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Posts Tagged ‘Senior Citizens’

Senior home care services aren’t for everyone. Depending on the individual’s health, the family or whatever unique situation, it can be impractical for a senior to remain home bound. So, what do you do? There are a lot of different senior care services to choose from. Make sure you know exactly what senior care services your loved one will get before you admit them.

The type of senior care facility you’ll need largely depends on if the senior care center is a temporary or permanent service, what level of independence is possible for patients, and the amount of care your loved ones need. Below are a few options for those who need more than what senior home care services can provide.

Senior Independent Living Apartments

This is for those who do not have serious health issues. Independent living apartments offer a place for senior citizens over 55 to live comfortably and in style in a complex or community of other senior citizens. Some have services like food preparation, transportation and housekeeping. It’s a good option for those who are still healthy enough to get around and be independent but want the convenience that comes with senior independent living centers. More senior independent living centers have developed addition senior care services like nursing and assisted living as they age.

Senior Living Apartments

The difference between this and the former paragraph is the word “independent.” Senior Living Apartments have more safety features and amenities for those people who can’t act independently anymore. For those considering home health care services, this might be a better option if staying at home is not a complete necessity. Senior care services in senior living apartments include: assisted living and nursing care, pools and spas, dinning services, clubhouse, social activities, laundry, grab bars in bathroom areas, pull cords, security and more.

Assisted Living Facilities

If your loved one needs help with day-to-day activities, this might be an option for you, especially if you’re considering non-medical senior in home care. Assisted living care provides long-term care for seniors that do not require the medical senior services that are provided in a nursing facility. Assisted living facilities provide meals, structured activities, living space, companionship, personal care, medication reminders, and assistance that’s associated with daily living. Assisted Living Facilities are designed to give seniors a safe and secure environment while allowing them to maintain the maximum level of independence.

The costs of assisted living facilities are usually covered by long term health insurance plans and Medicaid. It’s not covered by Medicare and most health insurance plans.

Nursing Home and Skilled Nursing Facility Care

If you need skilled nursing services around the clock, this may be a good alternative to home health care and in home senior care services. A nursing home, or skilled nursing facility, is a place where someone with an illness, injury, disease or condition can go for care. Skilled nursing facilities are usually the last choice for long-term senior care services, but, they are less expensive than hospitals. The services provided by a nursing home include: physical and speech therapy, skilled nursing and assistance with daily living. It’s usually covered by Medicare for the first 100 days if the person comes directly from the hospital. Medicaid coverage will vary by state and long-term insurance policies will likely cover some portion of it.

Today’s home health care benefits do not meet the needs of most senior citizens … and expose insurers to unnecessary risks. Why? They are based on common misconceptions and factors that have become outdated, because the delivery of health care services has changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

We are all familiar with the fact that one of every three men, and one of every two women, now age 65, will be sent to a nursing home during their remaining years. If they are older, their chances are worse. But, in most cases, it’s not because of Alzheimer’s disease, or because of their inability to perform normal activities of daily living (ADLs). According to the American Association of Retired Persons, almost half of all hospital patients must have skilled medical care to recover after they are discharged. Skilled medical care cannot be provided by friends or family members. (Walter 1992)

Medical advances mean that almost all skilled medical care provided in a nursing home can now be provided at home. But, it is usually more expensive. It’s one-on-one care (whereas, in a nursing home, caregivers are shared by many patients). So, where patients receive recovery care now depends more on what they can afford, or on what their insurance will pay for.

Today, three out of four seniors sent to a nursing home go there to recover after hospitalization. Why? Two factors work against them. First, they can’t afford to pay for care at home, or their insurance benefits are inadequate. Second, the Medicare/Medicare Supplement combination and Senior HMOs pay for the first 100 days of recovery in a nursing home following a three-day hospital stay. The result? According to various estimates, 33 percent to 70 percent of all nursing home patients would not have to be there if more affordable alternatives–e.g., care at home–were available.

Most people assume that Medicare and Senior HMO plans pay for all recovery care at home. That is simply not true! First, a Medicare-certified home health agency must be used; but only half of all home health agencies are certified. If a Medicare-certified agency isn’t used, Medicare and Senior HMO plans won’t pay a dime! (Jaber 1993)

Second, Medicare pays for less than half of all home care. If 24-hour-a-day nursing care is needed during the first few days of recovery, Medicare won’t pay for it at home. Unless patients or their families can pay for it out-of-pocket, or they have the right kind of insurance, there is only one place to receive that care. . in a nursing home! (Since 24-hour-a-day nursing care costs $20 to $30 an hour or more, that comes to at least $480 to $720 a day.)

Regardless of their tax status, today’s home health care benefits are seriously flawed in several ways: (Jaber 1993)

1. Elimination Periods. Any elimination period for home health care benefits can virtually guarantee a trip to a nursing home. Here’s why. Most nursing home patients recover before a home health care elimination period would have been completed. In fact, interpolated data shows that 68 percent of Medicare’s nursing home patients are discharged in less than 30 days; 93 percent are discharged in less than 90 days.

2. Long Benefit Periods. They are not needed by most home health care patients. And, they can be trouble for some for insurers, especially for recovering acute care patients. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they often turn into uncontrollable long-term maid service benefits long after recovery is complete.

3. Inadequate Benefits. Home health care is usually more expensive during earlier stages of recovery than it is later on. Inflexible benefits that don’t adjust to the actual cost-trend of a patient’s care also virtually guarantee an unwanted and unnecessary trip to a nursing home.

4. Premiums are not affordable. Premiums are so expensive that many consumer groups recommend that people don’t buy LTC insurance, unless they have a family history of nursing home confinement, Alzheimer’s, loss of ADLs, etc. When combined with far too prevalent high-pressure sales, a self-fulfilling prophecy sets in.

While they may be healthy today, prospects with family histories of long-term care have a greater tendency to buy LTC insurance than people who have no such family history. This results in adverse selection, and increases the premiums to counteract it. LTC insurance also has a low paid ratio (i.e., the percentage of issued policies that make it through the 30-day free look period; on average, the industry’s paid ratio is only 60 percent to 70 percent).

Where’s the proof? This has already been done. The paid ratio on the plan about which we speak is 98 percent (instead of the industry’s average of 60 percent to 70 percent). Plus, 80 percent of the insureds had all of their eligible expenses paid in full! And, premiums are much more affordable, thereby attracting and keeping healthier insureds.

Your business cards can be wonderfully effective for you if you design them right.  If you take the time to design an attractive and unique business card printing, and then follow through by actually handing out your cards to a lot of people, you will see a significant up tick in your business.

However, you must be careful to follow certain standards when it comes to your business card design, especially in the area of text size.  You have probably seen a business card that features abnormally large text, which makes it look amateur and unprofessional.  At the same time, text that is too small can make your card appear cheap or dull, or even downright hard to read.  We are going to point out some standards that you should stick to, along with some special notes to remember as you get your business card printing done.

Basic Guidelines

•       For most businesses, use 7 or 8 point font for your address and contact information.

•       Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, however, often use smaller fonts.  If you are a professional, you may want to consider using a 6 point font.

•       Whatever font size you use for your address, use one size bigger for your name.  In other words, if your address is in 7 point, use 8 point for your name.

•       For your company name, you will go considerably bigger.  Use a 12 to 15 point font for your company name.

•       For the title of your card, if different than any other information, use the same size font as you used for your address.  You can also go one point smaller if you prefer.

•       NEVER print your address in less than 6 point font, even if you are a professional.

•       NEVER print your name in larger than 11 point font, even if you are targeting senior citizens.

•       NEVER print your address in larger than 9 point font.

Special Considerations

Some fonts just do not play well with others, as they appear to be a different size than the rest.  In other words, if you set some fonts to 6 point, for instance, they will look like 5 point when you type.  The “copperplate” font is this way.  If a font just does not look right to you, pick a standard font (like Times New Roman or Arial) and type a few characters next to the strange-looking characters, in the same font size.  If it is obvious that the font you are using goes by a different size format, go ahead and change the size setting to compensate.

You should also be careful when you are using a preset business card template.  When you begin your business card printing project, it will have all the fonts set to the default size.  You will want to look at the settings, and change them to the dimensions you want.  Otherwise, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the results of your work.

As we see that today generations do not prefer to live with their grandparents or parents, they take them as a burden or the formality that they have to bear. In order to take care of them, there are many home care services available. home care service is the service that provides great care to the person who does not want to leave his home for care. home care agencies provide them same care as they expect in the nursing homes with their own children or by other family member.

They take care of the people, who are getting older, are chronically ill, recovering from surgery or disabled. This service allows senior citizens to remain in their homes and feel the independence, comfort and privacy as they need.

The number of caregivers is increasing day by day. They give special attention to the lifestyle of elderly people that is starting from their routine medical checkups, medicines, picnic, healthy food, security, etc. Some types of care and community services are free of cost which is provided by government and non-governmental organization (NGO). Other are paid services for which you have to pay. Sometimes government programs or your health insurance will help to cover the cost of certain home care services.

There are many benefits that home care agencies provide. The services which they provide are following:-
Personal care assistance such as bathing, washing or getting dressed. Help in chopping and cooking meals. Provide them with all time transport available. Help in laundry and folding their clothes. Provide better quality of life as they have caregiver. Offer the peace of mind that someone else is able to help with the daily responsibilities which are required for elder care. Allow maximum freedom and comfort for the individual. Support families while keeping them together.

On whole the purpose of home care services is to provide homely care to the people who do not want to go to nursing homes at their old age for any support or any care. Caregivers provide great care to such type of people.