Hey old farts..how many over 50 yrs?
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ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Oh we aren't free yet; 'legalization' that can still put you in jail isn't freedom and we've watched our country turn fascist and that's not freedom either.
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
5 Ways You May Be Fooling Yourself About Your Retirement Plan
Walter Updegrave – Money - Feb 02, 2017
Sixty-three percent of workers are very or somewhat confident of having enough money for a comfortable post-career life, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's latest Retirement Confidence Survey. But when you look at how little many people have stashed away for retirement—the average 401(k) balance is less than $100,000—you have to wonder how accurate their self-assessment is. So how can you tell whether you're being realistic about your retirement planning efforts or deluding yourself? Here are five ways. Even if you think you're doing a good job preparing for retirement, you may be fooling yourself if:
1. You don't do periodic retirement check-ups. Saving regularly—ideally, about 15% or so of pay per year—is the cornerstone of any retirement strategy. But saving alone isn't enough. You also need to ensure that you're actually making progress toward a secure retirement and, if not, take steps to get on track.
2. You lack a disciplined investing plan. If your idea of a savvy retirement strategy is investing in whatever funds have topped the performance charts lately, "diversifying" your portfolio with every new arcane ETF that comes along, or trying to time the market to avoid downturns and capitalize on rallies, then you don't really have a strategy at all. You're winging it, and jeopardizing your retirement prospects by doing so.
3. You figure you can skimp on saving by working longer. True, spending a few extra years on the job can significantly improve your retirement prospects by giving your nest egg more time to grow, boosting the size of your Social Security benefit, and reducing the number of years your savings have to support you. Problem is, even if you want to extend your career, the choice may not be yours. EBRI figures show that nearly half of retirees ended up leaving their jobs earlier than they'd planned, usually due to health problems or disabilities, downsizing or layoffs at their company, or having to care for a spouse or other family member.
4. You think you can make up for an undersized nest egg by working in retirement. Working on and off or part-time can be a good way to generate extra cash in retirement and, in so doing, reduce the risk of depleting your savings too soon. And surveys routinely show that two-thirds or more of people expect to work for pay after they leave their regular career. But that expectation may not square with reality. In fact, EBRI data show that only slightly more than a quarter of retirees have actually worked for pay after they retired.
5. You don't have a plan to turn savings into income. Building an adequate nest egg during your working years is only half the job of preparing for a secure retirement. The other half is making sure the savings you've accumulated during your career plus other resources (Social Security; a pension, if any; home equity; and any other assets) can sustain you throughout a retirement that may very well last into your 90s. And the only way to ensure you're adequately addressing that task is to create a comprehensive retirement income plan.
That plan should include doing a retirement budget to estimate the expenses you'll face once the paychecks stop, deciding the age at which you should claim Social Security and settling on a reasonable withdrawal rate that can give you the income you'll need without depleting your nest egg too soon.
http://time.com/money/4655580/retirement-planning-5-mistakes-fooling-yourself/
https://www.ebri.org/
http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/ChrisMarkowski/retirement-reality-economy-savings/2016/08/23/id/744834/
horribleherk
Well-Known Member
me too if it won't burn down it will blow up lol
horribleherk
Well-Known Member
I was working in vegas when he made the jump there
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
from Kaiser Health News, 3/9/2017
Under a new federal law, hospitals across the country must now alert Medicare patients when they are getting observation care and why they were not admitted — even if they stay in the hospital a few nights. For years, seniors often found out only when they got surprise bills for the services Medicare doesn’t cover for observation patients, including some drugs and expensive nursing home care.
The notice may cushion the shock but probably not settle the issue.
When patients are too sick to go home but not sick enough to be admitted, observation care gives doctors time to figure out what’s wrong. It is considered an outpatient service, like a doctor’s visit. Unless their care falls under a new Medicare bundled-payment category, observation patients pay a share of the cost of each test, treatment or other services.
And if they need nursing home care to recover their strength, Medicare won’t pay for it because that coverage requires a prior hospital admission of at least three consecutive days. Observation time doesn’t count. (this is the important part, BB)
“Letting you know would help, that’s for sure,” said Suzanne Mitchell, of Walnut Creek, Calif. When her 94-year-old husband fell and was taken to a hospital last September, she was told he would be admitted. It was only after seven days of hospitalization that she learned he had been an observation patient. He was due to leave the next day and enter a nursing home, which Medicare would not cover. She still doesn’t know why.
“If I had known [he was in observation care], I would have been on it like a tiger because I knew the consequences by then, and I would have done everything I could to insist that they change that outpatient/inpatient,” said Mitchell, a retired respiratory therapist. “I have never, to this day, been able to have anybody give me the written policy the hospital goes by to decide.” Her husband was hospitalized two more times and died in December. His nursing home sent a bill for nearly $7,000 that she has not yet paid.
Although the notice is — as of last Wednesday — one of the conditions hospitals must meet in order to get paid for treating Medicare patients, the most controversial aspect of observation care hasn’t changed. Medicare patients typically account for about 42% of hospital patients.
“The observation care notice is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t fix the conundrum some people find themselves in when they need nursing home care following an observation stay,” said Stacy Sanders, federal policy director at the Medicare Rights Center, a consumer advocacy group.
Medicare officials have wrestled for years with complaints about observation care from patients, members of Congress, doctors and hospitals. In 2013, officials issued the “two-midnight” rule. With some exceptions, when doctors expect patients to stay in the hospital for more than two-midnights, they should be admitted, although doctors can still opt for observation.
But the rule has not reduced observation visits, the Health and Human Services inspector general reported in December. “An increased number of beneficiaries in outpatient stays pay more and have limited access to [nursing home] services than they would as inpatients,” the IG found.
The new notice drafted by Medicare officials must be provided after the patient has received observation care for 24 hours and no later than 36 hours. Although there’s a space for patients or their representatives to sign it “to show you received and understand this notice,” the instructions for providers say signing is optional.
Some hospitals already notify observation patients, either voluntarily or in more than half a dozen states that require it, including California and New York.
Atlanta’s Emory University hospital system added a list of reasons to the form that its doctors can check off, “to minimize confusion and improve clarity,” said Michael Ross, medical director of observation medicine and a professor of emergency medicine at Emory. Emory also set up a special help line for patients and their families who want more information, he said.
The form also explains that observation care is covered under Medicare’s Part B benefit, and patients “generally pay a copayment for each outpatient hospital service” and the amounts can vary. But Ross said “this wording may be antiquated.” Medicare revised some billing codes last year to combine several observation services into one category. That means beneficiaries are responsible for one copayment if the observation stay meets certain criteria.
The new payment package also includes coverage for some prescription drugs to treat the emergency condition that brought the observation patient to the hospital, said Debby Rogers, the California Hospital Association’s vice president of clinical performance and transformation. Other drugs for that condition will be billed under Part B with separate copayments, she said.
Yet, Ross said, most observation visits are less expensive for beneficiaries than a hospital admission if they stay a short time, which the inspector general’s report also concluded. Doctors should “front load” tests and treatment so that the decision to admit or send the patient home can be made quickly. “If you get them out within a day, they are more likely to go back to independent living as opposed to needing nursing home care,” he said.
Under a new federal law, hospitals across the country must now alert Medicare patients when they are getting observation care and why they were not admitted — even if they stay in the hospital a few nights. For years, seniors often found out only when they got surprise bills for the services Medicare doesn’t cover for observation patients, including some drugs and expensive nursing home care.
The notice may cushion the shock but probably not settle the issue.
When patients are too sick to go home but not sick enough to be admitted, observation care gives doctors time to figure out what’s wrong. It is considered an outpatient service, like a doctor’s visit. Unless their care falls under a new Medicare bundled-payment category, observation patients pay a share of the cost of each test, treatment or other services.
And if they need nursing home care to recover their strength, Medicare won’t pay for it because that coverage requires a prior hospital admission of at least three consecutive days. Observation time doesn’t count. (this is the important part, BB)
“Letting you know would help, that’s for sure,” said Suzanne Mitchell, of Walnut Creek, Calif. When her 94-year-old husband fell and was taken to a hospital last September, she was told he would be admitted. It was only after seven days of hospitalization that she learned he had been an observation patient. He was due to leave the next day and enter a nursing home, which Medicare would not cover. She still doesn’t know why.
“If I had known [he was in observation care], I would have been on it like a tiger because I knew the consequences by then, and I would have done everything I could to insist that they change that outpatient/inpatient,” said Mitchell, a retired respiratory therapist. “I have never, to this day, been able to have anybody give me the written policy the hospital goes by to decide.” Her husband was hospitalized two more times and died in December. His nursing home sent a bill for nearly $7,000 that she has not yet paid.
Although the notice is — as of last Wednesday — one of the conditions hospitals must meet in order to get paid for treating Medicare patients, the most controversial aspect of observation care hasn’t changed. Medicare patients typically account for about 42% of hospital patients.
“The observation care notice is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t fix the conundrum some people find themselves in when they need nursing home care following an observation stay,” said Stacy Sanders, federal policy director at the Medicare Rights Center, a consumer advocacy group.
Medicare officials have wrestled for years with complaints about observation care from patients, members of Congress, doctors and hospitals. In 2013, officials issued the “two-midnight” rule. With some exceptions, when doctors expect patients to stay in the hospital for more than two-midnights, they should be admitted, although doctors can still opt for observation.
But the rule has not reduced observation visits, the Health and Human Services inspector general reported in December. “An increased number of beneficiaries in outpatient stays pay more and have limited access to [nursing home] services than they would as inpatients,” the IG found.
The new notice drafted by Medicare officials must be provided after the patient has received observation care for 24 hours and no later than 36 hours. Although there’s a space for patients or their representatives to sign it “to show you received and understand this notice,” the instructions for providers say signing is optional.
Some hospitals already notify observation patients, either voluntarily or in more than half a dozen states that require it, including California and New York.
Atlanta’s Emory University hospital system added a list of reasons to the form that its doctors can check off, “to minimize confusion and improve clarity,” said Michael Ross, medical director of observation medicine and a professor of emergency medicine at Emory. Emory also set up a special help line for patients and their families who want more information, he said.
The form also explains that observation care is covered under Medicare’s Part B benefit, and patients “generally pay a copayment for each outpatient hospital service” and the amounts can vary. But Ross said “this wording may be antiquated.” Medicare revised some billing codes last year to combine several observation services into one category. That means beneficiaries are responsible for one copayment if the observation stay meets certain criteria.
The new payment package also includes coverage for some prescription drugs to treat the emergency condition that brought the observation patient to the hospital, said Debby Rogers, the California Hospital Association’s vice president of clinical performance and transformation. Other drugs for that condition will be billed under Part B with separate copayments, she said.
Yet, Ross said, most observation visits are less expensive for beneficiaries than a hospital admission if they stay a short time, which the inspector general’s report also concluded. Doctors should “front load” tests and treatment so that the decision to admit or send the patient home can be made quickly. “If you get them out within a day, they are more likely to go back to independent living as opposed to needing nursing home care,” he said.
Tim Fox
Well-Known Member
is this nation wide?
666888
Well-Known Member
Trump will make it great again
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Budley Doright
Well-Known Member
Well this was a happy thread, haven't looked in a bit and it's gotten to be a bit of a bummer 
. My retirement plan was 20-30 lbs a year but nope that got all fucked up, 20,000 people in this city all growing their own in closets ..... fuck .
. My retirement plan was 20-30 lbs a year but nope that got all fucked up, 20,000 people in this city all growing their own in closets ..... fuck .
BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
Yes, Aug of last year, called the "NOTICE" act.
http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/observation-status-and-the-notice-act-advocates-not-over-the-moon/
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
That is sweet!
Tim Fox
Well-Known Member
those 5 slot rims were all the rage back then
