When planning for our retirement, most of us allocate money into a 401K or another savings program to take advantage of tax write-offs and to make sure we will be able to enjoy a nice lifestyle when we are no longer working from 9 to 5. We imagine using the money to supplement our monthly social security checks to enjoy vacations and other leisure activities while taking advantage of all those senior discounts.

The financial company advertisements assist us with the visions of enjoying gardening, sailing and relaxing during our retirement years. They don’t show the other side of the reality which includes health problems which accompany aging.  Along with a longer life comes an increased chance for developing an age-related disease, such as Alzheimer’s Disease or Parkinson’s Disease. Alzheimer’s Disease is now the sixth leading cause of death, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. As we all witnessed from watching former President Ronald Reagan battle the disease, a senior with Alzheimer’s Disease can live for many years, while requiring a caregiver to assist with their daily living. As Medicare does not pay for long-term senior care (only stays of 100 days or less in a nursing home for rehabilitation after a hospital stay, with doctor pre-approval, with only the first 20 days paid at 100% by Medicare), the costs can quickly add-up.

What are your senior care options when you need caregiving assistance for your activities of daily living?

• Senior Home Care Agency
• Nursing Home
• Assisted Living Community
• Continuing Care Retirement Community

How much do these options cost?

Based on prices effective as of January, 2009, here are the costs:

• Senior Home Care Agency: $15 – $25 per day/$190 – $350per day (Most common hourly rate = $19, Most common daily rate = $225)
• Nursing Home: $145 – $400 per day
• Assisted Living Community: $3800 – $5,000 per month
• Continuing Care Retirement Community: Down payment @ $250,000 + $3,000 – $5,000 per month

These costs are consolidated to account for the lowest to highest fees nationwide.

What are the ways to pay for these senior care options?

1) Private pay with your own savings
2) Long-term care insurance policy
3) Qualify for Medicaid care (nursing home only with the exception of a few states experimenting with home care, must have assets of $2,000 or less)

Remember that senior home care agencies actively manage the caregivers and provide for all the necessary insurance and payroll taxes for the caregiver as their employee. This guarantees that a substitute caregiver will be available when the regular caregiver cannot make the shift and provides active training and management of the caregiver.

When evaluating nursing homes, you should inquire about their ability to provide for your care if you end up needing to spend down your assets and go onto Medicaid insurance. Medicaid is administered by each state and provides for the needs of very low-income seniors, with the minimum in assets usually around $2,000. Most Continuing Care Retirement Communities do provide for care should a senior spend down their assets and need to be covered by Medicaid insurance. These communities also usually will refund a portion of the deposit upon a senior’s death, based on the number of years and services actually used. As demonstrated by their name, they provide peace of mind for seniors by continuing to provide care at all levels of need, from independent living to around-the-clock nursing care.

Remember, Medicare does not pay for long-term care, which means to effectively plan for your senior care needs, you must plan for where you want to receive the care and save to pay for the care services either in a nursing home or in your home. While less than 7% of Americans over the age of 70 currently have long-term care insurance, it is predicted that more than 50% of Americans will have long-term care insurance in twenty years, as people witness their parents burn through their life savings to pay for their senior care needs. Research the options and manage your investments to allow you to choose your preferred senior care and look for unbiased, third-party information as a credible senior care resource.

Julie A. Northcutt, President of Caregiverlist.com, works to connect seniors and their loved ones with quality senior care options and caregivers with employment opportunities. After owning a senior home care agency for 7 years, she sold it to a national company to fulfill the need for interactive senior care information online with Caregiverlist.com.

The health care delivery system is rapidly changing as the population and its health care needs and expectations change. The shifting demographics of the population, the developments in medicine, the greater emphasis on economics, and technological advances have resulted in changing emphases in health care delivery.

Changes in the population in general are affecting the need for and the delivery of health care services. The 2000 U.S. census data indicated that there were more than 280 million people in the country. This population is attributed in part to improved public health services and improved nutrition.

Not only is the population increasing, but the composition of the population is also changing. The decline in birth rate and the increase in life span attributed to improved health care have resulted in fewer school-age children and more senior citizens, most of whom are women.

The senior population in the United States has increased significantly and will continue to grow in future years. In 1999, the nation’s 34.5 million adults older than 65 years of age constituted 12.7% of the population, with a ratio of 141 older women to 100 older men. The number of people in the United States older than 65 years of age is expected to reach 20% of the population by the year 2030.

For this reason, the need for senior health care services is in demand. The growth of senior care franchises had sprung like mushrooms, catering to all senior citizens. Senior care franchises are not merely focused on providing medical health care services but non-medical senior care as well.

Senior care franchises provide optimum adult care, such as health promotion, illness prevention, identifying and managing causes of sickness, treatment, coping, caring, dying, and death.

Senior care franchise system focus more on promoting effective caregiver-patient relationship and positive outcomes of care, nursing care that is culturally competent, appropriate, and sensitive to cultural differences. This system aims to help the individual retain his or her unique cultural characteristics.

With this, senior care franchise system aims to provide special foods that have significance and arranging for special religious observances. These things will enable the patient to maintain a feeling of wholeness at a time when he or she may feel isolated from family or community.

Cutting Edge

The growth of senior care franchises cannot simply be underrated. Since its inception, it has significantly showed verifiable growth, over the previous years. The adult population could be one of the most important factors, but recognition is also best shared with the effort of every senior care franchise to upgrade their services and provide more assistance to the elderly

Therefore, if you are still not convinced with what the business can do for you, here is a list of some of its advantages.

1. Medical and non-medical health care services

One of the best things about owning senior care franchise is that they can give you both sides of health care. They do not just provide medical health care services but non-medical as well. Non-medical health care services are those that provide company and personal needs.

2. Assisted living placement services

If you own a senior care franchise, you get to provide assisted living placement services. These services provide senior citizens fully aided living services. These kinds of services are specially made for senior citizens who cannot live on their own home alteration.

These are just some of the many benefits that senior care franchise can give you. So if you are looking for a franchise, why not choose senior care franchise instead and reap those greens like a pro.

Before making a responsible decision involving franchising your business or buying a senior care franchise, you should get all the information you can regarding the matter. Our website, Franchising My Business offers news, tips and advice to help you through this decision making process.

Many senior citizens face debilitating health conditions such as dementia, arthritis, stroke, or immobility. These beloved elders are often the victim of fraud, inappropriate government intervention, financial ruin, inadequate medical care, and nursing home abuse or neglect. They often fail to mention any of these personal problems to family members, as they do not want to cause unnecessary worry or seem incapable of handling their own affairs.

Sometimes, even when caring family members make heroic and tireless efforts to help their loved ones, loopholes in the law make the resolution of many situations next to impossible. Thankfully, with a little advice from a competent attorney, supportive family members can close these loopholes, reaching a satisfactory resolution to most of these issues. For those instances where family members cannot fight these battles alone, a trusted attorney who specializes in elder law can be the hero of the day.

If your elder is placed in a hospital or nursing home without adequate insurance or savings to pay for their care, their assets can liquidated by the court. As a caring family member, you must take immediate steps to secure these assets from liquidation. Recent changes in the law have created new requirements for the payment of elder medical care, including rapid seizure of physical property. This includes financial assets, home furnishings, and all other possessions – including life insurance policies and joint bank accounts held with healthy spouses.

While your family member may allow you to handle their affairs while they are physically healthy, they might change their minds if they become ill, are hospitalized, or enter a nursing home. If you do not have a legally binding, signed and notarized agreement between the two of you granting guardianship or Power of Attorney, you may find yourself unable to help them during critical decisions.

Without these documents, bank accounts cannot be accessed, mortgages or other property payments cannot be made, the finer details of various personal matters or accounts cannot be discussed, and end-of-life decisions cannot be made. Instead, these important matters will be decided by a government-appointed elder liaison, who acts on the behalf of everyone other than your loved one. Therefore, it is imperative to make these arrangements well in advance. Ensure that you know your rights and the rights of your loved one by speaking with an experienced, professional elder law attorney.

Elder care law is of great importance for those who are already institutionalized. Nursing homes are often operated on an extremely tight budget, with less than adequate staffing levels or inexperienced nurse’s aides. In fact, in many states only one certified nurse could be present in an entire facility. In some cases the majority of nursing home care is conducted by people who were hired straight off the street, without any prior elder care experience whatsoever.

When elder care abuse or neglect is discovered, nursing homes quickly jump to their defense, making logical excuses for bruises, bed sores, or psychological trauma. In some cases, documentation of care or treatment schedules are doctored in order to appear legitimate and within the letter of the law. Add to this fact that nursing homes are required to provide, on average, only 45 minutes of care per day per patient, and it quickly becomes obvious that legal help is not only desirable, but necessary.

If you or someone you know are facing an elder care issue or have questions about elder law, contact a competent attorney right away. Remember, in many cases timing is of the essence. Neglecting to take critical steps could make all the difference. After all, you’ll want to shield your elder from harm rather than relinquishing all rights and responsibilities to an uncaring government.

About the Author

If you are in the Chicago or Morris Illinois areas be sure to contact Fitzpatrick & Harrop, experienced Grundy County personal injury lawyers and LaSalle County personal injury attorneys for the best possible representation when you are injured.

Most of us will have to manage the care of an aging loved one at some point in our lifetime. A loved one can need additional care because of a medical condition or complication, a decline in cognitive functioning, or increasing isolation and depression. The responsibilities and challenges can be overwhelming for a caregiver. Navigating the options for senior care and coordinating their care can be equally challenging.

The Options:

Assisted Living & Skilled Nursing Facilities: Studies show the process of aging is a much better experience when you are able to age in place and remain in the home environment. For this reason, assisted living or skilled nursing facilities may not be the best option for your loved one. In addition to the trauma associated with moving someone from the home to an assisted care environment, one must also consider the high cost of care as these facilities can range from $3,000 to more than $10,000 per month.

In-Home Care: While this solution would allow a loved one to remain in their home, the fact is that home health care can still be very isolating. Studies have shown that seniors who feel lonely are twice as likely to develop dementia as well as have a significant increase in heart disease and depression. Not only is in-home care socially isolating, but the cost of home care can be very prohibitive for many families.

In-home care agencies often have a high rate of staff turnover. It places a burden on the family to orient and supervise new caregivers, not to mention the difficulties everyone may have adjusting to frequently changing staff. Because the caregivers work without direct supervision it can be difficult for the agencies to ensure the quality of care. The family may feel they need to carefully watch over them as well.

Adult Day Care Services: Seniors who attend adult day centers have varied opportunities to meet and to be with friends, enjoy nutritious meals including special diets, assistance with personal care, and support with their health and medical needs such as health monitoring and medication administration.

Adult Day Care centers have professional qualified staff including registered and licensed nurses, social workers, dieticians, and activity specialists that are able to handle such issues as physical impairment, depression, Alzheimer’s and dementia, stroke, and Parkinson’s Disease as well as chronic conditions that demand constant monitoring such as diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis.

Additional services may include the provision of transportation, podiatry, physical, occupational, and speech therapy services, weekly outings, exercise classes, salon services, and caregiver respite support groups.

Adult day care centers are usually open from 7 am to 6 pm, from Monday to Friday. Some centers are also available during the evenings and on Saturday and/or Sunday or provide in-home care during those times.

The average cost for adult day care is much less than a visit from a home health nurse and about a quarter of the cost of skilled nursing facility. Assistance with funding is available from Long Term Care Insurance and Medicaid. In some areas, funding assistance may also be available from the Veteran’s Administration, nursing home diversion programs, and other entitlement programs.

A checklist for comparing adult day care centers in addition to identifying locations is available on the website of the National Adult Day Services Association (nadsa.org).

Adult day care centers are the most cost effective way to help seniors age in place and provide much needed respite for family caregivers. For more information or to find a center near you, visit SarahCare® Adult Day Care Services (sarahcare.com).

About the Author

Inger Rarick has over 20 years of experience working with older adults, seniors and the elderly in various settings including adult day care, assisted living facilities, and in-patient rehabilitation. She understands the needs of family caregivers and the stress associated with managing the care of an aging parent. In addition to her clinical work with families and seniors, Ms. Rarick is also passionate about technology and how technology can improve the lives of seniors both at home and in the healthcare setting. Aging in place and supporting older loved ones to remain in the home environment is essential to successful aging. She founded a company called FamiliLink, empowering families to provide care and support to aging loved ones by including them in the digital loop. She also works closely with Sarahcare (www.sarahcare.com), a leading Adult Day Care Service company with more than 35 centers across the nation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Inger_Rarick

I received so many emails from people who are seeking ways to be paid for family caregiving that I felt it was important to offer some of the strategies from my book, The Complete Eldercare Planner.

To begin, first review your own financial situation. This is an important step in the process. Shelling out money for parent care does not do any good if in the process we are jeopardizing our own future financial stability.  Discuss money-management strategies with a financial planner. With your own longevity in mind, calculate your net worth and outline plans to provide for your retirement needs.

The next step is to investigate the following family caregiver payment strategies:

• Hospitals, social service organizations and adult education centers offer training programs for caregivers who, upon completion of the program, may qualify to be paid for their services. Call your local Area Agency on Aging to see if such a program exists near you.

• If you haven’t done so already, investigate long-term care insurance – for you and your aging parents. Ask about a policy that will pay for family and friends to provide the care after they have completed a caregiving-training program.

• The “Cash and Counseling” program for Medicaid enrollees allows participants to pay family members for their services. Contact your local agency on aging or department of social services for more information on government funding.

• Seek the assistance of an elder law attorney and begin the process of putting estate plans in writing. If your mother owns property and has assets, your getting paid for family caregiving may have to wait until your mother’s estate is settled.

• There are several programs that allow low-income family caregivers to care for their elderly relatives, most notably the Personal Care Attendant Program and the Adult Foster Care Program, which pays family members and others to provide care for elders who are Medicaid eligible and need help with their activities of daily living. Call the Medicare office for details or visit the Medicare website at www.medicare.gov.

A Medicaid advisor will guide you through Medicaid approved methods of protecting your parent’s estate and prevent you from making mistakes that would delay your parent becoming eligible for benefits.  An elder law attorney can help your parent establish legal tools that convert “countable” assets (assets that Medicaid considers when determining eligibility) to “exempt” assets.

Ideally long term care planning starts well before your parent becomes ill or needs help with basic living skills.  A well prepared retirement and estate plan includes how your parent will pay for care. In reality, most of us wait until long term care is upon us before we consider how we will pay for it.

Find an elder law attorney who specializes in Medicaid planning:

• If your parent currently lives in a nursing home, you can ask the social worker for a referral to an attorney.
• If you or your parent has a financial advisor or estate planning attorney, they may have referrals for you.
• You can also check with your local senior center to ask for a referral.
• If you don’t have personal referral that you are confident about, the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) is a good place to start your search for an attorney.  Through their website, you can find an attorney in your local area.

After you narrow your search down to two attorneys, schedule a consultation.  Come to the meeting with a list of your questions and any special circumstances that you feel will impact your parent’s situation.  Your parent should attend the meeting unless health concerns make it impossible.

At the consultation:

• Ask for references you can call to help you determine if the attorney is experienced and successful.
• Get a complete schedule of fees and services that the attorney offers.
• Do you feel that the attorney is approachable and answered your questions completely

Did you use an elder law attorney for Medicaid planning?  Share your experiences with us.

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–Janice Wallace

Many family members take loans, skip vacations and often ignore their own health. Government must start providing tax deductions and tax credits to family caregivers.

The expenditures incurred for elderly health care is increasing rapidly and reaching astronomical heights. Elders have many special needs when it comes to health care. One is often left frustrated when there are gaps in insurance coverage. Medicare programs offer only minimal assistance for serious health disorders.

There are some programs that cover senior citizens. It covers hospital expenses and doctor visits, even if you continue to work. All one needs to do is pay a premium every month. These programs are popular among a vast number of senior citizens.

One needs to apply for these programs before one reaches the age of 65. In case you don’t then one has to pay a high premium. One also has the option of enrolling for these programs after retirement.

The premium that one pays depends on your income and which company you will be purchasing coverage from. Senior citizens with low income are also eligible for the entire coverage under Medicare.

Prescription drugs which are used to treat a wide variety of diseases and illness are fully covered if one has a private insurance coverage. If you do not have private insurance, this could be matter of serious concern. Sometimes drug prices are simply not affordable, forcing the senior citizens to forgo other needs to pay for drugs.

Recent Medicare legislation has been a big disappointment for senior citizens, as drug coverage continues to be limited and fails to reduce the rising cost of drugs. Many seniors are forced to manage their medical plan on their own.

At times, the drug industry provides free drugs to the needy who are not covered under private insurance or any government program. Retail stores in the vicinity provide drugs at discounted rates. There are various medicine manufacturing companies that offer assistance to lower income senior citizens. One can seek out these discount programs if they have a financial need.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Katie_Appleby

Protecting your parent from financial elder abuse is an important parent care responsibility.  This type of abuse robs your parent of her money and her freedom because money equals choice when it comes to elder care services. Financial elder abuse is defined as a person taking an elder’s money or property for his/her own needs.

Abusers sometimes use threats of abandonment or make the elder feel guilty to convince the elder to turn the control of assets over to them.  Sometimes, “feel good” tactics are used.  The abuser befriends a lonely senior in person or over the phone or taps into greed by convincing the senior that he has won a prize.

Financial elder abuse warning signs

• Caregivers or family members who isolate the senior or speak for the senior
• Increased withdrawals or credit card charges
• Access to the elder’s account in ways that doesn’t match their abilities, for example a homebound senior making ATM withdrawals

Steps to protect against financial elder abuse:

• Protect your parents’ sensitive financial information from identity theft by securing blank checks, bank and brokerage statements and credit cards if you have service providers in their home.
• Shred incoming credit card applications and other unused financial documents.
• Monitor your parent’s accounts for unusual activity
• Discuss common financial scams with your parent.  The police department will have more information about scams that are going on in your local area.

Sadly, this abuse is sometimes committed by family members.  If your parent care responsibilities include serving as your parent’s agent in their power of attorney for finance, it is your responsibility to make sure your parent’s money is only used for their benefit.  This may mean some tough conversations with family members and your parents around loans and monetary gifts.

It’s important as a family to discuss your parent care values around protecting your parents’ money.  You can create a family agreement that outlines acceptable behavior based on your family values.  It might have some of these elements:

As a family we agree that

• Mom and dad’s money is for their use and pleasure
• We will not accept loans or large monetary gifts from mom and dad unless it is part of a well thought out estate planning strategy

Has your parent been the victim of financial elder abuse?  Tell us how you dealt with it.

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