Friday, January 28, 2011
Letting Mom and Dad Live on Their Own Terms
Author: Janice Van Dyck
Millions of us went home for the holidays. Well, not "home" exactly. In reality, millions of us left home, and went back for the holidays. Back to who we used to be, back to where we came from, and in some cases, back in time. Like salmon up the river, we inexplicably navigated back to the people of our birth. Our parents.
Have you ever made the trip thinking, what if this is the last time? Parents age, especially when we're not looking, and most especially when we live far away from them. Periodic visits sharpen our senses. All of a sudden, we may be witnessing our parents in steep decline, heading toward the exit ramp, and it raises all kinds of questions.
When will it be time for assisted living? Should Mom still be driving? Are they taking their pills? Is Dad's memory actually shot?
These realizations can be tough, especially if your parents have been role models of determination and resourcefulness. Dealing with normal age-related decline can cause dissention amongst siblings, too, because each has a different relationship with Mom and Dad. For example, in my family, my sister lives closest to our father, and has regular visits with him. My brother and I live in different corners of the country and our main contact with Dad is by e-mail and telephone. Who is in the best position to judge how he's doing? As he approaches the 80-year mark, who has got the best perspective on his health?
Millions of us went home for the holidays. Well, not "home" exactly. In reality, millions of us left home, and went back for the holidays. Back to who we used to be, back to where we came from, and in some cases, back in time. Like salmon up the river, we inexplicably navigated back to the people of our birth. Our parents.
Have you ever made the trip thinking, what if this is the last time? Parents age, especially when we're not looking, and most especially when we live far away from them. Periodic visits sharpen our senses. All of a sudden, we may be witnessing our parents in steep decline, heading toward the exit ramp, and it raises all kinds of questions.
When will it be time for assisted living? Should Mom still be driving? Are they taking their pills? Is Dad's memory actually shot?
These realizations can be tough, especially if your parents have been role models of determination and resourcefulness. Dealing with normal age-related decline can cause dissention amongst siblings, too, because each has a different relationship with Mom and Dad. For example, in my family, my sister lives closest to our father, and has regular visits with him. My brother and I live in different corners of the country and our main contact with Dad is by e-mail and telephone. Who is in the best position to judge how he's doing? As he approaches the 80-year mark, who has got the best perspective on his health?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Retirements Swallowed by Debt
30 percent of workers over age 55 have more credit card debt than retirement savings; 41 percent have as much......
This along with large medical debt is not good news for the Baby Boom retirement generation.
Learn more about how to reduce your medical debt.
This along with large medical debt is not good news for the Baby Boom retirement generation.
Learn more about how to reduce your medical debt.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Should You Choose to Bypass the Feeding Tube?
VEry interesting article " When They Cannot Eat." From the NY Times.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
How to turn a $250,000 Hospital Bill into a $17,000 Bill
Following up on yesterday's post "Senior Helpers Can Help Reduce your Medical Expenses up to 80%"where we announced a partnership with Health Care Advocates (HCA) the San Diego Reader has published the best expose on the systematic and institutionalized overcharging for services by the health care system that I have ever seen:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/jul/07/cover/
This article demonstrates the necessity of the service that Health Care Advocates provides and the sheer size of the problems that the average consumer faces when dealing with major medical bills.
Can you imagine your 85 year old mother or grandfather having to deal with this?
Senior Helpers' FREE program puts a team of professionals behind you to negotiate with hospitals and other medical providers on your behalf. Learn More ( www.managemymedicalbills.com/sh.html )
By the way, Chad Deal, the author of the above article is now a huge supporter of HealthCare Advocates, Inc. so much so that he is an Agent for HCA!
I trust you will be as motivated and educated by this article as I was.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/jul/07/cover/
This article demonstrates the necessity of the service that Health Care Advocates provides and the sheer size of the problems that the average consumer faces when dealing with major medical bills.
Can you imagine your 85 year old mother or grandfather having to deal with this?
Senior Helpers' FREE program puts a team of professionals behind you to negotiate with hospitals and other medical providers on your behalf. Learn More ( www.managemymedicalbills.com/sh.html )
By the way, Chad Deal, the author of the above article is now a huge supporter of HealthCare Advocates, Inc. so much so that he is an Agent for HCA!
I trust you will be as motivated and educated by this article as I was.
Contact Senior Helpers Today to Learn More about this exciting FREE Program!
Call 512-388-4357 or Visit Our Website www.seniorhelpers.com/RoundRock
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Senior Helpers Can Help Reduce your Medical Expenses up to 80%
Senior Helpers’ Medical Cost Savings Program
Save 20%- 80% on Your Medical Bills from Now On!
Whether you are young, old, single, have a growing family or are retired, you are at risk from out-of-control medical costs - even if you are insured and especially if you are not. Medical Debt Causes over 62% all of bankruptcies in the US according to a 2007 study conducted by Harvard University, making the high cost of medical care arguably the #1 financial challenge in America. Another finding - 75% of those filing bankruptcies due to medical debt have health insurance!
Senior Helpers of Central Texas has partnered with Health Care Advocates (HCA) to help reduce theses costs. This FREE program puts a team of professionals behind you to negotiate with on your behalf. Learn More ( www.managemymedicalbills.com/sh.html )
How Health Care Advocates dramatically reduces medical bills
1. Health Care Advocates audits medical bills like the IRS audits tax returns! The HCA team consists of doctors, nurses, attorneys, medical billing experts and coding specialists. Fully 94% of medical bills are wrong. And not just math errors but other "errors" that greatly inflate costs. The highly-experienced HCA team challenges these excesses and normally achieves a bill reduction of 20% to 80% or more!
2. Health Care Advocates works to extend insurance coverage for its clients. The HCA team gets coverage extended when it has been denied for a particular procedure or gets coverage levels increased so HCA clients with insurance get greater savings through higher insurance pay-outs!
3. Health Care Advocates obtains grants to help pay medical bills. There are many private and public grants as well as government programs to help pay medical bills that the average consumer is unaware of. The HCA team regularly obtains grants and other funding that pay for their clients' health care costs when they are uninsured or the bills are more than they can comfortably handle. There are many instances of HCA member's medical bills being completely eliminated!
Contact Senior Helpers Today to Learn More about this exciting FREE Program!
Call 512-388-4357 or Visit Our Website www.seniorhelpers.com/RoundRock
Resisting Alzheimer's
In Tuesday’s Science Times, the writer Nancy Stearns Bercaw describes her father’s decades-long preoccupation with preventing Alzheimer’s disease, which had killed her grandfather. Alzheimer’s was the reason her father became a neurologist in the first place, she writes: he “knew it was coming.”
As an ever-present reminder of that threat, he kept an atrophied brain in a jar on his desk. That brain, I recently discovered, belonged to his father.
As my father approached middle age he began to experiment on himself, with diet supplements. By age 60 he was taking 78 tablets a day. He tracked down anything that offered the possibility of saving brain cells and killing free radicals: Omega 3s, 6s, 9s; vitamins E and C; ginkgo biloba, rosemary and sage; folic acid; flaxseed.
After retiring from his neurology practice in Naples, Fla., he spent hours a day doing math. Even when I was visiting, he’d sit silently on his leather recliner with a calculator to verify the accuracy of calculations he did by memory.
Read the full essay, “When All Isn’t Enough to Foil Alzheimer’s,” and share your thoughts in the comments section.
As an ever-present reminder of that threat, he kept an atrophied brain in a jar on his desk. That brain, I recently discovered, belonged to his father.
As my father approached middle age he began to experiment on himself, with diet supplements. By age 60 he was taking 78 tablets a day. He tracked down anything that offered the possibility of saving brain cells and killing free radicals: Omega 3s, 6s, 9s; vitamins E and C; ginkgo biloba, rosemary and sage; folic acid; flaxseed.
After retiring from his neurology practice in Naples, Fla., he spent hours a day doing math. Even when I was visiting, he’d sit silently on his leather recliner with a calculator to verify the accuracy of calculations he did by memory.
Read the full essay, “When All Isn’t Enough to Foil Alzheimer’s,” and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Who Thrives After Surgery?
By PAULA SPAN
Martin A. Makary, a surgeon and public health researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, had a long talk with a patient last week. The man had a tumor in his pancreas that was probably benign but might not be. Should Dr. Makary remove it? Or should the man have regular scans to see whether it grew?
"If you're 25, the decision is easy — get rid of that risk," Dr. Makary told me afterward. But this patient was 89.
Let's pause for a moment to consider the changing surgical landscape. When Dr. Makary was in training, he recalled, surgeons were just starting to offer elective procedures to patients in their 70s. Now, with better techniques, safer anesthesia and, of course, more old people — half of all operations in the United States are performed on those over age 65.
"It's become acceptable to do major procedures on very old patients," he said. "We routinely do elective surgery on people in their 80s and 90s."
That doesn't mean it's always a good idea, or that it's easy to calculate the costs and benefits. How very old patients respond to surgery has proved unpredictable. "There are some people you worry won't do well, and then they fly," Dr. Makary said. "And some people you are confident will do well have a cascade of symptoms that lead to their demise or permanent disability — and everybody is shocked."
Martin A. Makary, a surgeon and public health researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, had a long talk with a patient last week. The man had a tumor in his pancreas that was probably benign but might not be. Should Dr. Makary remove it? Or should the man have regular scans to see whether it grew?
"If you're 25, the decision is easy — get rid of that risk," Dr. Makary told me afterward. But this patient was 89.
Let's pause for a moment to consider the changing surgical landscape. When Dr. Makary was in training, he recalled, surgeons were just starting to offer elective procedures to patients in their 70s. Now, with better techniques, safer anesthesia and, of course, more old people — half of all operations in the United States are performed on those over age 65.
"It's become acceptable to do major procedures on very old patients," he said. "We routinely do elective surgery on people in their 80s and 90s."
That doesn't mean it's always a good idea, or that it's easy to calculate the costs and benefits. How very old patients respond to surgery has proved unpredictable. "There are some people you worry won't do well, and then they fly," Dr. Makary said. "And some people you are confident will do well have a cascade of symptoms that lead to their demise or permanent disability — and everybody is shocked."
Senior Helpers Client Testimonial
A wonderful client that Senior Helpers of Central Texas provides 24x7 Total Care Coordination for. Everything from home maintenance, to shopping, Doctor appointments and coordination of services between Hospital, Doctor and Home Health services. Ray T. is her financial adviser and guardian.
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