Check Lists
The Best Way to Win an Insurance Appeal
The punchline is, “Not to have to do one.” We’ve posted before on Medicare insurance appeals for Part A/B, Medicare Advantage, and Part D. We’ve even posted on doing battle with insurance companies. The fact is, insurance appeals are time consuming and can feel like doing battle. If you can avoid one, why wouldn’t you? [...]
Two Tools for Getting You and Your Parent Organized
If you’re like many of us who are helping with our parent’s care, managing our own lives and possibly those of our children, anything that can save time, minimize effort and reduce the chance of a regrettable error is something worth considering. I ran across these, as with most things, while looking for something else. [...]
20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors
We all want the best healthcare that money can buy, but what, if anything, are we doing about it? The one factor that can probably increase your odds of getting the best is you. After all, who will look out for you better than you? The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (U.S. Department of [...]
Get Your Recently Widowed Parent Organized
An article on Nolo.com provides a great checklist of action items for getting your recently widowed parent’s affairs in order after the death of their spouse. Their recommended action Items include: Assets. Take inventory of brokerage accounts, bank accounts, retirement plans, insurance policies, real estate, items in safe deposit boxes, etc. Life Insurance. Determine whether [...]
Six Things Every Family Needs
One thing I’m learning is that many of the things that apply to seniors, applies to me at a much younger age as well. In a recent issue of Money magazine, there’s an article entitled, “Keeping wealth in the family” that uses a couple who are in their early 40s to discuss the right documents [...]
Fall Prevention
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2006), “more than one third of adults 65 and older fall each year in the United States.” They further report that “in 2005, 15,800 people 65 and older died from injuries related to unintentional falls; about 1.8 million people 65 and older were treated in emergency [...]
Top Ten Things for Caregivers to Start Doing for the New Year
Today’s Caregiver Magazine online has a good set of tips for caregivers to help get a little more organized for the new year. It looks like a good list of new years resolutions. Some of the great tips include keeping complete records of medicines/interactions, doctor appointments and medical information… which is a better way of [...]
10 Essential Questions People Need to Ask when Evaluating Medicare Plans
Allsup, a private Social Security disability claims services company, outlined in a press release, the kinds of things that you need to ask of plans that you may be considering. While we aren’t familiar with Allsup, it’s a good starter list if you’re not familiar with Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans. The questions below and [...]
Moving? Change your address with more than the post office
If you’re moving, or helping a senior move, one thing to consider is the potential effect that it will have on Medicare Advantage (Part C) and Part D plans. If the move is long distance, there’s a good chance that new Medicare plan(s) will be in order. If the move is within the same city, [...]