Archive for Senior Healthy Living

admin | 05/20/2013
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How to control retiree healthcare costs

Retirement is supposed to be a time of freedom from decades worth of hard work throughout your career and a point in your life where you feel financially secure. However, over the years we have seen healthcare costs rise dramatically, obscuring the image of a stress free retirement. According to an article by Fidelity, a couple retiring in 2013 is expected to need $220,000 to cover health care costs in retirement. While this is a big chunk of change for anyone to undertake, there are several ways you can manage your health care costs and feel comfortable as you approach retirement.

The first way in which you can manage these healthcare costs is knowing what is available to you in terms of health insurance coverage. You need to know what you need, where you can get it, and the cost of the coverage your looking into. Once you figure out your options you can start to answering these questions.

If you don’t have employer-based insurance, Medicare, a government-based insurance program is a great option to look at. There are four different parts (A,B,C,D) and you automatically qualify for Part A at the age of 65, which is hospital insurance, if you paid Medicare taxes throughout your career. The second part, part B includes outpatient care and is paid by a monthly premium. Lastly, part C and D are supplemental coverage plans that fill in the gaps not covered by A and B and include prescription drug coverage.

A second way in which you can manage your healthcare costs is deciding whether or not your going to be retiring early, or before the age of 65 when you start qualifying for Medicare. If you do retire early some of your options include: Medicaid if you qualify, paying to continue your employer based insurance, or purchasing an individual policy.

Due to the fact healthcare costs are one of the biggest expenses people now face it is a good idea to factor in these expenses into your income planning. According to an article in Fidelity, current retirees are now spending more on health care than they do on food. You can start figuring these numbers in your budget once you know how much the options your looking into cost. Its also a good idea to take into account your current health status and your family’s history of health as this information will help you determine what health issues you may encounter as you get older.

Another great way to counteract these upcoming healthcare costs is by setting up a health savings account or HSA by annually setting money aside for future expenses. These accounts are not subject to the if you don’t use it, you lose it rule making them very accountable. As a result, there are many ways to prepare and be ready for the healthcare costs you are about to encounter.

If you have questions choosing a Medicare plan that offers the coverage you need, contact us at MedicareSolutions at 1-800-328-7305 where a licensed sales agent will immediately assist you.

Citing: Fidelity Viewpoints. “How to tame retiree health care costs”. Medicare Solutions Blog. Admin. May 15, 2013. May 20, 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category: Medicare Tips, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , , ,
admin | 05/30/2012
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Shingles Vaccine, Medicare, and You

Shingles Vaccine

You may have noticed pharmacies advertising that the shingles vaccine is in stock and available. The CDC’s list of recommended immunizations is constantly evolving and the most recent addition is the shingles vaccine for all adults age 60 and over. This has many seniors wondering if they should receive the shot and if Medicare covers the cost.

Should you get the shingles vaccine?

Over 95% of the people in the United States are infected by the Varicella zoster virus at some point in their lifetime. The virus causes the common childhood disease of chickenpox and then lies dormant within the nerve cells. In approximately one third of the population the virus will re-activate later in life as shingles: a contagious, nasty, blistering rash that can cause severe, debilitating pain that may last for weeks, months or even years (called post herpetic neuralgia). It can also attack the eyes and permanently damage vision (though this is less common).

These numbers equate to over 1 million people being affected by this virus. So it’s no surprise that the CDC recommends a single dose of the zoster vaccine Zostavax for men and women 60 years of age and older, even if they have had a prior episode of shingles.

Recently, a study published online in the Journal of Internal Medicine has shown the vaccine to be safe, and well tolerated in a controlled study of 193,000 adults age 50 and over. Studies have also shown the vaccine to be effective; with results similar to those found in clinical trials in 2006 it was first approved. The vaccine reduced the risk of developing shingles by more than half, and minimized the effects of the disease in those that developed it.

The over 60 crowd is often the higher risk group for contracting disease due to declining immunity, co-existing health issues, multiple diagnoses, or even increased stress factors. The CDC recommends the immunizations, but you should consult your doctor to determine if the vaccine is right for you.

How much does it cost and will Medicare pay for it?

Currently, the only vaccines covered under Medicare Part B are: Flu, H1N1, Pneumococcal, and Hepatitis B. So if you have strictly traditional Medicare the answer is no.

Technically, Part D plans will cover the vaccine and administration, but it may require some advance planning and organization on behalf of the beneficiary to ensure the claim gets paid.

In fact, Medicare.gov states:

“Except for vaccines covered under part B, Medicare drug plans must cover all commercially available vaccines (like the shingles vaccine) when medically necessary to prevent illness. Contact the plan for its current formulary.”

According to Merck, the manufacturer of Zostavax:

“Medicare Part D = Prescription Drug Benefit 90% of Medicare Part D insured individuals are in plans that have ZOSTAVAX on formulary. The availability and amount of reimbursement will depend on a patient’s insurance benefit design, including applicable co-pays, coinsurance, deductibles and/or limits.”

The vaccine is usually around $200, so the time and homework required to ensure re-imbursement is worth the investment.

Check specifically with your Part D plan carrier as a first step. Some plans may require prior authorization, which means your doctor must first get approval before you can receive it. Your doctor may need to state that the drug is ‘medically necessary’ because he feels you are at high risk for contracting the disease for any reason. Some plans and/or some states may also authorize your pharmacist to administer the vaccine in the pharmacy and can bill insurance plans directly if they are in-network.

To date, the shingles vaccine has been underutilized. Past stocking issues by pharmacies and physician’s offices, cost, and challenges with ease of reimbursement under Medicare part D plans are all to blame. Medical spending to treat shingles or its complications totaled $566 million in 2005 or an average of $525 per patient. When these expenses are projected on the sheer number of people who are subject to developing the disease, it seems the recommendation to receive this vaccine is a prudent one.

As more patients request and file claims for vaccine re-imbursement, hopefully the process will become more routine to claim handlers and the confusion or misinformation regarding whether or not the vaccine is paid for and how, will diminish over time.

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Understanding Medicare plans and their coverage can be confusing. If you need to discuss any questions or concerns you may have regarding your current Medicare insurance needs, the knowledgeable, licensed staffs at Medicare Solutions is available to assist you. Call us at 1-877-614-2333

Category: Original Medicare, Prescription Drug Coverage, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , ,
admin | 05/24/2012
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Seniors Parade to Preventative Care

preventative care

While many may be marching off to a local Memorial Day parade, a record number of seniors are jumping on the preventative care band wagon.  CMS announced today that 12.1 million Medicare beneficiaries used free preventative care in the first quarter of 2012.

Over 26 million people in traditional Medicare received free preventative services in all of 2011, so today’s announcement reveals seniors are on track to surpass even last year’s numbers.  Prior to 2011, beneficiaries were subject to co-pays and deductibles for many of these services including things like cancer screening and smoking cessation counseling.  Cost is now less of an obstacle for seniors who are interested in finding and treating illness early.

One of the mandates of the ACA (Affordable Care Act) was to eliminate many cost sharing barriers for beneficiaries to obtaining preventative care.  As a result, a new expanded list of screenings and services designed to help identify and detect early disease, was made available to Medicare recipients cost free.

CMS announced that, from January through April of this year, 12.1 million Medicare beneficiaries have already received at least one of these preventative services – including over 856,000 who have taken advantage of the Annual Wellness Visit that is now provided at no cost.

Do you know what screenings are offered? Learn more about Medicare Preventative Services and Procedures.

Have you received any preventative services in 2012? Share with us.

Category: Original Medicare, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 02/15/2011
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Hospital Study: Greater spending linked to higher mortality

Hospital Study: Greater spending linked to higher mortality
Hospital Study: Greater spending linked to higher mortality

An extensive study of Medicare patients in California hospitals found that the more money spent on the care of the patients, the lower the mortality rate, according to Health Leaders Media.

The study, which was limited to patients with six common medical conditions, was published in this month’s Annals of Internal Medicine.

 

The study found that higher patient survival was linked with higher spending for each of the diagnoses.

Data was analyzed from Medicare patients who suffered from stroke, pneumonia, hip fracture, congestive hearth failure, gastrointestinal hemorrhage and acute myocardial infarction. The scope of the study included spending data from 208 hospitals over 9 years.

According to the study, during 1999 to 2003, for example, patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction to California hospitals in the highest quintile of hospital spending had lower inpatient mortality than did those admitted to hospitals in the lowest. The prediction of inpatient deaths would increase by 1,831 if all patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction were cared for in hospitals in the lowest quintile of spending rather than the highest.

John Romley, of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California, is lead author of the study. He says he and his colleagues worked to control factors like patient health status and hospital teaching affiliation.

The study contradicts findings from a previous Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care that spearheaded much of what is being looked at in healthcare reform regulations, that expensive care is not necessarily better care, and may in fact be worse care.

“If the results are real … that would suggest these reductions across the board in hospital spending might lead to worse outcomes for some patients,” Romley told Reuters Health. That doesn’t mean cuts wouldn’t still be cost-effective, if money elsewhere could better improve public health. But, he added, “it is important to understand the trade-offs.”

Category: Medicare News, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 02/08/2011
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Meditation Affects Brain Growth

Meditation Affects Brain Growth

Practicing “Mindfulness” Can Teach Us to Pay Attention

Practicing “Mindfulness” Can Teach Us to Pay Attention

You don’t have to be a yogi to know that meditation is more than just sitting like a pretzel and chanting. Now scientists are finding that practicing meditation not only affects our psychological life: it physically alters the structure of the brain.

The findings support the growing hypothesis in the scientific community: that the brain is a far more pliable system than believed even a decade ago. In fact, the choices we make in the way we think and act affect the health and growth of our body’s most vital organ.

The study on brain growth, completed at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, had participants doing 30 minutes of “mindfulness meditation” for eight weeks.

The study participants were given MRI to measure changes in the grey matter growth during the study. Increased grey matter was found in the area of the brain the controls learning and memory with decreased grey matter in the brain where stress is controlled. The control group showed no changes in growth in these areas.

Adding meditation practice to your retirement plans might just lengthen your life and make you more healthy. In 2009, a study found that people who meditate may have lower blood pressure, a leading factor in heart disease Another study found links between meditation and ability to “pay attention” – a critical skill in a world where we are being exhausted by sensory inputs.

Meditation – along with its fraternal twin, yoga — has blossomed in Western culture in the last four decades and is now a fairly common practice in the United States.

Meditation is often connected to Eastern religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism, but the practice of meditation is not a religious act.  It is the practice of quieting the body and the mind from the many external stimuli, moving through concentration to a place of “unbroken attention.”

Those who meditate often say the goal is to achieve the same kind of “mindfulness” in their conscious lives as they do in their meditation practice.

Category: Medicare Tips, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 02/02/2011
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Medicare Advisory Panel recommends co-pay for home health

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission wants a copayment to discourage misuse of home health care services.

The congressionally appointed commission voted 13-1 to recommend that lawmakers impose the new charge. Two commissioners abstained and one was absent.

According to the Associated Press, home health services, which are currently covered under Medicare, cost taxpayers approximately $20 billion a year.

The co-pays, commission chairman Glenn Hackbarth said, would help avoid the benefit turning into a “long-term care social support system.”

Concerns with Medicare fraud and a tight budget have motivated the commission to look for cuts. Home health care was originally considered a “cost saver.” Now increasing costs and big differences in how communities around the country use the benefit have given lawmakers reason to make changes.

Exemption from the recommendation would include low-income patients covered by Medicaid, as well as those just discharged from the hospital. According to the AP, more than 30 million beneficiaries in traditional Medicare would be directly subject to the fee.

The recommendation was strongly opposed by AARP lobbyists who support a strong network of home providers to assist the more than 3 million seniors and disabled people on Medicare who are not able to easily leave home.

In September, AARP strongly supported The Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2010, House Bill 4993 and Senate Bill 2814, which was a bi-partisan effort to expand the roles of nurse practitioners and physician assistant to allow them to certify home healthcare plans for Medicare patients.

In rural parts of the country, areas where the nation suffers from shortages of physicians, many Americans see nurse practitioners as their primary care provider.

Category: Medicare News, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 01/27/2011
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Eating Mediterranean style to support the brain

Eating fish and veggies – the staples of the diet of the healthy and long-lived people living near the Mediterranean Sea – is now linked to slower decline in brain function as well as heart health.

A long-term study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition tested thousands of Chicago residents 65 and older, starting back in 1993. The study looked at the mental acuity, as it followed the seniors based on their adherence to a diet recognized as the “Mediterranean diet”: fish, vegetables, olive oil, and moderate amounts of wine.

Those who scores for adhering to the diet where higher were associated with slower rates of cognitive decline, even after controlling for smoking, education, obesity, hypertension and other factors. The study’s author said that the conclusions of the study showed a large difference in those who stuck to the diet.

The Mediterranean diet has long been recognized for its healthful qualities: It’s is the basis of recommendations by experts for a heart-healthy eating plan as well.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the key components of the diet are:

  • Getting plenty of exercise
  • Eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts
  • Replacing butter with healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil
  • Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods
  • Limiting red meat to no more than a few times a month
  • Eating fish and poultry at least twice a week
  • Drinking red wine in moderation (optional)

 

The diet also recognizes the importance of enjoying meals with family and friends.

The Mediterranean diet has long been recognized for its healthful qualities

Category: Medicare Tips, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 01/25/2011
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Home kidney dialysis now covered by Medicare

Your kidneys are workin' it!

New Medicare payment rules for kidney dialysis are making it easier for patients to have their treatment at home.

The changes, which just went into effect, are motivating more clinics to teach the do-it-yourself form of dialysis using specially designed portable equipment.

Some patients may be nervous or intimated at the thought of home dialysis. Currently, only 8 percent of kidney patients do dialysis at home and many patients do not know that have that option.

Home dialysis includes an intensive training program. People who prefer the home program, according to physorg.com, cite the convenience as a major factor in choosing home dialysis. The possibility of traveling with the machine gives them more freedom, as well as setting a more flexible schedule.

Despite concerns about infection and control in the home environment, a study published last year in The Archives of Internal Medicine found that patients “with end-stage kidney disease who have dialysis at home fare just as well as their counterparts who do hemodialysis,” traditionally performed at a dialysis center.

One additional key factor that is boosting home treatment is that new Medicare rules also pay physician reimbursement for patient education. This means that the home care training is no longer a burden to the system, but a covered cost.

As for the patients, Dr. Leslie Spry of the National Kidney Foundation says, once they “experience the difference between home and in-center dialysis most will not return to in-center treatment.”

Spry is a consulting physician for the National Kidney Foundation. In 2003, he also established at the first home hemodialysis program in the Midwest at his home clinic, the Dialysis Center of Lincoln in Nebraska.

To learn more about home kidney dialysis, check out this handy, downloadable comparison chart.

New to dialysis and Medicare? For a checklist of questions for your treatment plan and physician, click here.

Category: Medicare News, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 01/20/2011
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Avastin still covered regionally on Medicare during appeal

Avastin still covered regionally on Medicare during appeal

Avastin still covered regionally on Medicare during appeal

One regional Medicare provider has decided to continue to cover Avastin, a breast cancer drug, reversing their decision from last week’s announcement to refuse coverage.

Questions about coverage of the pricey drug were sparked by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s12-1 ruling in July to revoke approval of the drug for use to treat breast cancer. Genentech, the manufacturer of the drug, is appealing the decision.

A spokesperson for Medicare contractor Palmetto GB, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, reported in the New York Times that Palmetto “has suspended consideration of changes in its reimbursement policy for Avastin as a treatment for breast cancer” while the appeal process continues.

Last week, in a notice posted on its website, Palmetto GB, a regional company that determines Medicare coverage for South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, California, Nevada and Hawaii had said that it would stop paying for the use of Avastin for breast cancer treatment as of Jan. 29. That notice was updated this week to state it will “continue coverage of Avastin under current policy.”

In July, the F.D.A. decided to revoke approval of Avastin, also called bevacizumab, because the F.D.A. said follow up studies had found the drug was not effective and had dangerous side effects.

In 2008, the expensive drug was a part of the F.D.A.’s accelerated approval program, according to the FDA’s website. The approval was based on a trial of patients who had not received chemotherapy for mestatic breast cancer.

“Under the accelerated approval program, a drug may be approved based on clinical data that suggest the drug has a meaningful clinical benefit, with more information being needed to confirm this.  The program provides earlier patient access to promising new drugs to treat serious or life-threatening conditions while confirmatory clinical trials are conducted.”

According to the F.D.A., follow-up trial results submitted by Genentech only showed a small effect on “progression-free survival.”

The F.D.A.’s decision to revoke approval for use of the drug for breast cancer treatment will not affect its approval for use for treating other cancers.

Category: Prescription Drug Coverage, Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , , ,
ElizabethGHoward | 01/18/2011
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January is National Blood Donor Month: Become an Everyday Hero

If you make an appointment to give blood, you can save a life. But many seniors don’t realize they are the excellent candidates for blood donation.

Seniors and retirees often have flexible schedules and are able to make and keep regular appointments with their local blood bank. These simple appointments—which take on average 8 to 10 minutes — make that donor an everyday hero.

“Every 12 seconds someone in the United States needs some sort of blood transfusion,” says Colleen O’Callaghan, a donor recruitment representative for the American Red Cross. “One donation can help up to three people.”

And no better time than in January, when the reserve of blood is critically low, O’Callaghan says.

Monica Stoneking, communications director for the American Red Cross, said she strongly encourages individuals with Type O blood to donate. Since O Negative blood type is the universal blood type, it becomes extremely important in an incidence where doctors don’t have time to test a patient for their blood type.

But do you think you are too old or a bit ill for the Red Cross to take your pint? Think again.

On the American Red Cross’s “Top 10 Reasons People Don’t Give Blood,” number 9 is “They won’t want my blood (I am too old/I’ve had an illness).”

If you’ve been putting off giving a pint or two because you think you aren’t “qualified,” it’s as easy as checking with your doctor. Also, the staff at the blood centers will review your medical history.

According to the Red Cross site: “There is no upper age limit to donate blood with the American Red Cross, and a great many medical conditions do not prevent you from donating blood, or may have done so only temporarily in the past.”

And, should you discover you can’t give blood, there are dozens of opportunities for volunteering with the Red Cross to help.

To find the closest location to donate, simply click here and enter your zip code in the box.

January Bonus for those living in The Red Cross’s Northeast Division! Give a pint, get a pound of Dunkin Donuts coffee! All eligible donors will also be entered for a chance to win Free Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee for a Year.

Category: Senior Healthy Living | Tags: , , , , , ,
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