We are living in confusing and scary times. The senior population has been identified as the most at-risk demographic for COVID-19. Information coming out about COVID-19 is very fluid, which can also contribute to overall stress. Thankfully there are ways to try and manage stress and stay as healthy as possible during this time thanks to advice from several federal agencies monitoring the situation and the impact of COVID-19 on the senior population. This article highlights some of the advice provided from those agencies monitoring this situation closely.

For those living in a nursing home or long-term care living facility, new protocols have been established by the federal government to curb the spread of Coronavirus. A new preparedness checklist is available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It includes staff education and training for the rapid identification and management of ill residents, as well as an increase in supplies and resources. There are also restrictions on all visitation, excepting some circumstances like an end of life situation.  Other restrictions have been placed on volunteers and non-essential health care personnel, and the cancellation of all group activities and communal dining.

Before the identification and dissemination of information about Coronavirus, the CDC had identified the 2019-2020 flu season as being particularly challenging. Now many seniors wonder whether they have a different type of flu, allergies, or are experiencing the Coronavirus. Not knowing is particularly frightening since seniors have been identified as the demographic with the highest mortality rate. The CDC has a straightforward checklist of symptoms of respiratory infection, including COVID-19:

• Fever
• Cough
• Shortness of breath

Because other types of flu have similar symptoms and there is no Coronavirus vaccine, and its test is in very short supply, many older adults will only be able to treat their symptoms without full knowledge as to the contagion.

One their website under “How to Prepare” the CDC provides information on protecting yourself, your family, your home, and managing anxiety and stress. According to the CDC, there are some things that seniors can do whether or not they are in a facility or living at home that can help reduce their risk of catching the Coronavirus or any other virus for that matter in this bad flu season. The first line of defense sounds counterintuitive to a global pandemic, but it is crucial, stay calm and try to relax.

Getting quality sleep during this outbreak will allow your body the time it needs to restore immunity responses to contagions. Stay well hydrated by drinking plenty of water. Staying calm, getting restful sleep, and remaining hydrated will allow your body’s natural defense mechanisms to protect itself.

Have someone near you help you stock up on supplies. Stay in your home as much as possible. If the weather permits, open a window for fresh air. If you have a home with a porch or patio, take in some sun for vitamin D. You want your immune system to be as robust as possible. Take everyday precautions to keep space between yourself and others. If it is not necessary, don’t go out in public, avoid crowds, stay away from anyone who is sick, and wash your hands often. Cancel any cruise or non-essential air travel and do not use public transportation.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has posted a list of disinfectants for use against the Coronavirus. Proper disinfecting of often-used surfaces is critical as this particular Coronavirus can live for long periods, up to 72 hours on some surfaces. As of now, the EPA reports no detection of COVID-19 in drinking water supplies and believes the risk to the water supply is low based on current evidence.

The CDC is reporting that seniors with chronic medical conditions like heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and should take extra precautions about self-isolating. Those seniors with these conditions in a nursing home or long-term care facility will be triaged according to CDC guidelines for best practices with the elderly who are the highest risk.

If you feel worried and panic is taking over your rational responses, seek a loved one or trusted friend to guide you through the steps you can take. There is a great deal that is unknown about the Coronavirus, but there is a great deal known about what you can do as an individual senior to combat the threat and remain healthy.

We would be happy to discuss any questions or concerns you have as we continue to understand the impact of COVID-19 on our country.

Please get in touch with our office by calling us at (318) 255-1760.

Your parent is getting on in age, but you don’t have a clear idea if there is a plan in place for their care.  It is a difficult topic to broach; no one wants to talk about death and the financial realities that come with aging.  Instead of having a proactive conversation early in a parent’s aging process most families have a reactive discussion under high levels of stress and emotions while their parent is experiencing an adverse health event.  The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has reported that 85 percent of time long-term care decisions are made during a medical crisis. The message is clear, be proactive and start discussing the important financial questions with your parent.

Prepare Yourself

Your parent will be feeling more comfortable and at ease if you have processed your feelings before talking to them.  Conduct research so that you are knowledgeable enough to present a clear and concise set of options for your parent.  Having options allows your parent and family to make decisions and feel in control of the process.  You are seeking progress, not perfection. It may not all become settled in one conversation, but the price of silence about your parent’s plan may be very costly to you.

Review Documents

Two of the most critical personal legal documents are a durable power of attorney (DPOA) and a healthcare proxy. All older adults should have these documents as it gives legal authority to a designated representative to make financial, legal, and health care decisions on your parent’s behalf. If your parent does not have a DPOA and becomes incapacitated, you will have to go to court to get appointed as your parent’s guardian which can be a complicated legal process at a time when your energy is better spent in the care and decision making for your parent. If they do not have a DPOA and health care proxy in place, make arrangements for them to meet with a trusted elder law attorney to properly draft the legal documents.

Often a parent will have a will, retirement account information and insurance policies that have not been revisited or updated in years, sometimes decades. When was the last time your parent reviewed beneficiary designations? Family circumstances change, and the birth of a child, death or divorce can affect how your parent may want beneficiaries designated. It is best to review financial and insurance data annually with your parent and make adjustments if necessary. For example, if the parent’s children are grown it might be best to cut back on the amount of life insurance, they carry to save money on annual premiums.

Long Term Care Plan

Address the issue of long-term care. According to the PBS, a full 70 percent of all seniors will need some long-term care as they age. Even if your parent is healthy today odds are, they will require long-term care and the costs are staggering. Some life insurance companies will add a long-term care rider to an existing policy. Medicaid also can cover some long-term care costs, but neither standard health insurance nor Medicare will cover your parent’s long-term care expenses.

Meet the Team

Ask your parent about their financial advisors and request a brief introduction to them.  Find out who they are and how you might contact them in the event your parent is unable to do so. This information will allow you to keep an eye on your parent’s accounts and be confident the advisors are trusted, objective and well versed in elder financial issues. Oversight by you in a slightly detached way provides your parent privacy and independence about their finances but allows you to protect them from unscrupulous advisors.

Understand Filing System

The last thing you need to discuss is where this vital information is filed so that before a crisis hits you know where to find the important documents, online passwords, and forms of ID you will need to facilitate your parent’s wellbeing. While you do not have to see all the specific contents of the information, particularly the financials, knowing where they keep the data is critical in a crisis. Remember that as your parent ages they may start to change the location of the information. Check with them a couple of times a year to ensure the information is still in the same place and physically look to be sure it is.

Discussing your parent’s strategy is best begun while they are healthy. Proactive planning is the best way to help your family as your parents age.

If you have questions or need guidance in your planning or planning for a loved one, please do not hesitate to contact our Ruston office by calling us at (318) 255-1760.

Health Dimensions Group (HDG ) has released its list for 2020 entitled “Top Trends in Aging Services: Preparing for Historic Changes.” As the silver tsunami of baby boomers continues to enter the senior living and care organizations markets, the general response has been uncertainty as to how to meet changing and varied senior needs while maintaining profitability.  Owners and operators of senior living facilities must become responsive and make changes that are swift and diverse.

Actuaries used to define senior housing construction projections and schedules are based on population data that are five or more years out. These metrics attempt to address occupancy and growth challenges as senior living occupancy rates fluctuated between the 86 – 88 percent mark for 2019 according to new data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). The third quarter of 2019 set a record for the highest demand of net new senior housing units while the construction data indicates a slowdown is near. The population projections of 2015 are not in accord with the latest senior housing demand. More cost-effective construction options and the repurposing of existing real estate is becoming a necessity to offset occupancy pressures and saturated markets.

For lower-income seniors, alternative living care models, including the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), integrate Medicare and Medicaid financing; provide a comprehensive service delivery system. This coordination of care is an effort to defer or avoid seniors moving into a long-term care fee-for-service facility. Implementing this program and other, less costly models of care can help to address lower-income senior housing issues. These models will continue to leverage technology to drive innovation and efficiencies, as well as address workforce shortages.

The most challenging market segment for senior living is that of middle-income seniors. Those seniors without sufficient resources for long-term care but who are also not in a position to qualify for Medicaid seem to face some of the most significant issues as it relates to housing and healthcare costs. According to McKnight’s Senior Living, investors and operators focus on the upper end of income distribution as their preferred targeted residents while leaving state and local programs to provide for low-income seniors. This scenario leaves a large portion of middle-income seniors whose living needs are not adequately being addressed.

Applied digital technologies are changing the senior living sector, and the race to seize substantial market share in the active adult and under-addressed middle-class needs has not gone unnoticed by tech behemoths like Apple and Amazon. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, who runs a venture capital firm, is predicting that a significant change is imminent for senior living. New startups, heavy on innovation and technology, will bring major disruption to existing senior living models and facilities very soon.

Existing operators and investors of aging senior living facilities are increasing investment in a wide range of offerings and services to remain operationally sound and competitive. One service strategy is to partner with home health agencies that provide therapy under Medicare Part B while a senior resident ages in place. Another is to create more public spaces within facilities. The creation of roof-top restaurants and park spaces on the property can increase senior socialization alleviating depression, which is a contributing factor to downward health spirals for seniors. Smartwatch technology that acts as a smart key for residents as well as a movement and health monitor reduces the number of daily interactions with staff and provides a way for loved ones to monitor their spouse or parent remotely. Creating more job flexibility for staff and dramatically increasing wages for hourly positions is a necessity to recruit and retain competent staff in a tight labor force.

While many of the baby boomers are still below the average age of residents that live in traditional senior communities, demographics point to the fact that the senior living industry will soon be under more pressure than ever to provide for a diverse and increasingly particular population. Market sector opportunities in middle-income senior living will drive innovation as competition increases, and companies vie for market share. These opportunities to realize new solutions will positively affect the entire senior income spectrum for housing.

We help seniors come up with comprehensive plans to address the aging process and the challenges that come with it.

If you have questions or need guidance in your planning or planning for a loved one, please do not hesitate to contact our Ruston, Louisiana office by calling us at (318) 255-1760.

 

Welcome to the new decade, replete with new challenges to protect yourself against ever-inventive scam artists. One concern has a simple fix but requires your commitment to add two additional digits when signing or writing documents, letters, emails, and more. The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is reporting that the dawn of this decade creates unique opportunities for scammers when you abbreviate the year 2020 on official forms and documents to its shortened form xx/xx/20. The numbers representing the year are easily manipulated by nefarious individuals looking to exploit others, leaving them vulnerable to potential fraud.

CNN reports several ways abbreviating 2020 can create problems. The easiest way to understand this is by example. A document dated 1/5/20 can easily be changed to 1/5/2021 by merely adding the two numbers at the end of the year’s date. A check previously dated six months ago or more that has become “stale” can be made active by adding the number 21, making the check valid.

Another example is if you opt into signing a credit contract as a borrower, and the paperwork is dated 1/5/20. If the lender was less than credible and you might unwittingly miss a month or so of payments, the opportunity is created for the lender to add a 19 to the end of your signed date and argue you owe more than one year’s worth of payments.

While some are identifying this warning as fear-mongering, you have to ask yourself, how hard is it to simply create the discipline and sign the year as completed 2020? Of course, someone in the year xx/xx/19 could have added the number 99 to the end, creating a false document from 1999, but to be sure a document nearly 20 years out of date would get far easier dismissal than one that is being disputed between the years 2019 and 2020. Naturally, all dates can be altered on documents of any kind. Still, those within a more reasonable time frame of the current calendar suggest red flags should be raised for investigation because of the possibility for this type of date scam.

It is still early in the year, and there are no documented instances yet of someone being scammed using this method; however, it is better to be safe than sorry. Like identity theft, it is possible to regain control of a falsely dated signature scam attack. Still, it costs time, money, and adds needless frustration to your daily life to enact recovery to your signatory statements.

Think of the discipline to write out 2020 as overkill if you must, however, it makes sense to heed the warnings issued by law enforcement, consumer groups, businesses, and local governments. Financial fraud is the fastest-growing category of elder abuse, and this new decade ushers in the potential for faked date schemes on documents to defraud seniors out of their money and property. While it is unclear how pervasive this particular fraud scheme is to become in the year(s) ahead, don’t let this method of establishing an unpaid debt, attempt to cash an old check, or incorrectly dated legal documents create a catastrophe in your life.

There are more examples of how the abbreviation of 2020 can give scammers a chance to defraud you. Instead of focusing on the problem, it is better to implement the easy solution by removing the possibility of date scams on legal documents. Instead of being taken advantage of by scammers, perform a precautionary action. Therefore take the time, and instead of just writing 20, be sure to write the year in full as 2020 on all-important checks, documents, emails, and business transactions. You will be glad to have taken the time to protect yourself.

If you have any questions or need guidance in your planning or planning for a loved one, please contact our Ruston, Louisiana office by calling us at (318) 255-1760.

 

There is an entire senior industry built around preventative measures and responses to protect older people from falling, and with good reason. According to the National Council on Aging Falls Prevention Facts, “falls remain the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries for older Americans.” Aside from grievous and sometimes fatal injuries, falls are costing money, lots of money. In 2015 Medicare and Medicaid paid 75 percent of the 50 billion dollars in total cost due to fall injuries. With an ever-aging US population, the financial toll is projected to reach 67.7 billion dollars in 2020.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made a declaration that falls should never happen in a hospital environment and created penalties that became effective in 2008. The penalty still allows for patient care billing through CMS but will no longer bump payments up to a higher level to cover the treatment of fall-related issues. The advent of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) saw Congress introduce more stringent penalties by reducing federal payments by one percent for those hospitals with the highest rates of falls as well as other hospital-acquired conditions. The financial aspect is of significant concern as the American Hospital Association (AHA) finds that nearly one-third of US hospitals report negative operating margins.

These government assessed fall penalties could damage a hospital’s reputation and reduce its profitability. As a result, many hospital policies are now overzealous with regards to fall prevention, creating an epidemic of patient immobility. While this epidemic may serve the financial interests of hospitals, it does not serve the needs of older hospitalized patients. There are nominal reasons that hospitals are promoting increased “bed rest.”  These reasons include a shortage of staff, insufficient walking equipment, and no current means to record ambulation in a patient’s electronic medical record. Some nurses and hospital aides, to evade being reprimanded if a patient under their supervision falls, find reasons to avoid getting a patient out of bed and walking. Patients themselves are being instructed not to get up on their own and are subject to bed alarms that will alert hospital staff if they do.

Elderly patients are bedbound and discouraged from walking. This practice degrades the patient’s mental well being and their ability to become well to protect hospital profitability. Many older patients are weak and frail upon hospital admission, and after a few days in bed, find their muscles can deteriorate significantly enough to bring severe long-term consequences. Dr. Kenneth Covinsky, a researcher and geriatrician at the University of California-San Francisco, states, “Older patients face staggering rates of disability after hospitalizations.” His research cites that one-third of patients age 70 or more leave the hospital more disabled than when they were admitted.

Ultimately the policies put in place to reduce the number of falls in a hospital setting have created a climate of “fear of falling.” Hospital staff feels that a patient falling on their watch will lead to blaming, reprimands, even termination when the fault of the fall might be the patient themselves. This staff self-protection mechanism creates a cycle where the patient languishes in bed, growing weaker by the day. When they do get up, the patient is more likely to fall and become more seriously injured due to a decrease in muscle coordination and an increase in strength deterioration.

Barriers to the mobilization of elderly hospital patients do them a great disservice and may lead to increased length of hospital stay as well as disability after hospitalization. The limiting of patient mobility may have begun as a response to financial penalties but has very serious, though perhaps unintended, patient health consequences. Inpatient walking activity is a good predictor of readmission in elderly Americans. Research shows that just 275 steps a day while in the hospital yields lower rates of readmission after 30 days. Programs such as the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) are trying to reduce the barriers to patient mobility and reverse the epidemic of elder patient immobility. Across America, there are efforts to get patients moving again in special hospital wings called Acute Care for Elders. In these specialized settings, elderly patients can be provided the proper staff and equipment to walk and enhance their rehabilitation and wellness safely. For the best elderly patient outcomes, the trend of patient immobility must become less prevalent in hospitals despite the risk of falls.

If you have any questions or need guidance in your planning or planning for a loved one, please don’t hesitate to contact our Ruston, Louisiana office by dialing (318) 255-1760.