Loans Borrowed Against Pensions Squeeze Retirees

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Robert Kraft

Have you seen ads for companies that will pay you cash up front if you have a pension account? They’re similar to ads aimed at people who had personal injury claims that resulted in structured settlements payable over a long period of time.

The idea sounds pretty good for people who have a reliable stream of income but need extra cash now.

However, as detailed in a recent article in the New York Times, these pension loans can be very bad for the recipients. Here are the opening paragraphs of the article:

To retirees, the offers can sound like the answer to every money worry: convert tomorrow’s pension checks into today’s hard cash.

But these offers, known as pension advances, are having devastating financial consequences for a growing number of older Americans, threatening their retirement savings and plunging them further into debt. The advances, federal and state authorities say, are not advances at all, but carefully disguised loans that require borrowers to sign over all or part of their monthly pension checks. They carry interest rates that are often many times higher than those on credit cards.

In lean economic times, people with public pensions — military veterans, teachers, firefighters, police officers and others — are being courted particularly aggressively by pension-advance companies, which operate largely outside of state and federal banking regulations, but are now drawing scrutiny from Congress and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The pitches come mostly via the Web or ads in local circulars.

“Convert your pension into CASH,” LumpSum Pension Advance, of Irvine, Calif., says on its Web site. “Banks are hiding,” says Pension Funding L.L.C., of Huntington Beach, Calif., on its Web site, signaling the paucity of credit. “But you do have your pension benefits.”

Another ad on that Web site is directed at military veterans: “You’ve put your life on the line for Americans to protect our way of life. You deserve to do something important for yourself.”

A review by The New York Times of more than two dozen contracts for pension-based loans found that after factoring in various fees, the effective interest rates ranged from 27 percent to 106 percent — information not disclosed in the ads or in the contracts themselves. Furthermore, to qualify for one of the loans, borrowers are sometimes required to take out a life insurance policy that names the lender as the sole beneficiary.

LumpSum Pension Advance and Pension Funding did not return calls and e-mails for comment.

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Are You Afraid of Dying?

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Robert Kraft

Do you fear death? There may be a cure for that. This short article is from the AARP Bulletin, and I have no further comment on it.

Coffin Therapy

It’s never too early to rest in peace. For people who fear death, “coffin therapy” in Ukraine and in China might help.

A Ukrainian coffin-maker lets people relax for 15 minutes in one of his custom-made caskets.

To get an artificial near-death experience at a mental health clinic in Shenyang, China, a patient lies in a closed coffin as family members read epitaphs.

Such experiences aren’t a sure fix, says psychotherapist Irene Deitch of Staten Island, N.Y. “It could desensitize death anxiety, but it doesn’t cure it. If anything, it could make it more traumatizing for the person.”

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Featured Link — Prostate Cancer and Intimacy

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Robert Kraft

The Web site eDrugstore.MD has an interesting article on the after-effects of prostate surgery, and potential cures for these after-effects.

Posted in Featured Link, Medical & Health Resources or Issues | Leave a comment

Poll Finds Americans Unprepared and in Denial About Need for Long-Term Care as We Get Old

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Robert Kraft

Will you need long-term care when you get older? The odds are pretty good that you will, but You probably don’t think so. That’s the bottom line of a poll taken recently — Americans in general think long-term care is something that only other people will need, not themselves.

The Washington Post ran a very lengthy article about this recently. I encourage you to read the entire article, but here are the opening paragraphs:

We’re in denial: Americans underestimate their chances of needing long-term care as they get older — and are taking few steps to get ready.

A new poll examined how people 40 and over are preparing for this difficult and often pricey reality of aging and found two-thirds say they’ve done little to no planning.

In fact, 3 in 10 would rather not think about getting older at all. Only a quarter predict it’s very likely that they’ll personally need help getting around or caring for themselves during their senior years, according to the poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That’s a surprise considering the poll found more than half of the 40-plus crowd already have been caregivers for an impaired relative or friend — seeing from the other side the kind of assistance they, too, are likely to need later on.

The poll found most people expect family to step up if they need long-term care — even though 6 in 10 haven’t talked with loved ones about the possibility and how they’d like it to work.

Those family conversations are crucial: Even if they want to help, do your relatives have the time, money and knowhow? What starts as driving Dad to the doctor or picking up his groceries gradually can turn into feeding and bathing him, maybe even doing tasks once left to nurses such as giving injections or cleaning open wounds. If loved ones can’t do all that, can they afford to hire help? What if you no longer can live alone?

“The expectation that your family is going to be there when you need them often doesn’t mean they understand the full extent of what the job of caregiving will be,” Susan Reinhard, a nurse who directs AARP’s Public Policy Institute, said. “Your survey is pointing out a problem for not just people approaching the need for long-term care, but for family members who will be expected to take on the huge responsibility of providing care.”

Posted in Alzheimer's & Dementia, Nursing Homes & ALFs | Leave a comment

Featured Link — A Shopper’s Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Robert Kraft

This Shopper’s Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance is courtesy of the Texas Department of Insurance. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Long-term care is a type of personal care service that you might need if you have a physical illness, disability, or cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease, that affects your ability to do everyday activities.

Long-term care is different from traditional medical care.  Traditional medical care tries to treat or cure illnesses. Long-term care usually won’t improve your medical condition, but it will help you maintain your current lifestyle. It helps with normal daily activities, such as eating, getting around, and bathing. It can also help if you need supervision, protection, or reminders to take medicines or perform other activities.

You can get long-term care services at your own home or in a hospice, adult day care center, nursing home, or assisted living facility.

There are two types of long-term care services:

  • Skilled care is for conditions that require a medical professional, such as a nurse or a therapist. It’s usually provided in a nursing home or other care center.
  • Personal care (sometimes called custodial care) helps you do normal activities. You can get personal care in your home or in a skilled facility.
Posted in Featured Link, General Interest, Nursing Homes & ALFs | Leave a comment

Beleaguered Caregivers Getting Help From Apps

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Robert Kraft

When you are a caregiver for an elderly or disabled person, you never know where you might find help. Now look no further than your iPhone.

National Public Radio recently put out an article detailing the usefulness of several “apps” in caring for the elderly. Here are excerpts:

As her mother and father edged toward dementia, Nancy D’Auria kept a piece of paper in her wallet listing their medications.

It had the dosages, the time of day each should be taken and a check mark when her folks, who live 10 miles away, assured her the pills had been swallowed.

“I work full time so it was very challenging,” said D’Auria, 63, of West Nyack.

Now she has an app for that. With a tap or two on her iPhone, D’Auria can access a “pillbox” program that keeps it all organized for her and other relatives who share in the caregiving and subscribe to the app.

“I love the feature that others can see this,” D’Auria said. “I’m usually the one who takes care of this, but if I get stuck, they’re all up to date.”

From GPS devices and computer programs that help relatives track a wandering Alzheimer’s patient to iPad apps that help an autistic child communicate, a growing number of tools for the smartphone, the tablet and the laptop are catering to beleaguered caregivers. With the baby boom generation getting older, the market for such technology is expected to increase.

The pillbox program is just one feature of a $3.99 app called Balance that was launched last month by the National Alzheimer Center, a division of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in the Bronx.

“We thought there would be an opportunity here to reach caregivers in a different way,” said David Pomerantz, executive vice president of the Hebrew Home. “It would be a way to reach people the way people like to be reached now, on their phone.”

The app also includes sections for caregiving tips, notes for the doctor and the patient’s appointments, plus a “learning section” with articles on aspects of Alzheimer’s and an RSS feed for news about the disease.

Trackers are also important tools for Alzheimer’s caregivers.

Laura Jones of Lighthouse Point, Fla., says she was able to extend her husband’s independence for a year and a half by using a program called Comfort Zone.

Using Comfort Zone, which is offered by the Alzheimer’s Association starting at $43 a month, she was able to go online and track exactly where he was and where he had been.

Her husband carried a GPS device, which sent a signal every five minutes. If Jones checked online every hour, she would see 12 points on a map revealing her husband’s travels. She would also get an alert if he left a designated area.

Mended Hearts, an organization of heart patients and their caregivers, is about to start a program to reach caregivers by texting tips to their phones.

“We hope this will be the beginning of several patient- and caregiver-based texting programs that reach people where they are,” said executive director Karen Caruth.

Some tools are not specific to a particular disease or condition.

CareFamily, which prescreens in-home caregivers and matches them to customers over the Internet, has online tools that let a family remotely monitor a caregiver’s attendance, provide reminders about medications and appointments, and exchange care plans and notes via email, texting or phone.

“We’re in the infancy of what technology can do for caregiving and it’s only going to grow,” said Beth Kallmyer, a vice president at the Alzheimer’s Association.

But she cautioned that it’s too soon to depend entirely on online tools.

“It’s not a good fit for everybody,” she said. “When you’re looking at people impacted by Alzheimer’s disease, including some caregivers, you’re looking at an older population that might not be comfortable. We always have to remember technology is great — when it works.”

Posted in Alzheimer's & Dementia, General Interest | Leave a comment

Senior Dating

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Robert Kraft

I wouldn’t normally write here about a senior dating service, but one such site has published a list of the top 100 blogs providing legal advice to the elderly. My blog was among those listed, so I think I should give a shout-out to the dating site.

You can see the entire list of blogs here. Check it out — there are some really good ones there.

Posted in General Interest, Medical & Health Resources or Issues | Leave a comment

Identity Thieves Target Texas Seniors on Medicare

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Robert Kraft

There’s a new scam involving identity theft by people who are preying on seniors on Medicare. The Dallas Morning News recently posted a short warning about this. If you’re on Medicare, or care for someone who is, please read this.

Identity thieves posing as employees of the federal Medicare program are targeting Texas seniors, according to state officials.

The attorney general’s office has received several recent complaints from Medicare recipients who have received calls from the impostors, though it’s unclear how many were in the Dallas area.

The callers tell victims that the program’s current identification cards are being phased out and ask for sensitive information so that a new card can be issued and they can continue receiving benefits. They typically ask for bank account information and Medicare numbers, which are identical to Social Security numbers.

The attorney general’s office advises Medicare recipients to refuse to provide any personal information to unsolicited callers, and to just hang up the phone when in doubt.

Posted in General Interest, Safety Issues for the Elderly | Leave a comment

More Seniors Turning to Payday Loans

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Robert Kraft

The so-called payday loan industry may have its place in the world, but it mostly seems to be used to take advantage of poor people who don’t understand the financial distress they are getting into when they take out such a loan.

The Dallas Morning News columnist Pamela Yip wrote a cautionary article about these loans recently. Here are excerpts:

When the Center for Responsible Lending released its latest report on payday loans, one statistic jumped out at me:

More than 25 percent of bank payday loan borrowers are Social Security recipients.

This is the latest in a series of studies showing that seniors are carrying more debt at a time in their lives when they can ill afford such a burden.

The study looks at the perils of payday loans — short-term loans with interest rates of up to 300 percent that the center says drive borrowers into a cycle of debt.

The term “payday loan” implies that you have to have a job to qualify for one. But all you really need is a source of regular income, and for seniors, that’s their Social Security benefits.

Complicating matters, Social Security payments are now electronically deposited into recipients’ bank accounts. An official at AARP said that’s giving payday lenders the first bite of the golden apple.

“They get their Social Security in the bank, the payday lender, as soon as it gets in there, they scrape it up,” said Joe Sanchez, associate state director for advocacy for AARP.

“People were short to begin with anyway, so what other option do they have but to go back and get another payday loan or continue that cycle of debt by paying just the interest and fees and never addressing the principal,” he said.

The payday loan industry says its products rescue consumers who are in a financial pinch.

The product alarms advocates for older consumers, as it should.

Older consumers today face many financial pressures, including health care costs and wanting to help financially struggling adult children.

But putting their vital Social Security benefits in harm’s way shouldn’t even be an option.

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Medicaid Dental Dollars Return to State… and to Lobbyists

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Robert Kraft

Many seniors rely on Medicaid not only for basic needs but also to pay for nursing home care. Medicaid benefits can be hard to get, and one reason is that there is only so much money to go around.

When someone gets Medicaid money through fraud, that leaves less for legitimate applicants.

Texas has had a continuing problem with certain dental clinics receiving Medicaid money for services rendered to children who had no real need for the dental services. It’s really just a scam to get Medicaid money.

The TV station WFAA has run stories on this problem. Here are excerpts from the latest story:

After a News 8 investigation into questionable spending on Medicaid payments, the state has been recovering some of the hundreds of millions it spent for orthodontics under Medicaid.

At the same time, some dentists are betting on lobbyists to thwart regulation.

The Smiley Dental Clinic at Medallion Center in Dallas has agreed to repay the State of Texas more than $4 million. It’s one of dozens of Smiley Clinics in Texas which billed the state millions for Medicaid orthodontics from 2008 through 2010.

In 2011, News 8 reported on the mega-mansion in Frisco — complete with water slide and swimming pool — belonging to Smiley’s owners. In agreeing to repay the state $4,015,000, Smiley admitted no wrongdoing.

In all, the State of Texas has collected more than $8 million from four dentists by actions of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services. Two more settlements are pending.

But while clinics like Smiely are paying money back, other dentists are spending money on lobbyists, on the bet they can prevent further regulation.

“In this whole session, I have not seen as many lobbyists hired to kill one bill as I’ve seen to kill that bill,” state Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) told News 8. “That tells me there are a lot of people making a whole lot of money.”

With Senate Bill 8, Nelson wants to beef up the Office of Inspector General, which is trying to make overcharging dentists pay up.

OIG has increased its investigative staff over the last three years, and turned its attitude on Medicaid fraud from passive to aggressive.

But dentists are hiring big name lobbyists in an effort to maintain the status quo.

Haley Barbour, one of the most prominent lobbyists in Washington and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has appeared in Austin for Medicaid dental clients.

Haley Cornyn, lobbyist daughter of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is also knocking on doors in Austin for a national dental chain.

According to records obtained by News 8 from the Texas Ethics Commission, there are at least 22 lobbyists representing 15 national dental firms registered for this session of the legislature in Austin.

One House bill aims to temper the influence of corporate dental chains. Two House bills would restrict how the OIG polices Medicaid fraud.

“Right now, I’m doing my best to keep people from taking away [the OIG's] authority,” Sen. Nelson said. “I’d love to have an even bigger hammer, if you will. But I’m not optimistic that that’s going to happen.”On Monday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 8, which seeks to strengthen the OIG and control Medicaid fraud. The bill now moves to the House.

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