Gainesville Florida Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

So, the holidays are over. Hopefully, you visited your older loved ones during the holidays and were not too troubled by the changes you may have seen. But now you’re back to being a long-distance caregiver.

Providing care and support for a relative or friend who lives nearby can be challenging enough, but that challenging task seems to become overwhelming when you’re caring for a family member who lives far away.

Being a long-distance caregiver brings its own unique set of difficulties.
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Developing a disability can happen at any age. As things stand today, if that were to happen, Medicaid is the primary payer for any long-term services and supports (LTSS).

And it is most often the case that when this disability occurs, the preference is to receive care at home if possible, rather than going to a nursing home. Any long-term or permanent separation from a spouse brings new problems for everyone involved. Home and community-based services (HCBS) also cost less on average than in institutional care.

How do you know when it is time for your older parent to have a caregiver in the home with them? It is often the case that changes are subtle and sneak up on family members. Here are some things that you can look for to trigger the discussion and decision to bring someone in to take care of your older parent.

As a caregiver, with the holiday season here, you may be spending more time with older loved ones. As a result, you may notice behavioral changes that are all too common this time of year.

Some of the common things you may see include less physical activity, fatigue or sadness. In fact, while there was a time they loved the holiday season, your senior may demonstrate a total lack of interest this year.

While this is the time of year when we should be in a celebratory mood, it is unfortunately for our seniors a time of year when they need to be extra cautious. That’s because scammers who victimize our older population work even harder this time of year.

Scammers continue to use the traditional schemes to take advantage of our seniors but there are a group of traps they use specifically for the holidays.

The first is fake charities. This is a time of year when legitimate charities reach out to people for donations.
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 With Thanksgiving having just passed and the winter holidays fast approaching, many of us are thinking of family and expressing gratitude for what we have.

But for many, especially seniors, enjoying holiday feasts with family is not to be. Many seniors are struggling to manage any kind of nutritious meal.

As many as one in 10 households with members 60 and over receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, more commonly known as food stamps, according to a recent study released by the anti-poverty nonprofit Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), in collaboration with AARP Foundation.

Unfortunately, it is expected that the number of SNAP beneficiaries will rise in the next several years as baby boomers age.
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We’re about at the midpoint of the Medicare Open Enrollment period which started Oct. 15 and runs until Dec. 7. If you are eligible for Medicare, and you have not acted yet, the time to take action is now. This is the annual period when you can make adjustments to your Medicare health and drug plans.
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Scams against our seniors is an ongoing problem. And it seems that as soon as a scam is discovered and publicized, those perpetuating the scams find a new way to victimize our elder population – whether it is by phone, Internet or from another source.

There's a new phone scam targeting Social Security beneficiaries that advocates for older adults should be aware of. The Federal Trade Commission is warning that scammers are engaging in a caller ID trick called "spoofing" to make it appear that they are calling from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Justice in Aging, a national non-profit legal advocacy organization that fights senior poverty, recently reported on the latest of these scams.
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For the longest time, the source most people have used for their retirement next egg has been the 401(k), but that trend seems to be changing.

With the driving force behind this change being older Americans, it is becoming more and more common for IRAs to be used for this purpose.

In the five years ended in 2017, 96 percent of the $2 trillion in IRA contributions came from rollovers, according to a recent study. And between the end of last year and 2022, the money invested in IRAs is expected to grow at a significantly quicker pace than 401(k)s. IRA assets are expected to jump 37 percent to $12.
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For the vast majority of recipients, there’s good news when it comes to Medicare Part B premiums for 2019.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced recently that Medicare Part B premiums will see a modest increase only, with the base premium for the majority of individuals going up from $134 to $135.50 a month. But even with no change, millions of Social Security recipients will pay sharply higher Part B premiums that will eat up all or most of next year’s two-percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security that was announced a day earlier by the Social Security Administration.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reminds us that the annual Medicare Open Enrollment Period starts today (Oct. 15) and runs through Dec. 7.

Medicare health and drug plans can make changes each year – things like cost, coverage and what providers and pharmacies are in their networks. Oct.
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