“Three Ways to Protect your Assets from Nursing Home Costs,” by Elizabeth White, Marshall, Parker & Weber, LLC “Medicaid eligibility rules do not count certain assets such as a home, one vehicle, and personal effects. Therefore, in appropriate cases a community spouse might take money from countable savings to buy a more expensive home; repair or improve an existing home; or buy a new car, new household furnishings, or personal effects. Medicaid rules do not restrict spending countable assets on non-countable ones of equivalent value. Money spent on non-countable assets needed for the community spouse’s use can accelerate Medicaid qualification.”
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Ending Alzheimer’s by Crowdsourcing Innovations Washington, DC/ San Francisco, CA/ (September 7, 2017) – Frustrated by the absence of public urgency and funding to stop Alzheimer’s—and the slow pace of science—a world-class team of scientists and advocates are joining forces to globally crowdsource a new 21st century approach to leapfrog scientific progress and overcome many of the obstacles to stopping this horrific disease. The call to discover breakthrough new technologies for brain health is intended to activate interest from a broad spectrum of expert and lay innovators worldwide—from fields as wide-ranging as artificial intelligence, bio-technology, precision pharmaceuticals, physics, video games
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“Report: Nearly 20% of SNF nursing assistants live below poverty line,” by Emily Mongan, McKnight’s LTC News “Close to 20% of nursing home assistants are living below the federal poverty line, a result of low wages and part-time positions, according to a new report. The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute report noted wages for these workers had ‘barely kept up with inflation’ over the past decade. The average hourly wage for a direct care worker was $12.34 in 2016, compared to $12.35 in 2006, the report found. Comparatively, 7% of workers across all industries live below the poverty line, the PHI data
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“Reverse Mortgage Pioneer Talks Past, Present, Future of Equity Conversion,” by Jessica Guerin, Reverse Mortgage Daily “Rather than using proceeds of a reverse mortgage to pay for long-term care costs, I have suggested using reverse mortgage proceeds to pay for the premiums of a private long-term care insurance policy, and then the insurance policy can pay for the costs of long-term care when needed.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Great idea that I’ve also advocated for a couple decades. This article is an interview with Yung-Ping “Bing” Chen, a long-time friend and fellow
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“Who Will Care for Us?: Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce,” by Paul Osterman, new book from Russell Sage Foundation “The number of elderly and disabled adults who require assistance with day-to-day activities is expected to double over the next twenty-five years. As a result, direct care workers such as home care aides and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) will become essential to many more families. Yet these workers tend to be low-paid, poorly trained, and receive little respect. Is such a workforce capable of addressing the needs of our aging population? In Who Will Care for Us? economist Paul Osterman
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“Oregon removes nearly 55,000 people from Medicaid after they failed eligibility checks,” by Hillary Borrud, The Oregonian “Oregon has kicked nearly 55,000 people off its Medicaid program, after the state found they no longer qualified or failed to respond to an eligibility check. . . . Historically, around 28 percent of Oregonians on Medicaid were found to no longer qualify at annual eligibility reviews. But when the state finished working through its backlog of 115,000 Medicaid enrollees, it took the free insurance away from nearly 48 percent of them.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care
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