Medicaid is a Federal and state health insurance program for people with limited financial resources. In determining what are financial assets your elderly parent’s home, furniture, car or insurance policies with a cash value of $5,000 or less are not counted as assets. The guidelines for what is covered vary from state to state and [...]
One time when we were taking care of my father-in-law I was explaining the costs involved in elder care, a befuddled person asked me, “Well, doesn’t Medicare cover everything?” The short answer is that Medicare does cover a lot but it doesn’t cover everything.
In the August 3rd issue of Time Magazine Nancy Gibbs wrote an essay about the assisted suicide of an elderly British couple. Ms Gibbs raises some very interesting issues.
A recent report on the local news station said that out of pocket expenses for caring for an elderly parent averages $550 a year. These are non-reimbursable expenses and they are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what elder care costs.
I wrote many times about the need to plan as much as possible for what you have to do to provide excellent elder care. I also advocated that you get your relatives on board to give you the support you need. A recent article in a local newspaper describes a service has taken both ideas [...]
I found a great resource especially for those who are providing elder care at a distance. It is a book titled Paradise Costs by Irene Masiello. Irene describes what she went through when she tried to take care of her father who, years before, moved from New York City to a small town in South [...]
If you have to start providing home care for an elderly parent(s) and you haven’t done the financial planning, there are three easy ways to get a handle on the process.
I mentioned many times that the value of being prepared is that you have better options because you don’t have to react to a crisis. But what if you are plunged into caring for an elderly parent in your home and you haven’t prepared. What do you do first?
If you don’t want to hire someone from an agency but would prefer to do it yourself to save some money you have to make sure you cover yourself. Actually, I can not see any reason to hire someone directly. Can you do a background check? Do you want to go on a gut feeling [...]
One of the things we were able to do for my father-in-law was to give him three summers living semi-independently in his home in Massachusetts. He could still perform the activities of daily living so that wasn’t an issue. The big problem was transportation. There is no public transportation and we removed the car.