Open enrollment for Medicare plans

It’s almost time to make sure the Medicare plan you have will be the best plan for you next year.
Whether you have Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage or a Part D prescription drug plan, you have one opportunity each year to make any changes you want. This opportunity is Medicare’s annual open enrollment period.

Open enrollment begins on October 15 and ends on December 7. Any changes you make will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.

Medicare plan benefits and your needs can change on an annual basis, so use the open enrollment period to compare your options and get the right fit.

During this past year, have you: Changed the medications you take? Been diagnosed with a new medical condition? Any of those changes could mean your current Medicare plan no longer meets your needs.
Medicare plans also change. The costs of your plan can go up or down, and prescription drugs can be added or dropped from the list of drugs (the formulary) included in your plan. Some Medicare plans change the benefits they offer or stop offering coverage in a particular location.

Because of such changes, you should check your current Medicare plan and, if necessary, switch to another one that better supports your needs.

Be sure to contact your insurance agent to discuss what may be best for you.

Day of the Dead Celebration

YWCA Health & Wellnes Fair

Friday, October 26 from 9 AM - 12 PM at 8561 N 61st Ave in Glendale AZ 85302.

Vendors will be there to provide information to the public.  Heritage Funeral Chapel and Valley of the Sun Medicaid Planning will be there to answer your questions.

Miss Me - But let me go

When I come to the end of the road,
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room.

Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little - but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.

Remember the love that we once shared,

Miss me - but let me go
For this journey that we all must take
And each must go alone

It's all a part of the Master's plan
 A step on the road home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know,
And bury your sorrows in doing a good deed.

Miss me  - but let me go

Author anonymous

Health & Resource Fair

Sunwest Heritage Funeral Home is hosting a Health & Resource Fair Saturday, September 29, 2012

 from 9 – 11:30 AM at their location 12525 N.W. Grand Ave in El Mirage, AZ.

The funeral home wants to be known for educating the community.  

 By bringing resources to the community individuals will gain knowledge of what is available to them.  As well as improving someone’s quality of life by getting services they may not have know were available to them.

Necrophobia Fear of death or dead things

Did you know that fear of death is  between 10 and 12 of the top most fears?

To many,  dying is the unknown and most try to prevent it.  Dying is part of the cycle of life and we all are headed that way.  How you live your life and how you prepare only you can make those choices.  I see people in their 70s trying to regain their youth by exercising, eating healthier and trying to avoid stress. 

There are many sites (Internet) that can tell you when you will die, how you will die, etc... just Goggle "death". 

Don't wait until you have had a major medical complication or have your loved one go through a rough patch to think about dying. 

Pre-planning or making pre-arrangements for burial is designed to protect your family from unnecessary pain and stress during a time of loss.  To made matters worse, an immediate financial strain is placed on surviving family members.

Prearrangement is one of the most meaningful gifts of love you can provide for your family.  

Cash Advance Items

Cash Advance Items are charges that usually fall to the family at the time of death in addition to funeral home expense.  They require cash on hand to pay for them and include expenses such as flowers from the florist and charges from the newspaper for obituaries.  As you can see, these are funeral related costs, but the charges do not originate from the funeral home itself.

The good news is, you can spare your family from the burden of coming up with the cash for these out of pocket expenses by making arrangements ahead of time in your prepaid funeral contract.  You can even pay for these expenses over time, along with the rest of your prearranged funeral.

The funds you set aside today will grow along with your prepaid funeral contract in order to guard against inflation.

Examples of Cash Advance Items include:

  Death certificate                                                  
  Transportation expenses
  Obituary and death notice fee                               
  Catering for luncheon or reception
  Clergy honorariums                                               
  Vocalist                                                               
  Police escort
  Clothing                                                                
  Flowers
  Grave opening/closing, Monument/marker
  Unforeseen expenses

If you do not have these items in your contract let your family know.  Your gift to your family would be  to get a prepaid funeral arrangement and take the burden away from your loved by making the decisions and choices for what you want.

Why you should be making decisions early

Did you know that prearrangement is perhaps one of the most meaningful gifts of love you can provide for you family?  Talking about funerals is hard for some people but we are all headed that way.

Getting together before an illness or a devastating crisis should be your number one concern when it comes to pre-planning for a funeral.  Not only will you have peace of mind but your wishes will be written down so that it does not fall on your loved ones.

Do not wait until it is too late.  With pre-planning you can pay and set the price of the goods at current prices, you can make payments so that your loved ones do not have to sacrifice to come up with the money.

As of 2009:

• Number of deaths: 2,437,163 (The preliminary number of deaths in the US for 2010 was 2,465,936)
• Death rate: 793.8 deaths per 100,000 population
• Life expectancy: 78.5 years
• 4 in 10 people will live to 120

Where to get RX help

Everyone wants to be healthy, but as anyone who lacks health insurance and prescription drug coverage can tell you, the road to good health is not always easy.

In Arizona, there is an average of 1,218,700 of uninsured residents; 303,933 unemployed residents, and 2,770,804 cases of common chronic diseases.

These overwhelming statistics amount to $17.4 billion in productivity loss, $4.1 billion costs of treatment, and $21.5 billion total cost of chronic diseases.

Arizona's current cost containing measures, including a wait list, will continue to have an impact on residents, providers, community based organizations, and local communities. Without access to critical prescription drugs, many of our state's low income chronically ill residents will go without life saving medication, posing significant community and individual costs in form of higher rates of illness, loss of productivity, and medical costs. Providers will face a greater burden of increase use of services without the necessary resources to match the need.

Cost controlling measures taken by state officials are not new. However, these options of establishing wait lists, changing clinical and financial eligibility, managing prescription utilization isn't solving the problem.

In moving beyond the unprecedented financial crisis, there are steps that can be taken to address the immediate need and the long term stability of our needy residents.

Where to Get Help

Patient 1st Med Solutions, LLC (Patient 1st) has identified the best strategy that includes advocacy at the state level, and creating working partnerships with pharmaceutical companies' drug assistance programs, which can be the best solution to address the gap between a great number of needy patients and meeting their need.

Patient 1st is a prescription medication and healthcare advocacy organization that connects low-income uninsured and underinsured families to patient assistance programs (PAP) offered by pharmaceutical companies who manufacture the critical prescription medications.

The purpose of the turnkey program is to provide a single point of access to over 2,500 medication treatments that prevent health deterioration of those living with chronic and life-threatening diseases.

Patient 1st's comprehensive advocacy services make a substantial and an affordable contribution to bridge the existing gap between the programs who offer no-cost or low-cost medication assistance and those in need of them.

Private Practice and Health Centers

While recognizing their high value to patients, private practices and health centers reported that the PAPs are administratively burdensome to access, due to extensive paperwork burden and difficulties obtaining all required documentation for needy patients. Typically, physicians do not have the time to assist their patients in accessing the programs.

The Solution

Patient 1st wishes to continue to serve as the portal that helps patients find the programs that offer the assistance and access to more prescribed drugs. Patient 1st's effort is to move forward with its advocacy program to address the immediate need.

The Results

To achieve better care, better health, lower prescription drug costs, and better patient outcomes.

Patient Outcomes:

• Pave our communities' way for increased medical compliance.
• Enable communities to comply with their physicians' therapy/regimen to manage their disease(s) and improve their health.
• Offer the opportunity to reduce and/or eliminate costly Emergency Room (ER) visits.
• Provide access to low-cost or no-cost prescribed medication for a small monthly administrative fee of $10.
• Restore our communities' dignity by enabling them to afford the program and keep them from getting sick.
• Ease physicians' concerns about prescribing brand-name medications that offer a more successful treatment with a better prognosis.
• Assure physicians that their most needy patients will, (1) have access to the prescribed medication(s) as quickly as necessary, and (2) continue to have access to this vital medication for the entire length of their treatment, therefore; greatly improving their overall health regardless of its cost.
• Ensure compliance and less frequent critical conditions.
• Empower patients to better manage their chronic conditions.
• Increase patients' participation and physician collaboration.

Preventive care - such as regular doctor visits and life-saving medicines - is essential to good health. By working together, we can help make these essentials available to all.

Please HELP US spread the word about the Patient 1st program!

Not all Power of Attorneys are created equal

Power of Attorneys (POA) are useful documents to have when you can no longer make financial and medical decisions. The problem is that most documents are not prepared correctly or the verbiage does not fit the situation.

For example: does your financial (Durable) Power of Attorney allow you to create a Trust? Does it allow you to gift to yourself or others? Apply for Medicaid or Estate Planning? And many other complications.

Last week I met a young lady that needed help for her mother. She was so happy because she thought she had covered all her bases. She had the correct POA for Health Care, Mental Health and Living Will (http://www.azag.gov/life_care/POA_HealthCare.pdf). But she had taken a Durable POA from the web (one page document) and because the one paragraph stated it covered everything she thought it meant everything.

Well, the bank we went to to get an Income Only Trust read it and said, "this does not give you the power to open or create a Trust; you need to have your mother sign one giving you permission". Except, her mother is no longer capable of signing any document and in order to qualify for State assistance this trust was needed. We were able to resolve the issue but sometimes things can go in a different direction such as needing a Guardianship/Conservator ship which is an expense that could be avoided.

Please do not go to the Web to pick a legal document that is so important. Get professional help, make sure your document is clear about your powers.