The most important thing to ask an advisor when contributing to a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is when can I get my money. How can I get my money from a Roth IRA if I would need it. You want to understand the defined avenues for withdrawing money while avoiding excessive penalties and taxes.
Individual's who have made direct contributions (not a conversion from a traditonal IRA) can take money out tax free and penalty free if the money has been in the account for at least five years and you are fifty nine and a half years of age.
You can withdraw direct contributions at any time for any reason without taxes or penalties. If you contributed three thousand dollars to your Roth IRA over the years, you can withdraw three thousand dollars without taxes or consequesnces. So you can access your initial contribution. Taxes or penalties would apply only to the withdrawal of earnings beyond the three thousand dollars contributed.
The five year holding period for direct contributions actually starts the first day of the tax year for which you made your first deposit to the Roth IRA account. So if you made your first Roth IRA contribution on April 15, 2006 for the 2005 year, the five years would be January 2010. The money has not actually been in the account for five years and you have met the five year holding rule.
The Internal Revenue Service distributes (available online) IRS Publication 590 which explains the Roth IRA rules in detail. When you give someone your money, understand how you will get it back.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Medicare and Smoking
Years ago smoking cigarettes was an accepted past time in the United States. Smoking cigarettes was portrayed as a pleasurable experience. Money spent on tobacco products by consumers helped fuel the economy. Medical providers and the Centers for Disease Control began to collect documented reports of the disease producing effects of smoking cigarettes. Today health organizations in the United States define the smoking of cigarettes as a serious health hazard. Cigarettes have adverse health effects on the smoker and those near by due to second hand smoke being inhaled.
Medicare has expanded the federal role in reducing smokers of cigarettes in the United States. Medicare already covers drugs used to help smokers quit, and counseling for those who have a documented illness related to smoking cigarettes. Starting immediately Medicare has authorized coverage for up to eight counseling sessions per year for persons who simply have the desire to quit smoking cigarettes.
Collected data demonstrates seniors can respond to smoking cessation counseling even if they have been smoking for more than 40 years. The message clearly is it is never to late to quit smoking cigarettes and reduce your risk to complications from smoke related illness.
Medicare's medical officers see this as a cost saving strategy. Investing money in counseling to reduce the number of individuals lighting up cigarettes, will certainly help offset the billions the Medicare program spends on treating smoke related illnesses. The Medicare dollars collected by participating providers can be spent in local communities fueling the economy.
Medicare has expanded the federal role in reducing smokers of cigarettes in the United States. Medicare already covers drugs used to help smokers quit, and counseling for those who have a documented illness related to smoking cigarettes. Starting immediately Medicare has authorized coverage for up to eight counseling sessions per year for persons who simply have the desire to quit smoking cigarettes.
Collected data demonstrates seniors can respond to smoking cessation counseling even if they have been smoking for more than 40 years. The message clearly is it is never to late to quit smoking cigarettes and reduce your risk to complications from smoke related illness.
Medicare's medical officers see this as a cost saving strategy. Investing money in counseling to reduce the number of individuals lighting up cigarettes, will certainly help offset the billions the Medicare program spends on treating smoke related illnesses. The Medicare dollars collected by participating providers can be spent in local communities fueling the economy.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Preventing Fraud Home Care Path
Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff are consistently monitoring avenues of fraud to help prevent an occurence in the seniors home. Some common avenues of fraud include:
- door to door home improvement sales visitors most often seen following a storm
- phone calls where the caller knows the seniors name, but the senior is unaware of who is calling examples include marketing, or donation requests
- mailings identifying the senior as a winner or promising a gift
- door to door magazine sales, young children passing through town
- visitors claiming to be disabled asking for cash, example visitor is claiming to be deaf and asking for money for college
- any phone calls requesting bank account numbers or social security number
- internet emails requesting personal information to correct a problem for the senior
- person attempting to sell a vehicle to a senior who has no valid drivers license
- visitor selling gap health insurance policy to a senior who is dual eligible, having both Medicare and Medicaid which would pay for needs beyond the Medicare benefit limit
- emails that offer to save money by buying in bulk
- visitors asking for advance payment for next seasons snow removal
- emails offering inexpensive cruise ship trips for payment today
- mailings for auto club member ships for seniors with no valid drivers license
Home Care Path staff encourage the entire community to keep a watchful eye out for scammers working near by. Communication is the key to fraud prevention.
- door to door home improvement sales visitors most often seen following a storm
- phone calls where the caller knows the seniors name, but the senior is unaware of who is calling examples include marketing, or donation requests
- mailings identifying the senior as a winner or promising a gift
- door to door magazine sales, young children passing through town
- visitors claiming to be disabled asking for cash, example visitor is claiming to be deaf and asking for money for college
- any phone calls requesting bank account numbers or social security number
- internet emails requesting personal information to correct a problem for the senior
- person attempting to sell a vehicle to a senior who has no valid drivers license
- visitor selling gap health insurance policy to a senior who is dual eligible, having both Medicare and Medicaid which would pay for needs beyond the Medicare benefit limit
- emails that offer to save money by buying in bulk
- visitors asking for advance payment for next seasons snow removal
- emails offering inexpensive cruise ship trips for payment today
- mailings for auto club member ships for seniors with no valid drivers license
Home Care Path staff encourage the entire community to keep a watchful eye out for scammers working near by. Communication is the key to fraud prevention.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Medicare Intermediaries Home Care Path
An Intermediary is an organization that has entered into an agreement with HCFA the Health Care Finance Administration to process Medicare claims. The money flows from the U.S. Government (Health Care Finance Administration) to the intermediary, down to the provider when a claim is submitted. The intermediary contracts with Medicare certified providers to process the claims under the authority granted by the Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA).
Intermediaries make payments to the Medicare certified providers they have contracted with. Providers can include hospitals, nursing homes (SNF skilled nursing facilities), home health agencies (HHA), and end stage renal disease facilities (ESRD). The amount of payment to any provider is restricted to a resonable cost of the covered services and items.
Intermediaries are mandated to assist in the application of safeguards against unnecessary use of covered services. Covered services and equipment must be deemed medically necessary. Intermediaries must assist the Medicare certified provider to establish and maintain the required fiscal data. Intermediaries serve as a center for communicating with Medicare certified providers. Intermediaries conduct systematic audits of provider records. Intermediaries over see the beneficiary appeal process. Intermediaries can assist providers in the process for becoming Medicare certified.
Certified Medicare providers have agreed in the contract with the intermediary not to charge the patient for items covered by the health insurance program other than allowable charges, deductibles, and coinsurance amounts. Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff assist seniors with organizing important papers. If Medicare is the pay source the provider cannot then charge the patient to collect more money than the Medicare intermediary has agreed to pay. This protects the patient from excessive charges.
Intermediaries make payments to the Medicare certified providers they have contracted with. Providers can include hospitals, nursing homes (SNF skilled nursing facilities), home health agencies (HHA), and end stage renal disease facilities (ESRD). The amount of payment to any provider is restricted to a resonable cost of the covered services and items.
Intermediaries are mandated to assist in the application of safeguards against unnecessary use of covered services. Covered services and equipment must be deemed medically necessary. Intermediaries must assist the Medicare certified provider to establish and maintain the required fiscal data. Intermediaries serve as a center for communicating with Medicare certified providers. Intermediaries conduct systematic audits of provider records. Intermediaries over see the beneficiary appeal process. Intermediaries can assist providers in the process for becoming Medicare certified.
Certified Medicare providers have agreed in the contract with the intermediary not to charge the patient for items covered by the health insurance program other than allowable charges, deductibles, and coinsurance amounts. Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff assist seniors with organizing important papers. If Medicare is the pay source the provider cannot then charge the patient to collect more money than the Medicare intermediary has agreed to pay. This protects the patient from excessive charges.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The Feil Method Home Care Path
The Feil Method is a validating technique used to improve communication with individuals diagnosed with dementia. The Feil method is now used in parts of Europe. Health Care Facilities (hospitals, nursing homes) in the U.S. are beginning to adapt The Feil Method as a model of practice used to communicate with seniors diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Federal data indicates approximately 5 million persons in the United States are living with Alzheimer's disease and dementia like symptoms. Individual's living with Alzheimer's disease and memory loss communicate and behave in different ways. Staff in large health care facilities have been taught to immediately correct the patient, and to treat all persons the same. Administrator's have been taught to direct staff of hospital and nursing homes to serve the consumers in a cohesive, consistent manner. The Quality Improvement Department applauds adherence to a process regardless of the staff person serving the senior.
The Feil Method provides a technique that could be used consistently with all seniors with a memory loss diagnosis. The Feil Method teaches staff to become more verbally and socially engaged with the senior having memory loss. Hospital and nursing home medical staff have shown concern with the extra staff time needed for serving consumers with memory difficulty. Properly serving seniors with memory loss takes extra direct patient care staff and more of the staffs time.
The Feil Method is designed to help direct patient care staff better understand where the person with memory loss is coming from in all aspects of their health- physically, emotionally, and socially. Staff would reduce the frequency of treating behaviors with medication only. With The Feil Method direct patient care staff do not try to fix or correct a confused person. The behavior is seen as an attempt to communicate a need. Staff are challenged to engage the confused person in non-confrontational questions to determine the emotion or need being expressed. Find out what the confused person actually means to communicate to the people around them.
Attempts at greater communication by staff can improve the bond of trust. This improves the quality of care. Everyone wants to be cared for by someone they trust. The senior with memory loss may use less medication. The direct patient care staff will invest more time per confused patient. Staff tend to feel better when they can sense some progress helping improve the seniors quality of life. This can enhance staff morale.
Federal data indicates approximately 5 million persons in the United States are living with Alzheimer's disease and dementia like symptoms. Individual's living with Alzheimer's disease and memory loss communicate and behave in different ways. Staff in large health care facilities have been taught to immediately correct the patient, and to treat all persons the same. Administrator's have been taught to direct staff of hospital and nursing homes to serve the consumers in a cohesive, consistent manner. The Quality Improvement Department applauds adherence to a process regardless of the staff person serving the senior.
The Feil Method provides a technique that could be used consistently with all seniors with a memory loss diagnosis. The Feil Method teaches staff to become more verbally and socially engaged with the senior having memory loss. Hospital and nursing home medical staff have shown concern with the extra staff time needed for serving consumers with memory difficulty. Properly serving seniors with memory loss takes extra direct patient care staff and more of the staffs time.
The Feil Method is designed to help direct patient care staff better understand where the person with memory loss is coming from in all aspects of their health- physically, emotionally, and socially. Staff would reduce the frequency of treating behaviors with medication only. With The Feil Method direct patient care staff do not try to fix or correct a confused person. The behavior is seen as an attempt to communicate a need. Staff are challenged to engage the confused person in non-confrontational questions to determine the emotion or need being expressed. Find out what the confused person actually means to communicate to the people around them.
Attempts at greater communication by staff can improve the bond of trust. This improves the quality of care. Everyone wants to be cared for by someone they trust. The senior with memory loss may use less medication. The direct patient care staff will invest more time per confused patient. Staff tend to feel better when they can sense some progress helping improve the seniors quality of life. This can enhance staff morale.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Energy Workers Home Care Path
Energy workers see the mind, human body, and spirit as integrated and inseperable. At the center of energy work is the perception that you require internal balance-harmony, and external balance with your external environments. Energy workers shift the seniors focus from illness to wellness. The change is from within.
Energy workers begin by teaching the senior the things they focus on will expand. Investing thought in healthfulness will cause the senior to gravitate to more activites of wellness. The constant auto suggestion is "what I am doing to improve my own health". This is more beneficial then thinking my health is entirely in the hands of a disease the medical system has named. Seniors are taught to recognize subtle changes that indicate a gradual progression toward better health. The senior begins to feel a sense of control.
Energy workers provide the senior with sound preliminary steps to participating in various techniques for approaching perceived problems. The participation emphasis incorporates the idea of eternity. The use of eternity is a thought paradigm shift strategy. From the vantage point of an eternal role in existence, participation can be seen as a way to have fun. The senior sees the participation as a new way to see themselves playing out a temporary part in an episode of life. The energey worker is teaching the senior to emphasize consistent participation and fun over competition and winning. The senior begins to recognize the ability to take some time, go at their own speed, and better understand why they are doing things. This removes a level of stress from the equation.
Energy workers encourage the senior to question the meaning in the illness. The senior shifts from why is this disease attacking me, to what is this illness trying to tell me. The senior begins to understand the disease in a different way. The disease is not the problem. The disease is a name for the unpleasant attempts on the body's part to solve the problem. The unpleasant symptoms are being monitored by the medical system to give the senior a sense of the disease's residence in the physical body. Checks on blood pressure, blood sugar, sigmoidoscopy, are simply telling the medical provider the level of residence the undesired symptoms have in the physical body. Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff accompany seniors to visits.
With the help of the energy worker the senior begins to consider the illness as a message from within. The senior begins to explore the sense that illness goes deeper than germ theory. The illness is evaluated as having purpose and meaning in relation to the seniors inner states. Energy workers can consider an unmet need, or a repressed traumatic life event contributing to a thought tendency or unknown habit. The physical body symptom may be receiving energy from an inner state that wants the seniors attention. Change is from within.
Energy workers compliment the efforts of the medical system. Seniors going to an energy worker would be encouraged to continue to attend all medical provider visits. This is a holistic treatment approach. The senior may be visiting a medical doctor, energy worker, podiatrist, nutritionist, diabetic nurse educator, and an endocrinologist, all for a similar problem. Energy workers have a contribution to make to the wellness of seniors.
Energy workers begin by teaching the senior the things they focus on will expand. Investing thought in healthfulness will cause the senior to gravitate to more activites of wellness. The constant auto suggestion is "what I am doing to improve my own health". This is more beneficial then thinking my health is entirely in the hands of a disease the medical system has named. Seniors are taught to recognize subtle changes that indicate a gradual progression toward better health. The senior begins to feel a sense of control.
Energy workers provide the senior with sound preliminary steps to participating in various techniques for approaching perceived problems. The participation emphasis incorporates the idea of eternity. The use of eternity is a thought paradigm shift strategy. From the vantage point of an eternal role in existence, participation can be seen as a way to have fun. The senior sees the participation as a new way to see themselves playing out a temporary part in an episode of life. The energey worker is teaching the senior to emphasize consistent participation and fun over competition and winning. The senior begins to recognize the ability to take some time, go at their own speed, and better understand why they are doing things. This removes a level of stress from the equation.
Energy workers encourage the senior to question the meaning in the illness. The senior shifts from why is this disease attacking me, to what is this illness trying to tell me. The senior begins to understand the disease in a different way. The disease is not the problem. The disease is a name for the unpleasant attempts on the body's part to solve the problem. The unpleasant symptoms are being monitored by the medical system to give the senior a sense of the disease's residence in the physical body. Checks on blood pressure, blood sugar, sigmoidoscopy, are simply telling the medical provider the level of residence the undesired symptoms have in the physical body. Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff accompany seniors to visits.
With the help of the energy worker the senior begins to consider the illness as a message from within. The senior begins to explore the sense that illness goes deeper than germ theory. The illness is evaluated as having purpose and meaning in relation to the seniors inner states. Energy workers can consider an unmet need, or a repressed traumatic life event contributing to a thought tendency or unknown habit. The physical body symptom may be receiving energy from an inner state that wants the seniors attention. Change is from within.
Energy workers compliment the efforts of the medical system. Seniors going to an energy worker would be encouraged to continue to attend all medical provider visits. This is a holistic treatment approach. The senior may be visiting a medical doctor, energy worker, podiatrist, nutritionist, diabetic nurse educator, and an endocrinologist, all for a similar problem. Energy workers have a contribution to make to the wellness of seniors.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
AUTUMN ALLERGIES Home Care Path
In autumn the male plants release pollen in to the air in order to reproduce. When the pollen and other allergy triggers are released, the bodies immune system sees them as foreign invaders. Ragweed is another autumn culprit. Allergic rhinitis more commonly known as hay fever is the bodies initial response to pollen and other substances.
Hay fever like symptoms are triggered when the immune system views harmless pollen or ragweed as dangerous substances that are attacking the body. The system over reacts by releasing chemicals in to the blood stream that inflame the lining of the nasal passages, sinuses, and eyelids which leads to sneezing. Fluid flows to push the pollen out, and the inner nose swells to prevent pollen entry. The immune system is responding in a way to protect the body from a substance that means it no harm.
The first allergy symptoms to show are itchy nose, mouth, eyes, problems with smell, runny nose, sneezing, tearing eye. Symptoms that can follow include nasal congestion, coughing, clogged ears, circles under eyes, puffiness around eyes, irritability, headache, memory problems, and slowed thinking. The constant flow of fluid from the nasal passages can irritate the skin below the nose.
To prevent autumn allergy symptoms begin by spending more time indoors. This reduces your bodies exposure to the cause of the allergy. Antihistamines which are available over the counter block the natural chemicals that the body produces that cause allergy symptoms. Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff assist seniors with shopping and errands. Loratadine, Claratin is an over the counter (no prescription needed) antihistamine. Over the counter decongestants are also used.
Hay fever like symptoms are triggered when the immune system views harmless pollen or ragweed as dangerous substances that are attacking the body. The system over reacts by releasing chemicals in to the blood stream that inflame the lining of the nasal passages, sinuses, and eyelids which leads to sneezing. Fluid flows to push the pollen out, and the inner nose swells to prevent pollen entry. The immune system is responding in a way to protect the body from a substance that means it no harm.
The first allergy symptoms to show are itchy nose, mouth, eyes, problems with smell, runny nose, sneezing, tearing eye. Symptoms that can follow include nasal congestion, coughing, clogged ears, circles under eyes, puffiness around eyes, irritability, headache, memory problems, and slowed thinking. The constant flow of fluid from the nasal passages can irritate the skin below the nose.
To prevent autumn allergy symptoms begin by spending more time indoors. This reduces your bodies exposure to the cause of the allergy. Antihistamines which are available over the counter block the natural chemicals that the body produces that cause allergy symptoms. Home Care Path www.homecarepath.com staff assist seniors with shopping and errands. Loratadine, Claratin is an over the counter (no prescription needed) antihistamine. Over the counter decongestants are also used.
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