12March2012
Posted by Shirley Cohen under: Senior News.
Estate Planning
The other day I visited an elderly gentleman in a skilled nursing hospital who had recently gotten mugged. I was visiting him with a girlfriend of mine who knew him from her synagogue and was concerned about his wellbeing. She had heard that the blow to his head caused significant bleeding in and around his brain. His sister and her son lived on the other side of the world, and it would be awhile till they were able to come out and assist him in getting the help he now needed. My friend was kind enough to go to his apartment to get it ready for his return but found it to be an unlivable hoarder’s den. The social worker confirmed that he would not be allowed to return to this apartment that he had lived in for many years.
The man I met was very, very confused, and appeared to be unable to make even the smallest decisions about his life needs. My friend, Gail, had taken the time out of her busy life to research and find what she thought was a suitable place for him to live in when his ‘rehabilitation’ was completed at the end of this week. The social worker at the nursing home said that his team probably wouldn’t make the determination that he was incapable of managing his own affairs even though it appeared to us that he clearly wasn’t able to. Gail told the gentleman the cost of the new place she had found, which, she explained to him, he would only have to live in until his relatives came and made other arrangements. He was astonished by the amount she quoted and said he couldn’t afford that, even though she knew that he had more than enough money to manage these current needs.
The poor guy was told that his Medicare subsidy would run out at the end of this week and that he would have to move to a private place. While he was told this many times, he didn’t seem to get it and had no plans to move even though his monthly cost would become $11,000 per month if he stayed on at the nursing facility as a private patient. He didn’t seem to recognize that $11,000 was $8,000 more than the $3,000 that she told him the place she found him would cost. He didn’t plan to do anything about it. And my friend, Gail, was not in the position to do anything more for him. She had managed to get a temporary health care power of attorney for him but nothing else. So there was nothing she could do. She had already put in more than 40 hours, over the course of several weeks, trying to help him but, in the end, was unable to. We both felt very sad for him. He had saved all his life for a comfortable retirement and now his money would be frittered away by the government and by unknown decision-makers.
The incident brought home to me the importance of Estate Planning. People work so hard all their lives to accumulate the assets they have and they pay attention to every detail under the sun but arranging for what they want to happen to those assets and to whom they’d like to give them to in the event of their untimely death or disability; this terrible oversight struck me as the biggest, saddest thing that people can do to themselves. Don’t let this happen to you. No one knows the future. We know the date of our birth, but we can never know in advance the date of our death, or the date when we wake up but can no longer remember who we are and what we’re doing.
It’s time to take the matter of Estate Planning more seriously. Give someone you love the Power of Attorney for your Healthcare decisions and someone you trust, the Power of Attorney for your Finances, or the distribution of your assets. If you don’t know anyone who you trust to manage your money, select a Fiduciary. These professional money managers are qualified and accountable. And the sooner you do it, the sooner you can relax and know that you’re life and your estate will be in good hands.
Shirley Cohen
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Shirley Cohen is the Executive Director of Home Sweet Home Care, a full-service home care aide agency serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1990.
28February2012
Posted by Shirley Cohen under: Senior News.
The recent Department of Labor proposal to remove the overtime exemption for companion care is terribly misdirected and creates a punitive impact upon ethical, hardworking home care agency providers. Of course, more wages sounds great, especially in an election year. Ultimately, the punitive effects are borne by seniors who cannot detect the fresh dangers and risks. All around, they will suffer from higher costs of basic home care as they age or convalesce in their own homes. Many seniors will have no option but to cut the days and hours of care they need to what they can afford, and the higher overtime gains for workers never truly materialize.
This wrong-headed move will dramatically increase the cost of health care and reduce the overall health and welfare of our seniors. We cannot permit this crisis to worsen, but the DOL proposal is going to do just that. It wrongfully chokes up the healthy, legal channels of home care delivery and the vital payroll tax collection and protective roles of full-service providers (FSPs) of home care.
Our government regulators’ judgment remains clouded, because they don’t understand, or appreciate, the true nature and identity of the employer and source of funds. Home care agencies serve as a steward of the senior’s funds used for home care. If it is too expensive for agencies to remain in business, seniors will simply go underground or hire a relative. That defeats the goal of more wages and hours for caregivers and leads to seniors hiring even fewer, not more, qualified home care workers. Politically and emotionally, the government demand for higher wages for caregivers sounds good – except that demand and belief that more money be paid to the workers pushes the burden squarely and forcefully on the senior and her family.
If this measure passes through the legislature, it will no longer make any financial sense for a senior to hire any agency whatsoever for live-in home care. If an agency or agency-dispatched caregiver asks the senior to pay a huge overtime premium over a 24-hour period, the senior will say one thing – no thanks. Then she will find a way to bring that trusted caregiver into the home privately, whether legally or under the table. The promised overtime under the DOL’s directive will then evaporate on the spot. As will the payroll taxes the State relies on.
Home care agencies have very thin margins, and their main mission is to serve their local communities and their seniors. In its effort to reconcile the two polarities of offering lower rates for services which seniors want and expect, with the higher wages to caregivers which the government wants to impose, the agencies will cease to exist to supervise, protect the senior and to organize the home care. This will be a terrible consequence as agencies play a vital role as a buffer and accountability partner for both the senior’s family and the caregiver.
When their profits are squeezed out by the DOL, these owners will be inclined to close their businesses (not being a charity) and do something that can support their own families. The public and our citizens are not so near-sighted, so we urge the DOL and the Administration to act in the best interests of our seniors across our country and truly protect take-home pay of caregiver workers.
Greg Yu
Greg Yu is the Operations Manager of Home Sweet Home Care, a full-service home care aide agency serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1990.
16February2012
Posted by Shirley Cohen under: Senior News.
A terribly misguided movement is afoot by the Obama Administration’s Department of Labor to meddle in the pay rates of home care workers in agencies across this country. Pressed upon to hike the wages of home care aide workers by the SEIU, the Administration is apparently caving to the demands of this huge special interest group against the protestations of thousands of home care companies nationwide. Home care agency professionals are seriously concerned that the proposed elimination of the “companion exemption” will unnecessarily and prohibitively increase the costs of home care services making it more and more difficult to remain in their homes with the personal assistance and supervision they need.
Most of the agencies that provide services say that business is down because of the deep recession we’re in, and people who need the help at home are already starting to look elsewhere, such as in the underground economy, to find rates they can afford. How much more so will they be out scouting about for whoever can offer them assistance, including the undocumented and other desperate, unemployed people who will not likely be the optimum choice for the care and guardianship of their family members? Agency leaders warn that more and more seniors will unnecessarily be forced into institutions as the price of staying home and getting in-home help will no longer be an option for them.
This is an outrageous state of affairs, and it demonstrates what a tin ear this Administration has with regard to what the people of this country want and need. Why haven’t our industry leaders been consulted? Here’s the link, read the story and draw your own conclusions. If you want to get involved, please do by writing, calling or faxing your representatives in government.
Shirley Cohen
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Shirley Cohen is the Executive Director of Home Sweet Home Care, a full-service home care aide agency serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1990.
2February2012
Posted by Shirley Cohen under: Senior News.
The chill, windy, rainy and overcast days of January reminds us of how much fun cooking and eating delicious home-made foods with people you care about is. When you take a bite of a cooked concoction made with natural ingredients, whether it’s a soup or a stew that’s been simmering on the stove, you can’t help but feel nurtured and content. That’s why we always keep a sharp eye out for caregivers who love to cook and are good at it.
I personally believe there is a big difference between good, clean, natural food and processed foods that have a ton of unfamiliar and unpronounceable chemicals in them. I would even venture to say that processed foods have negative effects on the body, and it would behoove people to try to eliminate as many unfamiliar ingredients in their diets as they can in order to support their health and the health of the people who eat the foods they make. I do admit that I’m a big subscriber to the theory of nutrition which asserts that, food is medicine. (See article, Eat Your Medicine: Food as Pharmacology, by Dr. Mark Hyman, which appeared in our October, 2011 issue and is linked here.)
Now with 60% of Americans describing themselves as overweight, and with so many of us who are diabetic and have other serious health issues, it might be a good time to consider making some changes, starting with slowing down on the consumption of fast and processed foods. Why not dedicate these long, chilly nights to cooking a delicious and aromatic pot of something tasty and nutritious? Lack of time is not a good excuse anymore for not cooking because vegetables, meats and poultry, these days, come already cut up and ready to use. And if you’re looking for recipes, you can find them in a minute on your smart phone or by calling up a friend or relative who loves to cook.
So start cooking and baking–your friends and family members will love it. It’ll also save you a lot of money, you’ll have fun, you’ll eat more nutritionally, and you’ll have great leftovers for lunch the next day. To that end, please check out our monthly newsletter for excellent suggestions from our in house chef, we know you’ll love cooking them. Eat, drink and be healthy!
Shirley Cohen
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Shirley Cohen is the Executive Director of Home Sweet Home Care, a full-service home care aide agency serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1990.
