Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Biden’s Care Infrastructure Passed House -Wins & Losses 4 Seniors???

November 23, 2021

 

Biden’s Care Infrastructure Passed The House

Biden’s 1 Trillion $ Care Infrastructure Passed the House through the brilliant work of speaker Nancy Pelosi which was a great boost for deadly climate change, Child Tax Credits,paid parental leave and so much more. For seniors, the good news is it covers 

  • New hearing benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, including coverage for a new hearing aid every five years.
  • A $35-per-month limit on the cost of insulin under Medicare and a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000
    $1.2 billion in new spending for critical
    programs and services under the Older Americans Act (OAA).
     
  • Dental & Vision Coverages Dropped But Sanders Tries to Save

    The Care Infrastructure Bill passed but it dropped expanding dental and vision benefits after centrists called for paring down the overall cost of the package, which originally was proposed for $3.5 trillion.

    The framework  of the Care Infrastructure Bill also doesn’t include legislation to give Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices, but senators say that it would eliminate a rule that gets rid of the safe harbor for Part D drug rebates.

    Senator Bernie Sanders is trying to work vision and dental back into the Care Infrastructure  bill and is outraged that both were dropped. 2-5 voters want dental and vision back in the bill

     

    • Across political parties, 
    • Across political parties, voters’ top priority for the bill is adding dental and vision benefits to Medicare, which was cut from the White House’s latest framework after intense pushback from dental groups and amid concerns about the price tag. Still, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) indicated he is trying to work Medicare coverage for dental and vision services back into the final bill
    • If You Are In Aging Call Your Congressman

    Care Infrastructure Bill may not pass it’s next big hurdle , the Senate if folks in health care and older constituents do not contact their congressman or woman and tell them to support this bill. Your Congresswoman or man controls the votes for the bill and you have to let them know you will only vote for them if they do. Common Cause has this easy way to find and contact your congressman  If you believe in Medicare and senior’s right to to not have their teeth rot, not hear their grandkids or be unable to read a book-  so please  email, pick up the phone now.

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Why There So few Caregivers to Recruit in Health Care ??????

October 20, 2021

Where did the Caregiver all over the Nation Go?

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and 13.7 million workers in roles comparable to direct care lost

their jobs in early 2020, they did not turn to direct care jobs, a recent study found. 

Of the 9.1 million who have now found a new job, “an immeasurably small number of workers” entered the direct care workforce, despite high demand for staff, a study by consulting firm PHI and the Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care at the University of California San Francisco found.

Women, the main caregiver are leaving the workforce in record numbers, and it’s not just a result of the pandemic. 

The pandemic was the catalyst for millions of women leaving their jobs, but not the root cause. Since 2009, the number of women in the workforce has been decreasing because we haven’t made investments in child care and paid leave. Now the gap between men and women in the workforce is widening, while in most other countries the gap is shrinking. That’s leaving our whole economy vulnerable.  

Right now, women’s workforce participation is at 55.9%. The last time it was that low was 1987) 

Workforce for Women Caregivers and all Working women with Children Became Nightmare in Pandemic

The pandemic opened many eyes to the realities of child care in America when schools went virtual and many day-care centers closed. Covid-19 forced millions of working parents, especially women, to leave the workforce to care for their children. Following up on a campaign pledge to “make high-quality child care affordable,” President Joe Biden has asked Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars for early childhood care and education.

 

 

If You Are a Woman or Work In Aging Call Your Congressman

Care Infrastructure may be dead if folks in health care and older constituents do not contact their congressman and tell them to support this bill. They control the votes for the bill and you have to let them know you will only vote for them if they do. Common Cause has this easy way to find and contact your congressman  If you believe in Medicare and senior’s right  to not have their teeth rot, not hear their grandkids or be unable to read a book- please do it now

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, care economy, Care Infastructure, caregiver childcare problem, caregiver loss to home care, Caregiver low salary, caregiver mental health, caregiver pain, caregiver recruitment, Caregivers collapsing, Caregivers contracting COVId, caregivers leaving workforce, Pandemic & childcare Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, Biden Infrastructure Plan for Rural areas, Biden's Home Care Plan, Biden's infrastructure- Caregiver Bill, Black, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black caregivers, Black geriatric care managers, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, Call Your Congressman, Care Economy, Care infastructure, Care Infastructure Frozen, care manager, case manager, free child care, free day care for working mothers, heath care workers leave worksforce, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Pandemic's effect on work force, Woman leaving workforce, women leaving workforce

Social Security Gives Benefits Boost 2022 But Free Dental, Vision, Hearing Frozen

October 18, 2021

Seniors will get More Social Security 2022 -Will They Get Heath Security from Care Infrastructure while President Biden’s mission is to create senior health equity . Medicare Covering dental, vision, and hearing is now frozen and is in real danger.

 

Social Security Benefits Increase in 2022    

Approximately 70 million Americans will see a 5.9% increase in their Social

Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments in 2022. Federal benefit rates increase when the cost of living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W). The CPI-W rises when inflation increases, leading to a higher cost of living.

Almost Half of Seniors Live on Social SecurityAlone- Without a Saftey Net

 

Almost 50% of Seniors have just Social Security as a Safety net. They live on social

security alone with no fallback.

Only a small percentage of older Americans, 6.8 percent, receive combined income from Social Security, PLUS a defined benefit pension, and defined contribution plan. A plurality of older Americans only receives income from Social Security in retirement.

Biden’s Care Infrastruce Bill Would Help Seniors in Jeopardy Who ONLY  have Social Security Benefits

President Biden’s Care Infrastructure Bill would help seniors who only have Social Security by having Medicare cover  Dental, Vision, Hearing Free is in jeopardy.

This bill would give a giant boost to seniors with only social security and help mend their financial safety net by making, dental, vision, and hearing free under Medicare.

However, President Biden’s bill is frozen. Senators Sinema and Manchin are holding up the bill by demanding it come down from 3.5 billion to maybe 2 billion or less, which means these new Medicare benefits are on the chopping block.

So, Biden also warned liberal Democrats that a proposed $3.5 trillion price tag would probably need to drop in order to accommodate centrist holdouts, and he tossed out a range of figures around $2 trillion as a possible alternative. 

 

Income Boost to Vulnerable Seniors would be Vast if Care infrastructure Bill Passed

Hearing aid prices are unaffordably high for the elder with only social security as a money blanket. They can range from just shy of $1,000 on up to more than $6,000 for each device, depending on the level of technology. 

The average Medicare beneficiary spends an average of $922 on out-of-pocket dental costs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.As many as 37 million people on Medicare don’t have dental coverage at all. Cleanings, fillings, crowns, dentures and, bridges- needed for aging teeth-aren’t covered by the program. Vision care averages about $475 a year for seniors but no coverage by Medicare. If you are living on $1500-$2000 a month these health care costs do not turn out to be affordable when food and rent come first.

 

 

 20.2 million Medicare beneficiaries  reported difficult times said there was a time in last year When they could not Afford Glasses, Hearing Aides or Dental Care

 

The Kaiser Family Foundation reported they could not get vision care, and among the 25.9 million beneficiaries who reported difficulty hearing, 7% (1.8 million beneficiaries) said there was a time in the last year they could not get hearing care.

If You Are a Woman or Work In Aging Call Your Congressman

Care Infrastructure may be dead if folks in health care and older constituents do not contact their congressman and tell them to support this bill. They control the votes for the bill and you have to let them know you will only vote for them if they do. Common Cause has this easy way to find and contact your congressman  If you believe in Medicare and senior’s right  to not have their teeth rot, not hear their grandkids or be unable to read a book- please do it now

Sign up for my new free Webinar How to Sign Up Concierge Clients When Adult Child Calls in Pain

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA Beneifits, ALCA business, ALCA start-up business, Biden's Care Infrastructure Bill, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black RN, Black Travel RN, Blog, care economy, Care Infastructure, Care Infrastructure, Contact Your Congressman, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, hearing aides seniors, hearing Medicare coverage, Joe Manchin, Medicare Dental Coverage, Medicare Hearing Coverage, Medicare Vision Coverage, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Social Security Benefits Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Biden's infrastructure- Caregiver Bill, Biden’ social and environmental infrastructure package, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, Care Infastructure Frozen, care manager, case manager, Dental Coverage Medicare, geriatric care manager, Hearing Coverage Medicare, Medicare expansion 2021, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Socia Security Increase 2022, Social Security Benefits, Vision Coverage Medicare

3 Congressmen Blocking Bill to Lower Drug Prices Needed for Seniors

September 20, 2021

 

Congress Lowering Drug prices Biden’s Goal in Infrastructure Bill

Three Congressman voted against President Biden effort to lower drug prices, an issue that overwhelmingly affects seniors. Biden wants Medicare to be granted the power to negotiate lower drug prices, have pharmaceutical companies to face penalties if they raise prices faster than inflation, and a new cap on how much Medicare recipients have to spend on medications. 

3 Moderate Democrats Plus all Republicans Oppose Biden’s Drug Price Affordability Bill

Yet when the Energy and Commerce vote on the drug-pricing language came up on Biden drug price

reduction plan this month the vote was 29-29, with three moderate Democrats joining Republicans to oppose it: Reps. Scott Peters of California, Kathleen Rice of New York and Oregon’s Schrader. Tie votes in Congress are usually insufficient to keep legislative provisions alive. 

Schrader, who inherited a fortune from his grandfather who was a top executive at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has accepted large donations from big pharma during his seven terms in Congress.

 

Drug Price Soar While Seniors Can’t Afford Living in Fear

Outrage of older  patients over soaring drug prices has done little if anything to slow medication prices ascent, with the retail price tag for brand name drugs widely used by older Americans

jumping by an average of 15.5 percent in 2015 — the fourth straight year with a double-digit increase, a new AARP Public Policy Institute report finds.

Drug price increases over the past 10 years, that AARP executive vice president for policy, strategy and international affairs called “just shocking,” included Ativan 1 mg tablets, the anti-anxiety drug, with price hikes of up to 2,873 percent between 2006 and 2015, and the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL 300 mg tablets, which increased by 1,185 percent. The retail price of Humulin U-500, a short-acting insulin product used to

treat diabetes, rose by 538 percent over the past 10 years, most of that in the past five years.

Seniors Also Pay over $4000 a Year for Health Insurance

That’s on top of the roughly $4,400 per year they paid for health insurance premiums and other healthcare services such as long-term care and visits to the doctor. Some seniors, though, may pay much more for their medications

 

Geriatric Care Managers Call Your Congress Person

Geriatric Care Managers who understand the importance of passing this bill. So call your Congressman and tell her him to vote for this bill, which so needed by elders in the US. Here is an easy way to do that 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Biden's Caregiver Bill, Biden's Caregiver Bill Trouble, Biden's Caregiver Infastucure Paln, Biden's new Affordable Drug Bill, Biden’ social and environmental infrastructure package, Big Pharma, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black Travel RN, Blog, care economy, Care Infastructure, Care Infrastructure, Care Infrastructure cut out, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, pharmaceutical industry, Seniors Drug Prices, Unaffordable drug prices Tagged With: AARP, aging family, aging life and geraitric care manager, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Biden's Infrastructure Bill, Biden's infrastructure- Caregiver Bill, Biden’ social and environmental infrastructure package, Big Pharma, black aging family, black american social workers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, care manager, case manager, geriatric care manager, lower Drug Prices, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, pharmaceutical industry, soaring drug prices, Unaffordable drug prices

Why are Care Providers for Clients So Hard to Find ?

September 8, 2021

Home care aides all over the US are AWOL. Care Management, home care agencies, nursing homes are severely understaffed and cannot find enough caregivers to staff cases for shifts. Why?

Disorganization of Home Care Industry

Staffing shortages have frustrated the home care and care management industry for

decades, according to Paula Hahn author of the New old Aging blog for the New York Times. . There is no national recruiting or training program for this huge industry.The home care industry has always been a hodgepodge of for-profit companies and chains, nonprofit programs and publicly funded care through Medicaid, all operating under a confusing welter of state and federal regulations, plus an uncharted “gray market” of clients who avoid agencies and hire privately. But Covid-19 has intensified the problem.

“I’ve never heard such frustration over finding workers, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” said Vicki Hoak, executive director of the Home Care Association of America, whose 4,000-member agencies collectively employ about 500,000 people. 

Bureau of Labor Predicted this in 2020 -Pre-COVID

This was foreseen and was by the Bureau of Labor statistics. They predicted in 2020 that the long-term care sector would need to fill an additional 6.2 million direct care job openings between 2019 and 2029 as workers leave the field for a new occupation or leave the labor force altogether due to retirement, disability, or some other reasons. Combining these departures and new jobs, they projected a 7.4 million total direct care job openings in the decade ahead 

Mammoth Growth in # of Seniors Who Want to Age

in Place

The bigger problem is the growing need for home care. Each day 10,000 seniors turn 65

in the US and the number of older adults will more than double over the next several decades to top 88 million people and represent over 20 percent of the population by 2050. . The majority want to age in their home and need home care, where today there are not enough home care workers to fill those jobs.

More $ Spent on Home Care than Nursing Homes

2015, was the first time nationally that more money was spent on home care than nursing home care. We’ve seen a culture and financing shift toward home and community-based care.”
Covid -19 now the Delta variant has wreaked more chaos into the home care market. Home care workers are mainly women and had to stay home with their children when school closed down. They were also hot hard by COVID themselves, working with seniors before a vaccine was developed.

Solutions to the National loss of caregivers

There are many other factors  the loss of care providers and great solutions offered by Leading Age a national non profit for aging and home care.

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA COVID-19 Crisis, Biden's Caregiver Infastucure Paln, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black RN, Black Travel RN, care economy, Care Infastructure, Care Infrastructure, caregiver infrastructure, Caregiver living wage, Caregiver low salary, caregiver mental health, CAREGIVER RESOUCES, Caregivers contracting COVId, Covid-19 and GCM SERVICES, Essential Workers deaths, Expanding Medicare to Home Care, GCM COVID 19 Crisis, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Home Care Covid Safety, National Caregiver Loss, National Caregiver need, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, PPE and Essential Workers, private duty homecare agency Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, black aging family, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black RN's, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, Bureau of Labor prediction shortagen, care manager, caregiver low wage salary, caregiver training, Careprovider shortage, COVID exposure of caregivers, Covid-19 and caregivers, geriatric care manager, homecare crisis, Homecare Industry, Homecare industry disorganization, Leading Age, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, problem recruiting caregivers, recruiting caregiver, Recruiting caregivers, Solution to National caregiver shortage, unionization of caregivers, US caregiver shortage, Women of color caregivers

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