July 11, 2018

Have Fun

Staying both mentally and physically active has positive health benefits for elderly people. However, many have forgotten how to do that in enjoyable ways.

If you go to any park or recreational center, you are likely to see a lot of young people enjoying themselves. Kids know how to play. It is not something they need to be taught to do normally.

It does not matter if their activities are structured playing a game with formal rules. Kids will simply find a way to have fun. However, when kids grow up and turn into adults their lives change. They often do not have the time to have a lot of fun. They must go to work. They must raise their children. They have other responsibilities.

When they retire, they have the time to have fun again. However, it is somewhat rare to see a group of elderly people at a park or rec center having fun. They have forgotten what they once knew how to do, as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discusses in "A Lost Skill Among the Elderly: How to Have Fun."

What this means for retired people is that a lot of them spend a lot of time watching television for hours and hours at a time. While some television viewing is not going to hurt anyone, research suggests that elderly people who are mentally and physically active see health benefits. It would be better for elderly people to spend less time in front of the television and more time having fun.

Of course, not all elderly people are physically capable of playing the same games they did as a child. However, there are other activities available for the elderly in most places.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (June 13, 2018) "A Lost Skill Among the Elderly: How to Have Fun."

July 10, 2018

Social Security Can Be Fixed

People who are opposed to the Social Security system claim that it is about to go broke and disappear soon. That is not true.

Social Security opponents and opponents of government spending in general, like to make the claim that Social Security is going to go broke or bankrupt. They then normally use this piece of information to get people to support cuts to Social Security benefits or increases to the age of retirement.

They are using recent government reporst as ammunition to suggest that if something is not done, then Social Security will go broke in 2022. The problem is the claim is not true, as Forbes discusses in "Fake News: Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke."

Social Security currently takes in more money every year than it pays out in benefits. That has created a surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund. What will happen in 2022 is that, due to demographic changes, Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in. However, since there is a surplus, current benefits will not have to change. The surplus can be spent down. It will not run out until 2034. When that happens, Social Security will not disappear. Instead benefits will be cut slightly, as the program will only be able to pay out as much money as it takes in.

This means is that politicians have a lot of time to fix Social Security, if they are willing to do so. They do not need to raise the retirement age or cut benefits. They can also fix things by increasing funding for the program.

Reference: Forbes (June 18, 2018) "Fake News: Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke."

April 30, 2018August 27, 2023

Estate Sale Gone Awry

Estate sales are increasingly popular ways to get rid of unwanted items of personal property from an estate. One Colorado woman recently learned just how eager people can be to get a good deal.

Mary Andrews, a resident of Longmont CO, recently had an extremely bad day. She had a garage sale but did not manage to sell everything she had on offer. However, that is not unusual.

Before Andrews cleaned up all the leftover items from her lawn, she left her house without locking her door. When she came home later, she found a lot of people inside her home taking everything that was not nailed down.

Why? An estate sale was supposed to be held two doors down from Andrews. People mistakenly believed that hers was the house for the estate sale. Furthermore, these people mistakenly believed that everything left over, which included the items in her house, were all left over and free for anyone who wanted them.

The police filed a report on the incident. However, they have closed the case due to the lack of suspects. Fox News reported on this incident in “Colorado house ransacked after estate sale mix-up.”

The good news here is that people who are having estate sales can expect very enthusiastic buyers, even if they are not giving the items away for free. Estate sales have proven to be a great way for heirs to dispose of property they do not want. Buyers are so enthusiastic that many elderly people are having estate sales, while they are still alive as a way to downsize before moving to a smaller, more manageable home.

Reference: Fox News (March 28, 2018) “Colorado house ransacked after estate sale mix-up.”

March 6, 2018

Report Finds Problems with Assisted Living Oversight

One way that Medicaid can save money is by paying for assisted living care for seniors who are eligible for it, instead of paying for nursing home care. A new report found that because of a lack of oversight, that is not happening.

Medicaid was not originally designed to pay for seniors' stays in assisted living facilities. However, as more and more money was being spent on nursing home facilities and the costs at those facilities continued to rise, the federal government granted states waivers to use Medicaid funds for the generally less expensive assisted living facilities.

This should have saved the federal government quite a bit of money.

A group of Senators asked the Government Accountability Office to study how the government's money was being used. The results were not good as The New York Times reported in "U.S. Pays Billions for 'Assisted Living,' but What Does It Get?"

Every year the government spends approximately $10 billion on assisted living facilities. The discouraging news? It is almost impossible to determine how much of the money is well-spent and how much of it is not. The GAO found that a lack of regulations and proper oversight made it impossible to get even basic information about patient outcomes and critical events in many states.

This is disturbing since Medicaid is expected to need even more money in the future to pay for the nursing home care and assisted living care of an aging population. If the oversight problem is not fixed, it will be seniors who are most harmed by the problems.

Reference: New York Times (Feb. 3, 2018) "U.S. Pays Billions for 'Assisted Living,' but What Does It Get?"

February 9, 2018

Dealing with Scams

Scams conducted against the elderly are far too frequent and difficult to prevent. However, there are some steps you can take if you or an elderly loved one has been scammed.

Along with the growth of America's elderly population, has come a less welcome population growth.

The number of scammers.

This unwelcome “population” has increased, as unscrupulous people seek to make easy money by duping the elderly.

There are many types of scams that target the elderly, ranging from large ones meant to make millions to very small scams meant to cheat an elderly person out of a few hundred dollars.

The smaller ones can be very difficult to prevent because they often consist of someone calling the elderly and pretending to be someone else, such as a charity or a debt collector.

These callers lie and sweet talk their way into getting the elderly victim's bank or credit card information.

If you know someone who has been a victim of such a scam recently, there are some things that you can do as My San Antonio discusses in "How to handle a scam against elderly parent."

The first thing that needs to be done is to contact the financial institution and make sure it is aware of the scam.

The institution can even block the transaction, if it is not too late.

The local police should be called as well to make sure the crime is reported.

It is also a good idea to contact an elder law attorney to ask for legal advice, if needed to get any money back.

When the elderly are scammed, it is not always possible to get their money back. However, by making a few phones calls, you can make it more likely.

Reference: My San Antonio (Jan. 12, 2018) "How to handle a scam against elderly parent."

January 23, 2018

Will Inheritances Become a Thing of the Past?

In wealthy countries aging populations and the increasing costs of caring for the elderly are putting in jeopardy the entire idea of inheritances for large percentages of the population.

One of the key ways that people in the U.S. have been able to stay in the middle class and slowly build up some wealth between generations is through inheritances. Receiving even a small inheritance from parents, especially if it includes real estate, allows families to build up some wealth. That wealth can, in turn, be left as inheritances for their children.

Even if people are not consciously aware of this, they seem to know it intuitively judging by their actions and their estate planning. In wealthy countries, that idea is in jeopardy of becoming a distant memory for middle class families as the Financial Times explains in "Opinion Today: The end of inheritance."

The article is about the situation in the U.K., but the issues in the U.S. are the same.

The overall population is aging. The elderly are living much longer than in previous years. This increases the cost of providing care for the elderly population. There are not enough younger people paying taxes to make up for the increasing costs.

When political leaders have proposed addressing the issue, they have been punished by voters, who do not want changes to the elder benefits they have been promised.

At some point, the issue does need to be addressed.

If governments cannot afford to meet elder care expenses, then the costs will fall on individual families. It is likely that there is nothing left over for many middle-class parents to bequeath to their children.

Reference: Financial Times (Dec. 23, 2017) "Opinion Today: The end of inheritance."

January 16, 2018

Americans Have Dim View of Life in a Nursing Home

Many in survey would choose death over moving to a nursing home.

A new survey reveals that 61% of Americans would rather pass away than go to a nursing home, according to Financial Advisor in "Older Americans Would Rather Die Than Live In a Nursing Home."

This creates a lot of potential challenges for stakeholders.

It is an issue for elderly people who might have no choice but to go to a nursing home.

It also creates challenges for family members who act as caregivers for the elderly, since they will want to be even more careful than usual when it is time to suggest that a loved one needs nursing home care.

It also creates a problem for nursing homes, since they need to look for ways to improve their reputation.

That could mean that they need to offer more care which costs money, which would be a challenge to nursing homes and the government.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Dec. 20, 2017) "Older Americans Would Rather Die Than Live In a Nursing Home."

December 27, 2017

Being Under Observation in the Hospital

Many elderly people face gigantic medical bills for hospital stays because of how they are classified by the hospital. This makes a big difference in how much Medicare will pay.

When an elderly person has an extended stay in the hospital, they are almost always under the impression that Medicare will cover most of the costs. However, many stay in the hospital for weeks and only later discover that they are responsible for most of the costs of their stay.

This is because Medicare is very particular about when it will pay for hospital costs.

For Medicare to pick up the bill, the patient must be classified as an inpatient. This means that the patient has been formally admitted to the hospital.

If the patient is an outpatient, Medicare will not pay and those patients who are in the hospital "under observation" are still considered to be outpatients, no matter how long they are actually in the hospital.

The story is picked up by The New York Times in "Under 'Observation' Some Hospital Patients Face Big Bills."

Elder law advocates have long pointed out that the rule is absurd.

The patient does not always get to choose what the hospital writes down in the file. The patient also does not always know the importance of being formally admitted, instead of just being under observation.

There has never been a way for the patients to challenge their designations later, until now.

A judge in Connecticut has recently opened the door for legal challenges.

Reference: New York Times (Sep. 1, 2017) "Under 'Observation' Some Hospital Patients Face Big Bills."

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Tag: Elder Issues