The Texas Tribune reports that large outbreaks of the Covid-19 virus have occurred among residents and staff at Texas long-term care facilities in San Antonio, Lubbock, Texas City, and other cities. State regulators have asked facilities to report coronavirus cases, and to inform residents and their families of cases within the facility. While state...
Covid-19: Expanded Medicare Telehealth Services
"Telehealth & related services
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Medicare has temporarily expanded its coverage of telehealth services to respond to the current Public Health Emergency. These services expand the current telehealth covered services,...
The Long-Term Care Path from Medicare to Medicaid
Although Congress enacted Medicaid in the 1960s to provide health care coverage for the poor, Medicaid has become the primary pay source for nursing home and long-term care for the vulnerable elderly population. The majority of nursing home residents, or 80%, are age 65 or older and 62% of residents are covered by Medicaid,...
New Retirement Account Rules for the New Year
Happy 2020! Major changes to the federal retirement account rules were signed into law December 20, 2019, under the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act). Under the new rules, a retirement account can no longer be "stretched" and must be distributed within 10 years to non-spouse beneficiaries. This...
Finding a Nursing Home for a Dementia Patient
Nearly two-thirds of nursing home patients have cognitive impairment, while 64% of Medicare beneficiaries in nursing homes have Alzheimer's Disease or a related dementia. Access to high-quality nursing home care for dementia patients is imperative. Optimal nursing home care for dementia patients begins with person-centered care, or individualized care focused on maximizing quality of...
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Medicare Enrollment: Public Option vs. Private Insurance
The annual Medicare Open Enrollment Period is October 15 – December 7. Here are some things you can do during the annual enrollment period:
Join a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan [1] or switch from one Medicare drug plan to another Medicare drug plan.
Change from a Medicare Advantage Plan [2]...
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List of Poor-Performing Nursing Homes
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released an expanded list of persistently poor-performing nursing homes, including over thirty facilities in Texas. The list includes hundreds of facilities that participate, or are candidates for participation, in the Special Focus Facility (SFF) program, designed to increase oversight...
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You Can Disenroll from a Medicare Plan January-March, 2019
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, offered by private insurance companies, as an alternative to the traditional Medicare program, are improperly denying many medical claims, according to a New York Times article. Based on a new report by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the "plans, which now cover more than...
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Changes to Statutory Durable Power of Attorney
The Texas Legislature has approved major changes to the Statutory Durable Power of Attorney (SDPOA) - the form that allows you to appoint an agent to act for you in certain financial matters - making it imperative to review and consider updating your power of attorney. Legislators expanded the instrument to include important new...
Nursing Home Rules Revised
The federal rules for nursing homes that participate in Medicare and Medicaid have been comprehensively revised, affecting requirements for admission contracts, care planning, resident rights, quality of care, transfer and discharge procedures, protections against abuse neglect, and exploitation, and other aspects of facility life. Attorney Nancy Stone has co-authored a comprehensive article about...