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For the first time in a decade, Americans will be paying less next year for Medicare Part B. The 3% decrease in premiums (a savings of $5.20 per month for most people) comes after a tough year with extremely high inflation. “To millions of seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare, that means more money in their pockets while still getting the care they need,†President Biden said.
Carmel, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA or HHA Designation A Plus (Also Aromas, Big Sur,  Carmel-by-the-sea, Carmel Highlands, Carmel Valley, Castroville, Corral-de-tierra, Del Rey Oaks, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Prunedale, Salinas, Seaside & Soledad
We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade and have recently expanded into Santa Cruz County.  We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.
Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and Santa Cruz is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care. Our services include:
Caring companionship
Meal preparation
Incidental transportation
Running errands
Light housekeeping
Medication reminders
Monitoring of safety while bathing
Information and referral services
Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.
If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you! We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems. Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus. To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle. To apply, please visit our website www.fhcofm.com, click on home care aides, then careers where you can fill out an application online. We have immediate openings all over Monterey County.
There was a sad story about a woman named Geri Taylor in the most recent issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. She ran a large long-term care facility into her mid-60’s at which point she started to get forgetful. One time, she was in the middle of running a staff meeting and lost her train of thought. When she couldn’t get it back, one of her deputies had to take over. Another time, she got off at the wrong Manhattan subway stop and had no idea why she was there or where she was going. She kept putting off seeing a neurologist for years until one day she walked into the bathroom and couldn’t recognizer her own face in the mirror. She was finally diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, likely due to Alzheimer’s disease, in 2012. New hope arrived in 2015 when she enrolled in a clinical trial. She had an unusual buildup of a protein in the brain called amyloid plaque, which most researchers believe is related to Alzheimer’s disease. The drug turned out to be Aduhelm, made by Biogen Inc. However, her hopes were quickly dashed when, despite being given FDA approval, Medicare refused to pay for the drug and it was essentially taken off the market. Now, some researchers are wondering if the whole Amyloid plaque theory should be abandoned and scientists should focus on some other promising areas. But there is a huge disagreement on this topic. Rudolph Tanzi, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “If you say amyloid doesn’t matter in this disease, you are just hiding your head in the sand.â€Â He is more optimistic about using anti-amyloid drugs earlier as a preventative measure. Over the next year, results from trials of three more amyloid-lowering drugs—from Eli Lilly, Roche and Eisai, are expected to be published.  If any of the trials succeed, Medicare will be under extreme pressure to pay for the drugs. However, if they all fail, backers of the amyloid hypothesis may have to throw in the towel. Regular readers of my blog know that both my father and my grandmother had this terrible disease when they passed away. There are a great group of people at the Monterey Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association in Ryan’s Ranch. They also have a 24-hour hotline if you just want to talk at 1-800-272-3900.
According to an estimate by Mary Johnson, a policy analyst for the Senior Citizen League, an advocacy group, Social Security Payments could see the largest increase since 1982 in 2023. That’s the good news. The bad news is that inflation is still very high so the 8.7% increase may not mean much as far as purchasing power goes. For the average retiree who currently gets a check for $1,656, the cost-of-living hike would bring them an additional $144.10 a month in 2023, making the average payment $1,800.
There have been over 200K COVID-19 deaths this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of death certificates. And that number may be low, because other studies have shown that the cause of death in many COVID-19 cases have been blamed on pre-existing conditions. Most of the deaths are in older people with underlying health conditions and compromised immune systems. “I don’t think people realize that this is still a big deal,’ the daughter of a man by the name of Mark Pfundheller who died at the age of 66 despite having the vaccine and a booster, told the Wall Street Journal. About 85% of deaths from COVID_19 through mid-August were among those 65 and older.
John Lloyd Osborne IV, himself almost a senior at 64 years of age, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of theft from an elderly person, one count of theft from a dependent adult, one count of forgery, one count of identity theft, one count of using fraud in the offer or sale of a security and one count of conspiracy to destroy evidence. Back in 2006, Osborne solicited $250K from one elder victim to invest in a shell company that never did anything. In 2010 and 2011, he used false pretenses to solicit $100K from one victim and $5,000 from another. In 2015, he obtained power of attorney over a dependent adult who was unable to care for himself. He refinanced the victim’s house and paid himself $250K. Then in 2018, he sold the worthless company to someone else for $200K. How brazen! You would be amazed at how easily some seniors are scammed out of their life savings.
Walmart announced that it is rolling out a major partnership with UnitedHealth Group to provide healthcare services and improve the patient experience for Medicare Advantage enrollees in certain markets. The 10-year partnership was announced Wednesday. The duo will begin the rollout in Florida and Georgia in 2023, where Walmart Health has a combined 15 locations. Eventually, they plan to roll out the service across the country. “No matter who your insurer is, this 10-year collaboration is going to enable us to deliver the care needed, first in Georgia and Florida,†Dr. Cheryl Pegus, EVP of Walmart Health & Wellness, said in an interview. Medicare Advantage plans have increased in popularity in recent years, with the program adding more than 2 million beneficiaries in 2022, boosting the program to 45% of Medicare enrollees, according to a study by The Chartis Group.
The average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row, as COVID-19 deaths and drug overdoses pulled the average life expectancy down by almost a year to 76.1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drop was smaller than the 1.8 year decline that we saw in 2020, but it’s still disturbing. Deaths attributed to flu, pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease declined in 2021. The combined figures for the last two years are the biggest drop in life expectancy since the 1920’s.
Residents of wealthy pockets of Monterey County like Carmel, Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach suffer from being prime targets for scammers, and you would be surprised at the number of people who fall for them and lose thousands of dollars. Although we try to alert our clients on this blog as we become aware of them, there are just too many to track. One useful tool to get real-time info on the latest fraud is to go to the interactive Scam-Tracking Map. Go to www.aarp.org/scammap  and enter your zip code and it will pull up a list of frauds which have been reported to law enforcement and the AARP Fraud Watch Netwok Helpline.
Mount Hermon, CAÂ Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours : $2 Per Hour More On Weekends (Aptos, Ben Lomond, Â Boulder Creek, Capitola, Davenport, Felton, Freedom, Mount Hermon, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Soquel & Watsonville)
We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade, and we are now expanding into Santa Cruz County.  We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.
Family inHome Caregiving is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care. Our services include:
Caring companionship
Meal preparation
Incidental transportation
Running errands
Light housekeeping
Medication reminders
Monitoring of safety while bathing
Information and referral services
Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.
If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you! We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems. Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus. To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle. To apply, please visit our website www.fhcofm.com, click on home care aides, then careers where you can fill out an application online. We have immediate openings.