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December 23, 2009

Long-Term Care Insurance

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It is a very important decision when you are face with the question of whether to buy long-term health insurance or not.  Although long-term health insurance can be very expensive and the majority of people have trouble affording it, the question is can you afford to pay privately out of your pocketbook for long-term health care in facilities?  The average costs of long-term health care services on a daily basis are around $275.00 to $350.00, which works out to about 0,000 to 5,000 dollars per annum.Estimates of a person resides in a nursing home today average to two years.

In New York, home health care is expensive as well with the average costs between $20.00 and $30.00 per hour ,depends where you live upstate or downstate.  Most people require about twenty hours each week of in home care; therefore, these expenses also add up quickly and can run around ,000 to ,000 for a year’s care.  Unfortunately, as we age the chances of needing this type of care is normal with most of us requiring it.  Most people will, at some stage, enter a nursing home during their lives.This is just a simple and unpleasant fact of life and aging.

Long-term care can consists of a lot of things but most of it involves chronic or disabling conditions that require constant care and supervision. Usually, long-term care means being cared for in a nursing home, having nursing care brought into your own home, but all of these care options involve assisted living in the form of helping the patient to dress, bath, eat, and take their medications properly.  Today, many services fall under the definition of long-term care such as nursing facilities, institutional care, home health care, personal care, respite or hospice care, and non-institutional assisted care living programs.

In New York State, nursing homes are licensed under the Public Health Law as nursing facilities that provide long-term care services for people as a different option to that of being placed in a nursing home.  This home health care option allows nursing services to be delivered directly to the patient’s home environment and can include home health aide services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, skilled nursing care, and speech therapy.

The usual care they provide consists of receiving organized nursing services such as personal hygiene, feeding,dressing,nutritional guidance and meal support, and other health related tasks to keep the patient at home with their care.

December 13, 2009

Health Insurance Reasons

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The recent changes in the medical health system it seems will help many Americans, not just New York entrepreneurs to finally receive comprehensive affordable health insurance. Majority of insurance corporations is creating a new and innovative way to lessen the cost of the annual insurance premiums to make it available to all citizens. These new insurance plans through the assistance of the New York Legislature have created more affordable insurance policies regarding personal, individual, group, family, student, and small business, all available to the residents of New York State.

Of course this is with the assistance of government intervention that many new health plans have come into being. This is to introduce the combination of two very distinct insurance plans.

  1. High deductible health plans or HDHP
  2. Health Savings Accounts or HSA

These two low cost health insurance plans afford the self-employed individual to complete medical coverage at a cost much lower than any insurance plan in the recent past. Depositing money into the HSA account is tax deductible and is to pay for insurance deductibles when the individual is in need. Once the deductible amount has been reached by the individual entrepreneur, the high deductible insurance policy takes over and pays for the remainder of your mounting medical bills. This will afford the individual with the type of insurance plan with comprehensive health benefits.

The entrepreneur will have the opportunity to adjust the amount of the individual health insurance premium by raising or lowering the deductible. The deductible amounts range from as low as 0.00 up to ,000.00 and the decision is up to the individual. Medical insurance is the health insurance in New York that pays for all or part of the self-employed’s medical bills. The individual health insurance policy is a policy that is renewable annually between a particular insurance corporation and an individual or family.

The individual policy-holder pays an annual deductible inclusive with a co-payment with their medical claims. For example, a hospital stay might expect the first 00.00 pre-pay up front from the policyholder. Inclusive with the initial payment will be an added 0.00 per night stay in a hospital bed. Although most individuals are aware of the out-of-pocket expenses every year, there is also a lifetime maximum.

The purpose of the health insurance is to aid entrepreneurs to cover their medical care cost which usually include doctor visits, hospital stays, home care, surgery, various procedures, and other necessary treatments.

Flu Shot Prepration for the Self-Employed and the Small Business Owners

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One way of keeping health insurance costs down is to practice preventive medicine.  When people do their part to prevent illnesses from happening they in turn, help not only themselves from becoming sick, they prevent contagious diseases from affecting their family, co-workers, and the community at large.Preventive measures can save money for doctor visits and medical treatments.

The high cost for health care affect everyone, but it especially affects the self-employed and the small business owner.Small businesses pay very high premiums for their policies already but that is only half of the picture.  When a self-employed individual is out of work that means loss of salary especially if the self-employed person has no one else to run to business.  When you are working independently you can lose your contracts because you are too ill to work.

No one can predict one will get ill, buf if you take the necessary precautions to keep yourself healthy you will be able to continue working. As a necessary precaution for a self-employed individual is to make sure you get your flu shots.Several of the federal government agencies have announced that they will be helping business owners in preparation for the H1N1 and regular flu vaccines in 2009.  It is important for everyone’s health care to make sure that all employees remain healthy.

In a small business, whether there is one employee or 20 all employees are needed to keep the work running smoothly and no small business owner can afford to have anyone, including themselves off from work because of the flu.  Furthermore, just one person with the flu could pass the virus on and infect everyone.  This would cripple production and in small companies it can cause a stand still.

Small business owners concerned about the health care of their employees should encourage everyone to get the flu vaccine, wash their hands thoroughly in order not to spread any virus, and consider canceling any non essential travel or meetings where they can pick up the flu from others.

On the one hand, the self employed individual should advise their own employees who have the flu to stay at home in order not to infect others.  Wherever possible employees could work from home and thus still have some wages to fall back on. If one of your employees are displaying the symptoms of the flu, it is best to send them home rather than have your whole staff infected.  It would be beneficial for the small business owner to cover flu shots or partial flu shots and have a nurse come into the business to administer treatment.It is great if the small business owner has a sick leave insurance. In the long run the consequences for time off work for both employee and employer will run much higher than the cost of carrying a policy.  Prevention is the best medicine and proper insurance and flu shots can save your company from losing irretrievable lost profits and financial setbacks.

December 11, 2009

Benefits of the Family Health Plus Plan

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Once you are eligible and qualify to receive Family Health Plus, you are covered under a comprehensive health insurance plan that provides you with the services of a regular doctor, regular checkups and examinations, and visits to a specialist, if needed.The coverage, which is under this plan is quite extensive and includes family planning, reproductive health services, dental services (offered through health plan), radiation therapy and chemotherapy, hemodialysis therapy, hospice care, equipment and supplies for diabetics, chemical dependence services, behaviour health services – mental health treatment, emergency room services, ambulance services, various medical equipment, hearing and visual services, speech services, smoking cessation, prescription drugs, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, and physician services.

The prescription drug portion of this plan is administered through the Medicaid program now so anyone on the previous Family Health Plus program will have their drugs covered as before, although they may require authorization first, and pharmacy benefits now include prescription drugs, insulin and diabetic supplies and equipment, smoking cessation product – over the counter as well, various over the counter medications from the Medicaid preferred drug list, hearing aids and batteries, and enthral formulae.

To receive these benefits you must use a New York State Benefit Identification Card.  Family Health Plus programs are provided courtesy of managed care plans and you must select a participating plan when you are applying for the Family Health Plus plan.  At the time of enrolling all efforts will be made to help you pick a plan that already includes your current physician and once enrolled, you will receive your New York State Benefit Identification Card for the pharmaceutical portion of your plan.

When choosing which health plan to go with, you need to take into account who your current physician is and what plan his services fall under, what services you and your family will require, and what health plans are currently available to you.  You must make sure that the doctor you wish to see is in the health plan you choose, as it is hard to change plans once enrolled.If you don’t choose the plan that includes your current physician or doctor, you will not be able to use this services, or use the clinics or hospitals you formerly go to; as your doctor will not be registered with the new medical facilities if you chose a different health plan than the one your doctor is registered with.

For additional information, contact Vista Health Solutions for your Family Health Plus plan at 1-888-215-4045.

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December 6, 2009

How to Apply for the Family Health Plus Plan

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Unlike many other plans to apply for the Family Health Plus Plan for health insurance you will be required to have a personal interview at which time you will also be required to complete an application form and provide various pieces of information.  At the same time, you will be expected to pick which health plan you are interested in being covered under.It is necessary to know which plan your current doctor is covered and under which facilities and services work best for both you and your family members.The Family Health Plus plan has special facilitators for enrolment available near your work or home location to make the enrolment process easier for you and to answer your questions, and some of these facilitators are even available after hours and on weekends, at locations throughout the State, to ease your concerns.

Often local social services officers and district representative are available to help you with your application into the Family Health Plus Plan, as well.Either of these facilitators will be happy to make an appointment with you to help make your choice of health plan as well as complete your application form.  To find out where to call to set up an appointment in your area, click on your county below:

 

Albany Allegany Bronx Broome Cattaraugus Cayuga Chautauqua Chemung Chenango ClintonColumbia Cortland Delaware Dutchess Erie Essex Franklin Fulton Genesee Greene HamiltonHerkimer Jefferson Kings (Brooklyn) Lewis Livingston Madison Monroe Montgomery NassauNew York (Manhattan) Niagara Oneida Onondaga Ontario Orange Orleans Oswego OtsegoPutnam Queens Rensselaer Richmond (Staten Island) Rockland Saratoga SchenectadySchoharie Schuyler Seneca St. Lawrence Steuben Suffolk Sullivan Tioga Tompkins UlsterWarren Washington Wayne Westchester Wyoming Yates

 

During your interview with the facilitator, you will be asked questions about your family, income, resources, illnesses, injuries, housing expenses, residency, and other health insurance.You will need to supply proof of residency, social security number, proof of birth and financial resources, as well as other documentation as needed by the facilitator.  After the application is complete, the facilitator will let you know if you are eligible and if you qualify for the health plan, you chose.

You will receive a letter notifying you that you are eligible and what health plan you have chosen, as well as a welcome letter and your member ID card in the mail.If you need services before your member ID card arrives, your welcome letter can be used in place at the doctor’s clinic or hospital in your health plan.  You will also receive a handbook about your health plan, which will explain to you what services you are covered for and how to get health care.After, you will then receive a Benefit ID card, which will give you access to youor prescription drug benefits.

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