The Long Term Care Specialist

08/03/2013

"I Want to Keep Mom, or Dad, or My Spouse, or Myself At Home But..." and "Will your Passwords Leave With You?" Two articles that I wrote & sent out in my July, 2013 monthly eNewsletter. Would you like to see them? 1. Go to The Long Term Care Specialist website: www.LTCinsuranceGuy.com. 2. Click on "Sign up for our Email Newsletter" & follow the prompts. One-click unsubscribe process if you decide you don't want to receive more eNewsletters.

06/20/2013

One way or another, the children always pay for their parents' cost of long term care services
1. Either the children's inheritance is reduced a little bit by the parents' having paid premiums on long term care insurance polices OR:
2. The childen's inheritance is reduced by a huge amount (or eliminated completely) because the parents did not have long term care insurance.
Take-away: Maybe the kids should help pay for the insurance.

05/13/2013

"Almost any long term care insurance is better than no long term care insurance." I was thusly quoted in the 9/24/2012 Wall Street Journal. Better coverage is better, but only insurance that is in place when needed can make a difference.

How much of a difference?

Imagine a spouse with dementia. Then imagine a very small long term care insurance policy. Say with $100 per day/$3000 per month benefit & a 3-year benefit period. Add minimal inflation protection.

This very small, and very affordable, policy will buy 4 hours of professional home care, every day of the week for three full years! Will 4 hours per day make a difference to a family?

04/29/2013

My assistant, hard at work.

04/24/2013

Here is a good article about dealing with aging parents. I thought it may be helpful.

First, we do have to put ourselves first sometimes. What’s best for us, best for our own families and our own peace of mind must be a serious consideration. Sacrificing our sanity for the sake of caregiving is not the best choice. Delegate and find others to help if having too much of the caregive...

04/12/2013

Great News - And it's because of you. http://conta.cc/10Vrhnl

04/05/2013

I firmly believe that you (& everyone else) must have a plan for Long term Care. The plan does not necessarily need to include Long Term Care insurance, but there must be a plan...else you will be suddenly dealing with the need for care in crisis, with few or no remaining choices. I am OK with someone who has thought through all that it means to receive Long Term Care services from Medicaid, and has concluded that going on Medicaid is an acceptable answer. I am not OK with what a person does to his/her family by refusing to address the issue.

04/04/2013

A plan to pay for Long Term Care is not in itself a financial plan. But, a financial plan that does not address Long Term Care cannot be a complete financial plan.

04/02/2013

04/01/2013

Where Is Long Term Care Received?

When most people hear the term Long Term Care, they think “nursing home”. While some care does happen in nursing homes, most, about 90%, is provided elsewhere. There is a continuum of Long Term Care services: Home care > adult day care > assisted living > nursing home.

Home Care: About 80% of Long Term Care Services are provided in a person’s home. Why is that? Home is where most people want to receive care. You have the greatest degree of freedom in your own home…you can do (almost) everything that you want and when you want to do it. Home is where your memories were created. Home is also where it is possible for a spouse or other adult can provide care, at least until the caregiver burns out physically and emotionally.

Adult Day Care: A great concept. Think “child day care” and flip it. A van comes to your home in the morning, takes you to a facility where your family knows you will be safe. You can then interact with other people as much or as little as you would like. At the end of the day, the van brings you back home. The beauty of adult day care is your caregiver can still have a life…can have a job, go to school, have lunch with friends, and still take care of you in the evening. Some really nice adult day care centers are springing up in Metro-Denver and elsewhere around the country.

Assisted Living: Not as much freedom as home, but way more than a nursing home. Individual space can range from a shared bedroom to a small apartment. Meals are provided in a central dining room. The assisted living facility itself can range from as few as six residents to several hundred. The quality of care in many assisted living facilities is excellent. In some, not so good. Compared to home care, an advantage of assisted living is the socialization that takes place among the residents.

Nursing Homes: Some nursing homes are very nice. Most are not. If you really need the high level of continuous care, then a good nursing home is where you should be. Most people who are in nursing homes are not there because they need that much care…rather it is because they ran out of money and are on the welfare program known as Medicaid (More about Medicaid in a later post.).

Just in care you are wondering about my plan for Long Term Care: I intend to have care, when I need it, in my own home…unless I have heavy dementia, in which case my wife can do with me as she wishes (I’m only kidding Dear. I know I will receive good care. Won't I?)

04/01/2013

What is Long Term Care?

Let me begin by saying what Long Term Care is not. Long Term Care is NOT medical treatment intended to get you well again. Long Term Care services become necessary when the doctors have done all they can to restore your functionality (essentially, your ability to live independently), but you are now operating at less than 100%. It may be when you have completed rehab following a stroke. Or when you have become too weak to take care of yourself. Or when Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia has taken hold. Or when one of a thousand illnesses or injuries (or general frailty) has left you in need of daily help.

Long Term Care is the assistance needed to get you through the day…assistance with bathing, dressing, eating toileting, transferring (moving from a bed to a chair as an example), or dealing with incontinence. Long Term Care is also the necessary supervision (“watching”) to keep you from hurting yourself or others because of dementia.

03/27/2013

Bull elk starting to bugle