Why Do Now For Our Clients?

As we become older, issues with our health begin to take affect and finding ways to fund for that care is becoming even more difficult. In the article “Some Elders Must Take Drastic Measures to Obtain Long-term Care”, national magazine journalist Mary A. Fischer (2011) states that many Americans must face demeaning and disempowering choices in order to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare—federal funded health insurance programs— such as refusing to pay for a spouses institutionalization, divorce, and spending down assets. The author argues that these choices leave the healthy spouse with decreased funds to plan for their own retirement expense (Fisher, 2011). Working in the health care field for 4 years, along with my family’s own personal experiences I can relate to this article, since I have seen a variety of ways that federal funded health insurances have been unable to meet the expectations and demands of its beneficiaries.

1. As a marketing consultant for a chain of hair salons, you have been asked to evaluate the kids’ market as a potential segment for the chain to target. Evaluate the kids’ segment against the four criteria for successful market segmentation.

The client has had a strong support system in the past and is open to creating another one. This is strength because it demonstrates that the client is open reaching out to others in times of need and is a resiliency factor.

There should be greater oversight on the program’s overall administration. Those charged with determining eligibility and administering the program need to receive more training and education on the more obscure program regulations. A personal example of the systems shortcomings on training and the regulations is with the status of persons residing in more than one household rule. During the time of eligibility, the applicant was newly married, but not living with spouse as he lived out of state and was denied benefits. In Chapter 1 of the Alabama Department of Human Resources Points of Eligibility the government lays out rules about the status of a person residing in more than one household. “When an individual resides in more than one household for a portion of the same month, he/she can be included in only one of the households. Generally the determining factor for which household the above individual is to be included shall be the household in which the individual eats a majority of meals.” (Points of

This was comforting to know that I wouldn’t have to divorce my husband if he needed long term care, and instead some of the excess money might be diverted to me. Of course in the long run my husband passed away before he needed long term care, but these people sure made me feel a lot better about the future knowing that there was a law form that could take care of all my needs.

Any proposal that considers decreasing government spending is likely to raise costs for some beneficiaries while lowering costs for others. Provisions have been included to assure affordability for the most vulnerable beneficiaries, and cap out of pocket expenses for all beneficiaries. While it is difficult to distinguish between necessary and unnecessary utilization, these issues are addressed in the redesign through lower cost sharing for high value services and subsidies for low-income beneficiaries.

Democrats are running the bulk of the television campaign ads this year that deal with taxes, The Wall Street Journal reports. Of some 43,000 spots than ran in House races through September, 63 percent were Democratic. Delaying Social Security not only increases an individual’s own benefit, but can also increase the benefit to a surviving spouse. The transition from DB plans to DC plans will make more spouses vulnerable to the risk of running out of money later in life; the qualified joint and survivor annuity, which is mandated in DB plans, is often not part of a DC plan offering. The larger Social Security income survivor benefit could help offset potential health care costs, nursing home costs, and everyday expenses. There are a number of little-known claiming strategies available to allow married couples to take advantage of survivor benefits as well as the rules surrounding the claiming of spousal benefits. Many of these disparities can be attributed to the fact that the United States is the only major industrialized nation without universal access to health care. Finally, the costs of reform at full implementation have been very close to original

Social Security is facing pressure to lower benefits… due to longer life-spans, an overall population increase …the Baby Boomers beginning to reach retirement age, and the increase in the number of people receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits. If the system continues as-is, the total benefits will eventually surpass the amount of taxes paid into the system by younger workers. If the system is not altered at some point full benefits will not be paid as promised. (13)

In trying to keep the flow of Social Security benefits without cutting entitlements due to those who do collect Social Security or rely on Medicare and Medicaid for aid is not easy. “GOP leaders and the White House are pushing structural reforms to Social Security and Medicare that would avert the double-digit increases expected next year for many beneficiaries in both programs while saving billions in other areas. A key piece of the budget deal and one of its costliest provisions staves off a 52 percent premium hike that would have hit 8 million Medicare Part B enrollees next year. That fix, which is the result of a glitch in federal benefits law, is estimated to cost nearly $8 billion. The deal would also prevent a 20 percent across-the-board cut in Social Security disability benefits for 11 million people next year, which was the result of a quickly drying-up trust fund. “We have extended the solvency of Social Security Disability Insurance and protected millions of seniors from a significant increase in their Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles next year,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a statement praising the deal Tuesday morning” (Ferris,

Post Entitlement workloads had grown by almost 25 percent over the previous 10 years, from 80 million to 100 million actions, primarily for program integrity activities such as SSI redeterminations and CDRs. (Social Security Act."2015)

Some negative aspects of the 1965 Social Security Amendments (Medicare/Medicare) are many low-income individuals are not receiving Medicaid benefits to ease the gap between receiving Medicare (Rowland, Summer, 2015). With about 20 million individuals who receive Medicare with income below 200% FLP, between 11 million and 13 million are not receiving any benefits from Medicare premiums or the sharing of the cost between Medicare and Medicaid saving programs (Rowland, Summer, 2015). Also, individuals above the 135 FLP do not qualify for Medicare assistance unless their medical expenses are large or they meet the qualifications in other ways for Medicaid (Rowland, Summer, 2015). However, in many cases, not all individuals below the poverty

This report was written on November 20, 2015, by Brittney Bowman, using sources from the VU library website. In this report, I will discuss the presently debated topic of the future of the Social Security program. I will do this by providing information on the history of the program, exploring the current standing of the program and its related uncertainty, and discussing the future of the program. The purpose of this report is to fulfill the business report assignment requirements by exploring the future of Social Security and what events have brought the program to where it is now. The problem with this issue is that due to conflicting information being reported, the current state of the Social Security program is unknown and is rumored to be running out of funds with the program reaching bankruptcy in the very near future. However, this is still debated upon between groups on whether the program is actually going broke. Regardless, the Social Security Program has been a very common source of income for retirees for nearly a hundred years and it will very soon need to be revitalized to accommodate growing need and demand.

The story I choose to cover this quarter is “With April 29th Deadline Looming, Social Security Leaves 1.2 Million Boomers Hanging”. Recently a new law “The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” was passed in November, that states that if you turn 66 between the time period of April 30 – 31st you have four options to on how you can file your retirement benefit. “Option one you can file for your retirement benefit and suspend its collection (since the new law does not preclude anyone doing that on an ongoing basis), option two provide anyone benefits on your work record while your retirement benefit remained in suspension, option three collect benefits on anyone else’s work record while your benefit was in suspension, and option four could not change your mind down the road and request all suspended benefits be paid in a lump sum (Kotlikoff, Laurence )”.

In Bonnie Smith-Yackel’s essay “My Mother Never Worked” she passionately defends her mother after Social Security refuses to grant her death benefit check. Yackel does not realize that Social Security fairly distributes benefits to contributing Americans. Social Security was reasonable to not granting benefits to a woman who never contributed as a wage earner. It would not be fair if benefits were granted to a fraud who never paid wage taxes compared to wage earners who do. Americans who abuse Social Security benefits by committing fraud is unethical and not to mention illegal. Americans that are in desperate need for Social Security benefits require it far more than frauds. By eliminating fraud the government can properly grant social benefits to hard working Americans. Social Security benefits should be permitted to Americans that work and provide back to their country or they are disabled. Hard-working citizens that pay their duties will receive back from benefits, including employees that are qualified as disabled. Benefits should not be granted to any citizen that makes no contribution to their country such as, tax deductions from their wages. Furthermore, Social Security needs to reach out to the majority which is the poverty-stricken. By informing impecunious people and immigrants of Social Security it could save them from the poverty they suffer from. Even though, Social Security relieves some citizens from a financial burden there are still many improvements to be

Customer service is developed by the patient’s satisfaction and the effect it has on the health care system. Customer service is the face of every business and specially the health care system which it provides leaders with an idea of how the business should look or act. The healthcare systems benefit from the opportunities made by patients. Patients should be the instrument to provide guidance while the physician advocates for the patient’s health. Customer service is a support system between the patient and the physician and without that support system then there is not guidance for a better lifestyle for patients. This is a competitive market that have a few limitations and those limitations start with customer service in healthcare and how to provide the best care for patients. These challenges that the healthcare system face will overcome those obstacles and bring out their best principles to make the system better. Patient centered care relates to customer service and should be recognized as the central focus. High- quality healthcare systems provide satisfaction to patients to show that their experience will be well worth it because their physicians care about their patient’s health.