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Home-Delivered Meal Program
Are you working on fall yard clean up or house cleaning and find you have no time to cook a balanced lunch or dinner? Why not sign up for home-delivered meals. Meal cost is based on your income level, so if you need to stretch your monthly income, this may be a way we can help you.
HELP NEEDED
Meal Program Drivers
We are in need of someone in the community to fill a vacancy in our weekly meal driver rotation as well as a few people who would be willing to sub on an occasional basis. The meals are picked up at Golden Acres and the route takes approximately 1¼ hours to deliver. Some assistance with mileage cost is available if desired.
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Health and Medication Information
Do you take several kinds of medication each day? Do you want to know if the medications you are taking might be interacting with one another? If so, you may find these websites helpful:
www.healthtouch.com
www.rxlist.com
If you are looking for health information, you may find these web sites helpful:
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Many older adults would like to stay in their home as their health worsens, rather than having to go into a long-term care facility. There are many new solutions being designed to meet this desire. One of the best in our area is “Kendal at Home”. While it may not be an affordable answer for everyone, it might give you another option to consider.
“Kendal at Home” is a continuing-care retirement community that has no buildings or walls as it brings care and services into the member’s home. Kendal at Home is designed for persons who desire to remain in their own homes and well connected to their community, yet still want to have long-term plans in place. It offers four affordable membership options for long-term care coverage.
Interested persons age 60 and older who are living independently may apply for membership. There is a one-time investment fee based on age and the plan of care chosen and ongoing monthly fees paid to the program. Members are guaranteed a full continuum of care in their homes, and if needed, in a long-term care facility, based upon the benefits in the plan chosen. Potential members are assessed for health and functional status and assigned a personal care coordinator who provides for the care when needed throughout each member’s life.
Services provided include the following: personal care; home nursing care; homemakers; companions; emergency
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response system; adult day care; limited transportation; meal delivery (on a limited basis); assisted living; skilled nursing; referral services; annual physical exam; biennial in-home functional and safety assessment; initial and ongoing functional assessments; and regular communication with member and care coordinator. All of this is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Kendal at Home is more comprehensive than most long-term care insurance plans and focuses not only on preserving assets but also providing and managing services for their members for the rest of their lives. They concentrate on quality of care, quality of life and giving their members peace of mind, right at home. Highly qualified and credentialed service providers have been contracted to provide member service.
The four plan choices offer 100%, 85%, or 70% coverage for in-home services and facility care or 100% coverage for in-home services only.
The benefits of Kendal at Home are 1) life-time guarantee of care; 2) fraction of cost for self-payment for comparable service; 3) protection of assets; 4) burden of coordinating services and care removed from spouse or family; 5) fees may be tax deductible as a medical expense; and 6) Kendal is a name that can be trusted to provide high quality care.
For more information call Kendal® at Home at 1-877-284-6639 or visit them online at: www.kahome.kendal.org.
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| 2008 Medicare Part D Plans
Fall is almost here and it’s time to start thinking about changes you may want to make to your Medicare Part D coverage. Every year some plans leave the program and new ones enter the marketplace.
The “new plans” list for 2008 will come out in October and you can begin shopping for the best plan to fit your needs at the cheapest price beginning November 15th and continuing until December 31st. Medicare reps tells us that it’s best to have your changes made by December 8th if you wish to ensure that your new coverage is available on January 1, 2008.
Remember, shopping for the best plan is like buying a new car. It pays to shop around!!!
Last year, I had clients who saved as much as a thousand dollars for the year by changing plans.
Who should definitely consider shopping for plans?
- Those who have changed medications during 2007.
- Those who will fall into the gap (donut hole) and face paying full price for their medications.
- Those who did not get coverage because they weren’t on any medications.
- Those who have nearly exhausted their savings and have a low monthly income. They may qualify for additional help paying for their premiums and co-pays for their prescriptions along with finding a cheaper plan.
- Those who are on very expensive medications or who have added expensive medications during 2007.
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The New Homstead Exemption
The new Homestead Exemption Law allows more seniors and disabled homeowners to get property tax relief. Seniors who are age 65 by 12/31/07, surviving spouses who were at least 59 years old on the date of their spouse’s death, and those who are certified totally and permanently disabled as of 1/1/2007 will now be eligible for the Homestead Exemption if they own their own home. Income limits no longer apply. This means that eligible taxpayers would have $25,000 taken off the taxable value of their home and save an average of $400 per year on their property taxes.
Those who are eligible for this savings have until October 1st to apply. Those who already have the Homestead Exemption will be automatically enrolled in the new program.
When applying, you must provide a copy of an age-identifying ID, such as your driver’s license or birth certificate. Application forms are available at the Amherst Township Senior Service office, which is located at 7530 Oberlin Road. Office hours are from 8 am to noon on Monday thru Friday. Carol will be glad to make a copy of your identification for you if you need one made. If you need help filling out the form, please call 988-5822 for an appointment.
Applications may also be downloaded off the Internet by visiting the county auditor’s website at:
www.loraincounty.com/auditor
Then click on “Application for new Homestead Exemption”.
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Looking for a way to save money on your monthly utility bills? Check out the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel website at www.pickocc.org/smartenergy to see a whole section devoted to the smart use of energy, which includes an interactive Smart Energy House. It takes consumers on a room-by-room tour providing estimated costs to run large appliances. With this information consumers can better understand how the use of appliances and other items can impact their monthly electric and gas bills. Two of the goals of this interactive tool are to reveal the potential savings of owning energy efficient models and to provide tips to help customers control energy usage in each room of their house.
To get started, consumers need to answer a few simple questions related to the size of their house, the region of Ohio in which they live and the names of the gas and electric companies that provide their service. The submitted answers
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will provide a cost analysis of various home appliances along with tips that could result in savings on utility bills. Consumers will learn:
- How small adjustments to appliances can increase energy efficiency
- How to better protect a house from the summer heat
- How much energy-efficient appliances can save on energy bills
- How to save on energy bills
- How to save energy when using items that still use power while in stand-by mode
- What the projected annual operating costs are for common household appliances.
Taken from May/June 2007OCC Newsletter
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