Long Term Care

Medications are a fact of life for most seniors, but with Medicare Part D, the costs of those medications can usually be managed- but not always. Sometimes, for example, Medicare denies coverage for a medication, which could lead to enormous out-of-pocket expenses if the decision stands. Luckily, there is an…

When you reach a certain age, visions of the “senior life” come more clearly into focus. You may be planning retirement, downsizing your living arrangement or contemplating more time with your children and grandchildren. But do you also have visions of elder care for your own parents? Increasingly, given demographic…

If you think you’ve heard more about Alzheimer’s Disease in recent years, it’s not only because you’re getting older: in fact, the incidence of Alzheimer’s is increasing and the data surrounding this increase are troubling and even frightening. Currently, over 5 million seniors 65 and older have been diagnosed, and…

Approaching age 65 is an important and perhaps ambivalent milestone: it certainly represents a new stage of life, at least when it comes to health care. For 65 is the usual age at which most people become eligible for Medicare. For those of you or your loved ones approaching 65,…

Most seniors rely on Medicare to pay for their medical care. But for some 10 million low income seniors, help for medical costs also comes from Medicaid. With Medicaid coverage, such seniors receive assistance with not only small, out-of-pocket medical expenses but also the major costs of long-term nursing home…

No one like to go to the hospital, but sometimes there’s just no choice- or is there? If you ask Dr. Bruce Leff, a geriatrician at Johns Hopkins, whatever you can do to keep seniors out of hospitals is a worthwhile effort, even if you need to set up hospital-level…