The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has announced the Medicare premiums, deductibles, and coinsurances for 2017. After holding steady at $104.90 a month for four years, the standard Medicare Part B premium that most recipients pay will rise 4 percent to about $109 a month. However, approximately 30 percent of beneficiaries will see their Part
Dear Clients, Colleagues, and Friends: A couple weeks ago, I read an article on LehighValleyLive.com entitled How to prevent long-term care plans from becoming a crisis. It discusses the importance of financially planning for long-term care in the event of chronic incapacity. The article quotes someone as saying that Medicaid, a public benefits program, is an “option for some people” but “the only problem is you have to be destitute to qualify.”
In recent years, nursing homes have increasingly asked -- or forced -- patients and their families to sign arbitration agreements prior to admission. // Read more
Life insurance can be beneficial in replacing lost income for young families, but as people get older, it can also serve a purpose as part of an estate plan. // Read more
The phrase "life estate" often comes up in discussions of estate and Medicaid planning, but what exactly does it mean? A life estate is a form of joint ownership that allows one person to remain in a house until his or her death, when it passes to the other owner. // Read more
Are your Medicare plans still working for you? Medicare's open enrollment period, in which you can enroll in or switch plans, runs from October 15 to December 7. // Read more
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a federal program that provides cash assistance to people with disabilities. Because SSDI is an insurance program and not a "means tested" benefit for people with minimal resources, anyone who meets the program's eligibility requirements can qualify for benefits, regardless of their income and assets. (For more about SSDI,
Mental disabilities take many forms, and not all of them affect a person with special needs' ability to make decisions. In fact, although many, if not most, people with either mental illness or some form of cognitive disability may require significant care, they can still carry out most day-to-day activities. In most cases, people with
One area that causes a lot of confusion with regard to Medicaid is the look-back period. Medicaid, unlike Medicare, is a means-based program, which means that you are only eligible for it if you have very few assets. The government does not want you to transfer all your assets on Monday in order to qualify for
As long-term care insurance premiums rise and fewer companies offer policies, alternatives to traditional long-term care insurance policies are springing up. Previously, we wrote about annuity “doublers” that help pay for long-term care. Another increasingly popular hybrid product combines life insurance with long-term care coverage and offers buyers solutions to a number of problems that have kept people from
