness or injury, either in-home or in a care facility, for an extended period of time (i.e., longer than 90 days). More than half (55%) said they’d use Medicare or health insurance, even though in most cases, neither will pay for long-term assistance with daily activities. In the survey of 2,065 U.S. adults age 18 and older1, those ages
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“Start planning now to care for elderly parents,” by Chris Taylor, Reuters “Experts agree that it is important to start thinking about caregiving costs now. Waiting too long means you cannot stockpile resources, take out affordable insurance policies or plan ahead for a thoughtful drawdown of assets.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): OK, but the advice this column offers, specifically look to home equity, plan for Medicaid and buy LTC insurance are logically contradictory. People don’t use home equity to fund quality LTC, because Medicaid exempts it, thus savaging demand for LTC insurance.
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“Eldercare litigation: The new fault line,” by Sheryl Smolkin, Employee Benefit News “As the number of employees that care for sick or aging parents increases, so do their claims of employer discrimination. A 2016 Family Responsibilities Discrimination Litigation Update from the University of California Hastings College of the Law documents a 650% jump in litigation involving eldercare during the previous decade. There is no one overarching federal law that protects employees with eldercare responsibilities. Under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, however, an employee who has worked for a government employer or a private employer with more than
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“Send Us Your Questions About Paying for Long-Term Care,” by Richard Eisenberg, NextAvenue “So send us the questions you have regarding Medicare, Medicaid and long-term care costs (you can do so below). We’ll read all the questions we receive and then, in an upcoming article, answer the most popular concerns.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Here are some suggested questions to ask: Why can people protect hundreds of thousands of dollars in home equity while receiving Medicaid LTC benefits? Is it right that spouses of Medicaid recipients in New York and Florida can
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“Meet the New Medicare Card,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Medicare program managers are preparing to begin a massive health insurance card conversion in April. The program will start mailing new identification cards to Medicare enrollees, in an effort to get Social Security numbers off the cards, to give the enrollees a little extra protection against identity theft.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Click through to this article and see the new Medicare identification card CMS is planning. The redesigned, easy-to-remember ID number should roll right off your tongue about has smoothly as airline
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“Americans Face a Rising Risk of Dying Alone,” by Ben Steverman, Bloomberg “Loneliness kills. Life without friends and family is not just dreary but difficult, especially as we get older. Strong social relationships boost a person’s chances of staying alive by 50 percent, according to a comprehensive 2010 review of 148 studies that followed 309,000 people for an average of 7.5 years. That’s about the same improvement to mortality as the one that comes from quitting smoking. It’s hard to say whether Americans are lonelier now than in the past. But they’re certainly more independent than ever. Almost half of U.S. adults are now
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“Why Your 50s Are a Good Time to Begin Thinking About Long-Term Care,” by Geoff Williams, U.S. News & World Report “Sure, it seems crazy to start thinking about a possible future when you’re infirmed and need long-term health care if you’re only in your 50s. You’re young, or relatively young, and healthy. But that’s the point. You don’t want to someday be unable to take care of yourself and wish that you had done some pre-planning. If you’re in your 50s, and you’re not thinking about long-term care, these are some reasons you should be considering it.” LTC Comment
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“What if the ‘retirement crisis’ has been exaggerated?,” by Dana Anspach, MarketWatch “To take a closer look at how real people make retirement work, The Society of Actuaries (SOA) has conducted a series of studies, the latest of which is their Post-Retirement Experiences of Individuals 85+ Years Old in which they conducted 62 in-depth interviews of individuals across both the U.S. and Canada. The people interviewed were not wealthy and had done little to no financial planning but overwhelmingly disclosed they had adapted to their situation and had surprisingly few regrets. What? No crisis? How could this be?” LTC Comment
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