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Showing posts with label
Centers for medicare and Medicaid Services.
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Showing posts with label
Centers for medicare and Medicaid Services.
Show all posts
Do you need information to plan your retirement? The federal government has many resources that can help. First, there is the Retirement Toolkit from the the Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This toolkit has links to information about 401Ks, social security, and Medicare.
The United States Department of Labor also has created a publication called "Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement". This publication provides a lot of good information, such as "Almost 20% of retiree income will be spent on healthcare". This publication also states that after age 50, you can begin making catch-up contributions to 401(k) and other retirement accounts.
In addition, the Social Security website has a Retirement Estimator, so that you can get a good idea of what your Social Security benefits will be when you retire. You can use this estimator if you have enough social security credits to qualify for Social Security (at least 40 credits), but you are not currently receiving Social Security benefits.
It is not too late to start saving for retirement. Here is a link to a helpful article from usa.gov, "Retirement Saving Strategies for Late Starters", which has good tips for retirement planning.
The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period is October 15th through December 7, 2011. If you review your health care plan and prescription drug coverage, you can check to see if another plan could lower your costs. To find out if another plan would be better for you, you will need to gather some information. You will need a list of your medications and a list of your health care providers. For more information about how to review your Medicare coverage, see page 16 of the Elder Update newsletter for Sept/Oct. If you would like one-on-one help with Medicare enrollment questions, you can get help from a SHINE volunteer.
The SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders) program provides free counseling to Seniors about Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care planning, and prescription assistance. The program is administered at the county level through the local "Area Agency on Aging" (other states also have this program - either in their Department of Aging or in their Department of Insurance).
This program trains volunteers to help older adults to get the information that they need to make informed decisions on health insurance issues. They provide information to elders, their caregivers, and their families.
To receive Medicare counseling in Pasco County, you can call 1-800-963-5337. If you are interested in becoming a SHINE volunteer in Pasco County, please contact Sue Samson at 727-570-9696, ext 234.
The Area Agency on Aging of Pasco - Pinellas also provides many other services for seniors and caregivers. You can click on the picture below to access their website:
Last year, one of our blog posts described Medicare's Nursing Home Compare website. This website ranks nursing homes by a 5 star system and only includes nursing homes that are certified to participate in Medicare.
Recently, the U.S. News & World Report has created its own searching tool for finding nursing homes - "America's Best Nursing Homes". It uses the data from the Medicare database, but adds features to make searching easier. For example, you can search for nursing homes with a four star rating, which are within 25 miles of a particular city, and which are owned by a nonprofit organization. It will also allow you to search for a particular nursing home, even if you only know part of the name of the home. In addition, the U.S. News and World Report has published their honor roll of the top 34 nursing homes in the United States, which are listed here. More information about this nursing home search tool can be found here.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have recently created an online tool to help people compare Nursing Homes. This tool uses a five star rating system and ranks only nursing homes that are certified to participate in Medicare or Medicaid and which provide a level of care which is considered "skilled". The ratings are based on health inspections, staffing, and quality measures.
You can find out more about the rating system on this page. Please note that if you want to search by state, they have split the Florida into two parts, Northern and Southern Florida. Pasco County is considered part of North Florida in their system.
Other useful information provided on this website include:
Alternatives to Nursing Home Care
Nursing Home Checklist
You can get local information about adult daycare, senior centers, and general resources for older adults from the Area Agency on Aging of Pasco-Pinellas. Their Senior Helpline number is 1-800-861-8111.
For more information about the Area Agency on Aging of Pasco-Pinellas, click here.
