Coffee Break - Session 13 (SHIP)

[Music] thank you for joining us on coffee break brought to you by the middle alabama area agency on aging or m4a m4a is a part of a network of 13 area agencies on aging that cover all 67 counties across the state we are located in alabaster and we cover blunt chilton shelby st claire and walker counties we would love to find out how we can help your family today for previous episodes of coffee break feel free to check out our youtube channel [Music] [Music] all right again welcome everybody in for joining us for session 13 of coffee break i think we're going to go ahead and kick things off it looks like we've got quite a few people who have joined us for the zoom portion of this but we are also streaming this live on our facebook feed so if you are joining us late of course if you if you have to leave or whatever the scenario is feel free to go back and watch this which will be immediately accessible after the facebook feed ends or we will also be posting this on our youtube channel which we will then share on our facebook pages come probably early next week so feel free to to check us out on there if you miss any of today's presentation so we'll go ahead and kick things off again this is coffee break which is a collaborative effort brought to you by two of our in-house programs at the middle alabama area agency on aging also known as m4a and the idea behind coffee break is to provide caregivers with a brief hour of respite while also trying to present them with with a new informative uh some information to hopefully help their journey in their in their caregiving journey so we are really excited to keep these going and again we're already we've already made it up we started these back whenever the pandemic first hit and we're already up to session 13 so really moving along here today's special guest speaker is miss latoya shelton who is our in-house ship and smp coordinator and i will kind of let her go over those acronyms a little better than i can uh but she she joins us today at really a critical time because we've we're approaching what most people are familiar with open enrollment so she's going to go over a little bit of what she does as well as medicare and open enrollment period to really try to gear up as we get ready for that period coming up here in just a few weeks so without further ado i'm going to pass it on to miss latoya all right thank you jeremy uh like jeremy said my name is latoya shelton and i am the ship coordinator for m4a and what i'm going to talk to you today a little bit about is exactly what ship is and how we assist medicare beneficiaries and then i'm going to go off into a little bit about medicare and how you can um hopefully understand medicare a little bit better and help in choosing a medicare plan so what is ship ship is referred to as the state health insurance assistance program and within our program we have certified counselors and volunteers who are committed to helping medicare beneficiaries make informed decisions or choices regarding their health benefits for free our counselors and our volunteers are not affiliated with any insurance company and will not attempt to sell medicare beneficiaries insurance so basically our program helps medicare beneficiaries understand medicare and how to make decisions on choosing a medicare plan like i said before our services are free we are unbiased we will not try to sell you insurance our main goal is to help you understand medicare and how to choose a plan ships provides ship provides education counseling and information concerning medicare we can discuss some medicare supplements also known as medigap plans we can also help you and understand medicare savings programs we discuss medicaid prescription drug plans medicare advantage plans we offer plan comparisons and we can also educate and discuss billing and claims what i also also like to say is that ship within our program we understand that um when beneficiaries initially go on to medicare how confusing medicare can be uh we know at times it can be overwhelming i get many calls about how overwhelming um choosing a plan can be and just being not knowing which way to go so what our program does is we help break it down and we help you choose and understand medicare a little bit better and hopefully take some of that away so now we'll talk a little bit about medicare so what is medicare medicare is health insurance for people 65 and older for people who are under 65 with certain disabilities uh for people who have been diagnosed with als and also with people who are diagnosed with kidney failure so who runs medicare the centers for medicare and medicaid services also known as cms social security administration is who enrolls most individuals when you enroll into medicare the social security administration is where you will begin that's who will enroll you in parts a and part b so when people call me uh want to know how do i enroll in medicare i always say call the social security office that's who's going to enroll you also the railroad retirement board enrolls railroad retirees so now we can get off into exactly what's part a part b part c and part d the four parts of medicare part a is hospital insurance part b is medical insurance part c is our medicare advantage plans and part d are the prescription drug plans i always like to talk with my medicare beneficiaries and let them know that when it comes to choosing a medicare plan your medicare choices are either an original you're going to either go with original medicare or you're going to go with a medicare advantage plan now with the original medicare you'll use your red white and blue card which i'll show you that later on in the presentation where you have your part a hospital insurance you also have your part b medical insurance also with original medicare you can add a part d prescription drug plan and you also have the option to add a medicare supplement insurance which is also called a medigap policy the other choice that you have is a medicare advantage plan which is considered part c and we like to call this the all-in-one plan uh these plans are the vivas the humana plans the blue cross uh offers a plan these are those plans these plans are they combine parts a and part b these plans also will include uh drug coverage but with the medicare advantage plans you're not able to pick up a supplement plan so i always get the question what's the difference between original medicare uh and medicare advantage with original medicare you can go to any doctor or any hospital that takes medicare anywhere in the u.s also with original medicare in most cases you don't need a referral to see a specialist now we're talking about the out-of-pocket costs for original medicare we're talking about for part b covered services you usually pay the 20 of the medicare approved amount after you meet the deductible uh you pay a premium for part b and part d if you choose to enroll in a drug plan uh with original medicare there's no maximum out of pocket unless you have a medigap policy and you can get a supplemental coverage uh to help pay your remaining out-of-pocket costs like you're 20 so when it comes to medicare advantage your doctors have to be in the network you always want to make sure that your doctors accept your medicare advantage plan you want to make sure your doctors are going to accept viva you want to make sure your doctors are going to accept humana whichever plan you choose before you enroll in that plan uh on most of these plans you will need a referral on some of them you don't but in most of them you will need a referral to see a specialist and your out-of-pocket costs vary your it varies with your co-pays depending on the services you get each plan it varies also you may pay a premium uh for the plan uh most of the plans that i quote uh i like to look at the zero plan premiums but on the medicare advantage plans you might you may pay a premium for the plan uh in addition to plan that monthly premium for part b so when it comes to part b uh it's the 14460 you will pay a part b premium whether you're going with original medicare or a medicare advantage plan but in addition to that with the medicare advantage plans you may pay a monthly premium to have that plan also the plans do have a maximum out of pocket once you have paid once you reach that max amount of pocket you pay nothing for the rest of the year if you're on a medicare advantage plan and also with the medicare advantage plans you cannot buy or use a separate supplemental coverage i often get this question a lot what's the difference and how do i decide to choose and i always let beneficiaries know it just depends on your health need and it depends on what you have going on uh your budget and just exactly what how much insurance you need so now we'll kind of talk a little bit about each of the parts uh individually and get off into the cost of the parts as well uh part a which is the hospital insurance it helps to cover inpatient care in hospitals skilled nursing facility care like rehab services if you've been in the hospital and then they recommend that you go into rehab skilled nursing facility care this is what part a will cover not long-term nursing home care also it covers hospice care services and home health care services as well now we talk about the cost for part a there is no premium for beneficiaries who have worked uh more than 10 years 40 quarters so part a is usually all paid into as you work the standard premium for part a is 252 if you've worked under 10 years uh anywhere between 30 and 39 quarters the standard part a premium is 458 dollars if you've worked less than 40 than 30 quarters i'm sorry there's also a deductible uh for 2020 the deductible is one thousand four hundred and eight dollars for the benefit periods of days one through six and then the beneficiary pays co-pays so now we're talking about part b with part b which covers the medical insurance it covers your doctor visits services from doctors and other health care providers also it covers outpatient care home health services durable medical equipment hospital beds wheelchairs oxygen tanks walkers many preventive services as well also part b covers medications given at the doctor's office chemotherapy infusions any type of shots given at a doctor's office any type of medication given at a doctor's office part b covers those we talk about the cost for part b the monthly premium for this year for part b is 144 and 60 cents sometimes this cost could go up um i think it just went up this year the last couple years it stayed the same but it did go up this year uh usually this is deducted from your social security check if you're receiving social security if you're not you will get a bill for the first three months for that um for that premium um premium could be higher based on your income so depending on how much you make your premium could be a little bit more than the one forty four sixty also the part their part because with the annual deductible this year being one hundred and ninety eight dollars uh for for the year a lot of times doctors officers may have it up on the glass or something where you go in and ask for you to go ahead on and pay this 198 or ask for the beneficiary to go ahead and pay the 198 so they can go ahead on and start billing medicare for the services and now we'll talk a little bit about part d so part d is the prescription drug plans that help to cover um your cost for prescription medications and these plans are available through standalone part d plans that go with original medicare also the drug plans are included like i said before with um the medicare advantage plans and how my program can help you choose a part b plan is we normally would take your medications and we like to see which plans are going to cover your medications at the lowest out of pocket costs this helps us to help you narrow down the search because there are so many plans to choose from we want you to get the the lowest out of pocket plan that you can that we can find and here we i'd like to talk just a little bit about the part d terminology um here we have the yearly deductible which is the amount paid for prescriptions before the plan begins to pay uh some of the drug plans uh do not charge a deductible and then there's the copayment or the coinsurance this is the uh the amounts paid for prescriptions after the deductible has been met and then there's the monthly premium where most drug plans charge a monthly premium fee that varies and those fees vary by the plan this is paid in addition to that part b premium of 144.60 and then there's the coverage gap which is also known as the doughnut hole most medicare b most medicare drug plans have a coverage gap uh this means that after you and the plan have spent a certain amount of money uh this year is four thousand twenty dollars for covered drugs you must pay 25 of the cost of the out you must pay 25 percent of the cost out of pocket for the drugs up to a certain limit that certain limit is going to be when you go into the catastrophic coverage once you've reached your out-of-pocket limit for catastrophic coverage six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars now this amount is what you and the plan are paying if your medications two thousand dollars and you're only paying 40 then we know that the plan is paying 1 000 60 and so you can reach that limit fairly quickly um so when you see six thousand dollars it's not just what you pay but we do you end the plan uh pay so once you reach your plans out of pocket limit of six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars during the coverage gap um during this coverage gap you automatically go into catastrophic coverage this coverage assures that once you have spent up to the plans out-of-pocket limit for covered drugs the medicare beneficiary only pays a small coinsurance amount so with donut hole the cost of your meds may go up a little bit you may have been in this you may have initially paid 40 dollars you reached a donut hole you may pay 128. once you go into catastrophic you may go back down to 20 for the medication just an example but my program can help you understand exactly when you'll reach that donut hole and when you'll reach the catastrophic coverage once you go into the coverage gap uh here at m4a we have a program called senior rx and senior rs can help you get that medication for free or at a reduced cost so usually when you reach it on that hole i refer you to senior rx to see if you can get some assistance with some of that medication because we know that can be very costly at times so now we'll talk just a little bit about the medigap plans also known as the supplement plans medigap insurance provides private insurance coverage that helps fill the gaps in medicare parts a and b which pays that 20 percent so when it comes to original medicare it only pays 80 percent of your medical costs when you pick if you need assistance with the other 20 percent you do have the option to pick up extra insurance which is called the medigap insurance this insurance will help pay what medicare does not pay as long as it's a medicare approved amount medicare approved service and a medicare approved amount that medigap insurance will come in to pick it up these are uh 10 standard plans which are available uh they are designated by letters which can be a little confusing because with the medigap insurance um these plans can be a plan a plan b plan c uh in addition to the part a and part b which is why you have ship we can also help break that down for you and help you to understand how this works with your medicare also there are no geographical limits on where care is received if the care is received in the u.s so i'd like to say if you are a traveler and uh you want to make sure that you're still covered and everything is uh covered through medicare medicare and you choose a medigap plan uh you are still covered with the monthly premiums are based on your age gender and health conditions also the medigap insurance does not include prescription drug coverage it will only cover what medicare does not cover outside of the prescription drug coverage so you'll still have your prescription drug coverage premium as well as having to pay the co-pays for your medication the medigap insurance will not um help with that uh part c the medicare advantage plans like i said referred to as the medicare advantage plans these plans are often combined uh the services of part a which are they're going to cover your part a your hospital insurance the advantage plans will cover your part b your medical insurance your doctor visits also these plans will help cover your medications as well so you won't have a separate premium for that they may offer some additional benefits also most of these plans do help cover some dental coverage some vision and some hearing it just varies some plans may cover dental envision some may just cover dental and hearing it just depends on but they do offer some extra benefits original medicare does not cover dental vision or hearing these are network plans like i said before you want to make sure your doctors accept these plans before enrolling in these plans these are the hmos the health maintenance organizations where they may require you to choose a primary doctor and get referrals to see a specialist doctors have to uh have to use the doctors in your network uh ppos the preferred provider organizations more freedom to choose doctors a larger network of doctors and hospitals so that that would be the difference between the two when can i enroll like jeremy said this is uh open enrollment is coming up october 15th through december 7th uh the open enrollment which i'm starting from the bottom i apologize annual open enrollment period this is a time when everybody who is on medicare can make changes if they want to to their insurance if they choose to change this is the time to do so then there's an initial enrollment period this is once you've turned 65 this is when you are initially eligible to enroll into medicare um once you've turned 65 you're eligible to enroll in part a and part b this is a seventh month period it begins three months before you turn 65 then you have the month that you turn 65 and then you have three months after you turn 65 to enroll into medicare without penalty and then there's a special enrollment period this is a time when you can change your benefits because something about your life has changed uh for example moving out of a planned service area uh losing that credible coverage credible coverages basically when you're working if you're still working and you are on your employees insurance and you're working past 65 you decide to keep your employees insurance medicare considers that is credible coverage insurance or if you're on your spouse's insurance medicare considers that as credible coverage uh once this ends you fall into a special enrollment period where you can where you qualify to enroll in medicare also if you're receiving extra help which is something i'll talk a little bit about later on um this is also a special enrollment period for you if nothing changes then you have to wait until uh your annual open enrollment period to make changes then there's a general enrollment period um which is if you did not sign up during your initial phase when you first turn 65 and you don't sign up for medicare and then you decide later on that you want to do so you have to uh you're able to do this during the general enrollment period which is between january 1st through march 31st of each year your coverage won't start until july 1st of that year though although you enroll in part a or part b in march or in january it will not start until july and also late enrollment penalties may apply then there's a medicare advantage open enrollment period this is one of the new open enrollment periods uh during this time you may switch your medicare advantage plans there used to be a time when you were when you enrolled in a medicare advantage plan you were there for the for the rest of the year until open enrollment came again but now we have the medicare advantage open enrollment period which gives you a time to make changes um you can leave a medicare advantage plan and join original medicare and then enroll in a part d plan this time it's from january 1st through march 31st of each year your coverage begins the first day of the following month if you enroll in a plan in january uh january 15th that plan begins february first the extra help programs there's medicaid which helps pay the cost that that's not covered by medicare it may also offer some additional benefits and then there are the medicare savings programs that help people pay the part a and part b premiums deductibles and some of the co-insurance amounts and then there are the then there's the prescription drug plan assistance program which helped people pay some or all of their part d premiums and cost sharing this program is often referred to as the low income subsidy it's provided through the social security administration so the medicare savings programs helps pay the part b premiums mostly and the prescription drug plans assistance also helps pay for your medications and then there's the medicaid which which could act as a supplement and pay what medicare does not pay um and here are some of the extra help income requirements you have your q and b your slmb your qi one and your lis and um rather than break that pretty much these are the limits that you would have that you could meet that you would have to meet to qualify for these programs and as you can see there are limits for uh individual gross monthly income as well as couples growth gross monthly income a lot of beneficiaries feel that they don't qualify just because they're married but couples also have a gross monthly income as well and here is the medicare card there are new medicare cards this is i think the second year for the medicare cards uh what the change is they took away the the social security number off of the old cards and also the signature and this was to eliminate a lot of fraud so um right now the new cards are going to have a different a variety of numbers and letters a combination of numbers and letters and just your start date for your hospital and your medical insurance and so a lot of times i like to let medicare beneficiaries know when i'm talking about your medicare i want to see your red white and blue card and this is what it looks like so now i'll talk just a little bit about briefly about uh the senior ra i mean the uh senior medicare patrol program and what this program is it basically targets medical identity theft and medical identity theft occurs when a beneficiary's medical number is misused either by a provider a supplier or by someone posing as a real beneficiary in order to receive medical care receiving health care from a fraudulent provider can mean the quality of the care is poor the intervention is not medically necessary or worse the intervention is harmful a beneficiary may later receive improper medical treatment from a legitimate providers uh from legitimate providers as a result of inaccurate uh medical records that contain false diagnosis records showing treatments that never happen misinformation about allergies incorrect lab results imagine going to a doctor that's giving you a false diagnosis diagnosis and then going to a legitimate provider who wants to treat you for that false diagnosis this is what we mean when we say harmful so we what we like for you to do is look if you're going to look on your your medical bills pay attention to what's been uh billed and what you're being billed for a lot of the medicare fraud errors and abuse can also result in higher out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries such as co-payments for health care services that were never provided were excessive or were medically unnecessary beneficiaries may also find themselves stuck with bills for services from providers who should have billed medicare but instilled but instead bill the medicare bill the beneficiary for the entire cost of that service so this is another reason that it's very important that you report these things when you see something a little odd on your your bills or if you're getting billed for a service that you know did not happen and uh please give me a call and i'll be happy to report that for you so that it can be investigated the medicare also medicare loses billions of dollars each year due to fraud errors and abuse estimates place these losses at approximately 60 billion annually though the exact figure is impossible to measure uh the most cited range for all health care for our estimates is three to ten percent of annual health care expediters so what i like for you to do is definitely give me a call if you see anything that doesn't look right on like i said on your medical bills because it's definitely worth it we wouldn't i don't want you know the the co-payments to have to go up for the benefit medicare beneficiaries based on fraud and um things like that now i know this was a lot of information i understand like i said before that medicare is it could be a lot it can be overwhelming and it can definitely be confusing uh which is why you have ship um also give me a call if you or if you have any clients or any beneficiaries or any caregivers who have questions about their medicare and just need me to help break it down individually i'll be happy to do so um also this is a very busy time of the year open enrollment october 15th through december 7th this is the time to make changes and i am here to assist in any way that i can to help help you decide whether you want to stay where you are or whether you want to make changes go with the lower out-of-pocket cost plan i'm going to help do that i can also enroll you in that plan or um guide you in the right direction so um do you if there are any questions i'll be happy to answer i'm not seeing any on the facebook feed let's see if we have any through our chat feature not seeing any so i guess i guess latoya answered everybody's questions uh with the first go-around but just to kind of piggyback off of what she's already said i mean it's very important of course the the idea behind the s p program is of course to to not only uh train and educate beneficiaries uh about their you know about their medicare coverage and their rights and and responsibilities really as a as a medicare medicare beneficiary but it it really empowers individuals to to to be mindful of that because you know if it's happening to you it's probably happening to someone else who maybe isn't as doesn't necessarily pay attention as much as you do and that and that the the funds as far as i'm aware the the funds that are especially in the case of fraudulent from a from a larger standpoint uh the the funds that are recouped from that direct go back directly to the beneficiaries i know that at a time that you know that that really helps to reduce because if there's a if there's fraudulent charges if there's high cost and medicare it's directly impacting beneficiaries and and the the cost that goes into part b premiums and you know and costs associated with medicare so so anytime you can be an advocate and proactive and doing something like that it really not only in it not only you know impacts you but it impacts the uh everyone else this this uh beneficiary as well so if you have any questions of course we'll have this towards the end as well with our contact information you can reach latoya here at our office at m4a in alabaster which you see there at the bottom uh really the easiest way to to probably reach her is her email address that you see there just under the center of the screen so so feel free to reach out because she's a wealth of knowledge to be able to not only assist you with your medicare but also equip you with tools and resources to to again try to be an advocate and proactive in combating medicare fraud and make the system better for everyone as a whole so thank you again latoya we really appreciate it i don't see any questions so we'll actually we do have a question here okay so i think we just answered the question the question was what's the phone number should we call to get help and you can just call our number there at the bottom zero 205-670-5770 ask for miss latoya and she will she will get you taken care of now uh latoya with the with the referral process they're gonna need to go through the screening process just like anybody else with adrc or how does that work with them in enrollment yes with open enrollment uh most of the calls they'll what they'll do is uh take your name and information and i will more likely just give you a call back rather than you waiting two or three weeks for a screening yeah so anyone should do it three days exactly and so what she's talking about uh which we're about to kind of review over here with with the uh kind of the breakdown of what m4a is and what we do we have what's known as an adrc or an aging and disability resource center and the traditional way of doing things is when you contact our agency you get you get screened for full benefits to to then get referred over to two programs and so what she's trying to say is you know especially in the case of open enrollment time is of the essence so there's a little bit more of an expedited version of doing that so if you call through more than likely you recall we'll kind of get to her a little quicker than the typical uh process that we go through because of you know with it being such a specific period we want to make sure we get you as help as quick as possible so again we are the middle alabama area agency on aging also known as m4a that is much easier to say than that long phrase so if you ever see our name floating around that's who we are we're located centrally right here almost smack dab in the middle of alabama uh we're just below birmingham and alabaster but we cover uh basically the counties that surround jefferson county but we are part of a network of 13 other area local agencies on aging and we cover all 67 counties across the state our overall mission as a network is to age in place and that's really what we try to promote is to promote independence promote empowerment and to really try to get resources as best as we can because not only are we a direct service provider in the sense of coordinating services that we provide but we all we're also by nature a resource center so we try to get you the resources that you need regardless of whether it's in-house or throughout the community and there's a little stat there the bottom 90 of adults age 65 and older prefer to stay at home age and place so that's really what we're what we're trying to do at the end today at the end of the day is is provide an environment for that to take place specifically for m4a our mission is to empower individuals people living with disabilities and their caregivers to self-advocate as well as live independently and safely in the communities of their choice and our motto here in-house is assisting all ages at all stages we have programs that impact children as well as older adults so you know we really try to try to provide services that that you try to help and assist throughout the the entire spectrum of life so it's really best just to call us to see if it's something that we that we can help with if not we can certainly try to find a resource to to provide that service for you again the counties that we provide surround jefferson county however we do serve we do provide services for jefferson county through our senior employment program but traditionally speaking the the counties that we serve are blunt chilton sinclair shelby and walker and again those are basically the counties that kind of surround jefferson and we partner of course with other agencies to to border us with the services that we provide again the way that it works for us we have an aging and disability resource center and to put it simply there they're really just a single point of entry if you call our agency you'll get you'll get a uh booked what's the word i'm trying to thank them swim blank you will get uh get a screening to to to get a call back for one of our adrc representatives to do this this full benefit screening is what we call it to to do kind of see what services you're that's needed in the home you may call us for medication assistance but you may walk away with nutrition assistance or transportation and so we're really trying to do the full benefit screening to answer any questions all at once versus trying to really fit one need and and have have needs go unmet so that's really the idea behind what we do we do that in person of course right now uh our offices is officially closed but uh you know you can call and make an appointment there are exceptions that can be made as well as calling us traditionally of course through our through our phone number which will be showcased again at the end of this presentation or you can go on our website which we have a link to if in a couple of slides but if you're if you're unfamiliar especially in the case if you're calling from another region or if you're listening from another region if you have a loved one that lives in another region you can call one eight hundred age line which you see there and that will connect you to the local area agency on aging that covers the area that you reside in so these are our key programs our core services as we like to call them that are offered statewide with exception to panda we have the elderly nutrition program most people refer to that similarly to the meals on wheels program where we do homebound meals we also partner with the senior centers to do the hot meals at the senior center so we have a kind of a hand in that as well we also offer caregiver supportive services with our alabama cares as well as in-house our panda project which focuses primarily on the shelby county region of alabama but with our alabama cares program that's our traditional caregiver support program that covers all five of the counties that we traditionally cover and that provides supportive services to caregivers you know whether it be grandparents relative caregivers informally raising children to individuals who are caring for an adult with special needs or even an individual who is 60 and older or any age with a dementia related diagnosis so we have caregivers supportive services we have again medication assistance through our senior rx program and our ship program with the medicare counseling as as latoya has done a great job of going over again we have a senior employment program where we provide supportive services we partner with non-profit agencies to provide individuals who are looking to get back in the workforce with a with a means to do that we pay on their behalf for their services to learn a new job trade so we have those scattered throughout six counties so uh feel free if you're interested or if you know someone that's looking to get back into the workforce that might be a good a good way to to start there is an eligibility and age requirement for that and with most of our programs so that'll all again tie into the to the screening to see if you're eligible for that or not we partner with a legal with an elder law attorney to do to provide legal assistance with things like advanced directives and and really trying to prepare for the future with with powers of attorneys and wills and whatnot so that's a that's a good resource if it's something they can't provide again they can they can kind of get you in contact with someone who can provide that service for you but a lot of the services that they provide are paid for through through the funding that we receive on the federal level so a great resource there especially if you've not gotten your affairs in order that's a really a really good place to start we also have initiatives where we combat elder abuse or elder abuse prevention or elder justice as we call it so that's a that's a good uh we typically do a lot of those especially right now on our zoom webinars we host those every other week similarly to the coffee break but we do those uh you know through our through our facebook page and through zoom and of course our two are really the biggest program we have is our medicaid waiver program which is a long-term care program that takes services that would traditionally be offered in kind of a long-term care facility to bring those into the home to really try to take individuals who are kind of on the threshold of going into long-term care like a nursing home or assisted living facility and it brings some of those supportive services into the home to prevent that entry so things like homemaker services personal care like with helping with taking baths or you know walking or whatever whatever the case may be as well as respite services nutrition and so that's that's a great program that helps save taxpayers a lot of money as well as again to help make sure that families and participants age in place and of course if you have someone that goes into a long-term care facility we do have a local ombudsman that speaks on behalf of the the participants or the the resident in the facility they're kind of the middle man between the facility itself and the residents so they they can kind of help mitigate any issues that are happening and look into any problems that may be arising as part of their stay so going back to the referral process for adrc if you if you prefer going on to our website we've introduced a new version of of you know the the ability to get referred to really get the ball rolling for your situation or your loved one situation and you can just visit www.m48 forward slash referral and when you see that you can click on either get help if you're the individual caught you know inquiring on your behalf or make a referral if you're doing it on behalf of someone else that then takes you through a questionnaire which you can answer and that will go directly through our queue just like you would do if you were calling in so really a more efficient way of doing business if if that's easier for you it's really more convenient for the for the consumer to do that really at their leisure whichever whatever time works best for them uh finally we are now tweeting and facebooking and instagraming and all the above so if you uh if you have any of these accounts make sure you follow us like us share us so that you can stay up to date on things that were we're doing i would say that facebook is probably the the site that we utilize the most especially like with our coffee break we're streaming it live right now and so we we always post things on our facebook really just about every day so we have most of our events on there so that you can go ahead and share them with with friends or or save them so that you'll be notified whenever that's coming up so we also have a newsletter that goes out to quite a bit of people uh we actually have several of our in-house programs has their own newsletter but if you go to our website you'll be prompted with a box to join our overall newsletter to really keep up with events that are happening throughout our region whether that be our own programs or other resources that we see that could be of use to our subscribers so feel free to again follow us on other sites and join our newsletter to really stay up with what's going on we do have our coffee break scheduled for next time again we have these every other week so if you're new to coffee break we have this every other wednesday same time same place just a different day and so we have our next one scheduled for october the 7th from one to two and we will be joined by miss judy pritchard who is a certified dementia practitioner and speak speech language pathologist she's going to be bringing to us some reminiscence therapy and we're really excited to to learn more about this so be sure to mark your calendars like us on facebook put that you're interested whatever the process that you prefer the most to make sure that you get that on your schedule so that you can join us next time again if you didn't catch our contact information here's the contact information for any of our in-house services it's really a one-stop shop we have several programs in-house and you can just contact us to to get the coordinator of the program that you're inquiring about or really just to get information about services in general that might be appropriate for your case so we're located at 209 cloverdale circle in alabaster it's really saginaw right across from the saginaw post office down 31. you can send us mail at p.o drawer 618 saginaw alabama 35137 or you can contact us at 205-670-5770 or toll-free at 1-866-570-2998 and again our website is www.m4a.org i still don't see any questions jennifer do you see anything on the facebook feed all right so i guess that wraps it up for us today again we will be recording this or which excuse me we are recording this so this is live on facebook if you would like the raw version of this of course you can go back and watch it from the beginning it should be almost immediately available after we end this slideshow but if you if you don't catch it or if you prefer to wait uh we will be sending this out to our social media feeds within the next few days probably by monday at the latest so if you didn't catch all of this presentation today feel free to check that out whenever we post it next week so thanks again we hope everybody has a great rest of the week and you call us if you need us we're always here to help thanks everybody

Channel: undefined

Views: 330

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Caregiver, Caregiving, Caregivers, Alabama Cares, PANDA, M4A, SHIP, Medicare, Open Enrollment, Birmingham, Alabaster, Shelby County, Blount COunty, Walker COunty, Chilton County, St. Clair County

Id: wOYBzhH0W50

Length: 43min 16sec (2596 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020