Sunday, February 12, 2012

Doctor Housecalls Provide Home Medical Care

Doctor house calls are making a
comeback!  Once again there are physicians
who will come to your home.
An old idea in home medical care is becoming popular again in communities that service a large number of elderly patients.  Like most Baby Boomers, I have no problem hopping in my car and driving 15 miles to see my favorite doctor.  However, since moving into an over-55 community, I have learned that visiting a doctor is a much more complicated process for many of my neighbors.

Although there is a network of volunteers in our town who will drive patients to their doctors' offices, and patients can sometimes take a taxi, these options are still challenging for people who are handicapped, seriously ill or, for other reasons, have trouble getting out of the house.  With the return of physicians who will make house calls, leaving home to obtain medical care may no longer be necessary for people who are home bound.

Doctor House Calls can provide Home Health Services

There are now several medical practices in our area that offer at home care as an option for their patients.  In perusing their ads, I was stunned by the wide range of home care services that were available:

blood work
echocardiograms
urinalysis
blood oxygen level test
doppler ultrasound
EKG's
pulmonary function tests
nerve conduction tests
X-Rays
joint injections
flu shots
wound care
ear wax removal

Types of Patients seen by Home Medical Care Physicians

The doctors who offer to provide these health services in your home treat a wide variety of medical conditions, including patients suffering from these conditions:

strokes
diabetes
asthma
hypertension
emphysema
pneumonia
flu
colds
heart problems
arthritis
abdominal & stomach problems

Obviously, this list does not cover all possible medical conditions.  There are still illnesses which will necessitate an office visit by some patients.  However, if you suffer from one of these common medical conditions, it can bring you real comfort and peace of mind to have the doctors come to you.

Cost of Doctor House Calls

You may be pleased to know that many medical insurance policies will cover the cost of medical house calls with the same co-pay as an office visit.  Since you also eliminate the cost of travel, you may find that receiving home care services actually saves you money.

Availability of Doctor Home Visits

According to a November 13, 2010 article in USA Today, there are currently about 4,000 doctors in the United States that make house calls, and the number is growing.  When I entered "doctor house calls" in the Google search box on my computer, I came up with a number of entries for physicians in my area who make house calls ... in addition to the ads I have seen in my local paper. 

If you have a medical condition that makes it hard for you to get out, you may want to check with your insurance company and see if they have a list of physicians who provide at home care that would be covered by your policy.  It is certainly worth a phone call to find out!  Even if you don't need a doctor who makes house calls at the moment, who knows when you or someone you know might need this service in the future?


If you are interested in more information for the 10,000 Baby Boomers who are now retiring every day, use the tabs or the pull down menu at the top of this page to find links to hundreds of additional articles on where to retire, healthcare issues, financial planning and more.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.baby-boomer-retirement.com

photo "The Doctor Luke Fildes crop" courtesy of wikimedia.com/commons

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Sexually Transmitted Diseases After Age 50

Romance is alive even when you
are in your 60's!
Many younger people are uncomfortable when they think about romance and dating among people in their 50's, 60's, 70's or even older.  However, Baby Boomers know that just because we have a few more wrinkles, we aren't dead yet.  Many people remain sexually active for decades after retirement.

When you live in an over-55 community, you are well aware that many of the single adults in these communities are enjoying love and romance the second time around.  People who are widowed and divorced are meeting and enjoying the relaxed feeling of not having to worry about pregnancy, children and all those responsibilities.  However, the one thing that many of them are not thinking about are sexually transmitted diseases!

Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates for People over 50 are Going Up!

According to a CNN report dated May 10, 2011, there has been a significant increase in the rate of sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis, chlamydia and HIV/AIDS in people over the age of 50.  In fact, approximately one-quarter of the people in the US who are living with HIV/AIDS are over the age of 50!

Sexually Active People Still Need to Use Condoms

Part of the problem is that Baby Boomers are not using condoms to protect themselves from STD's.  Since they no longer have to worry about pregnancy, they feel that condoms are not important.  As a result, among men who are NOT in a monogamous relationship, the rate of condom use is about 53% for men in their 20's and only about 28% for men in their 50's.  This decrease in condom use as we age is fueling the dramatic increase in STD's among people who are age 50 and older.

Hopefully, we can all get the word out to our loved ones that they are not safe from sexually related problems simply because they are over the age of 50.  Anyone who is sexually active and not in a monogamous relationship needs to take precautions.  There are enough serious medical problems that will harm our health and slow us down as we age.  We don't need to add to our health issues by exposing ourselves to preventable diseases.

If You Have Been Exposed to an STD - Get Treated!

If you suspect that you may already have been infected with a sexually transmitted disease, do not ignore it.  Contact your physician right away to get medical attention.  Many new treatments are helping people with sexually transmitted diseases live long, healthy lives.

In addition, take responsibility and make sure that your do not pass this disease on to other people.  Make sure that a condom is used whenever you engage in sexual activities and follow your physician's recommendations.

If you are looking for more information about health issues that could arise as you age, financial planning, where to retire, changing family relationships or more, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of the page for links to hundreds of additional articles.

You are reading from the blog:  http://www.baby-boomer-retirement.com

Photo credit:  morguefile.com

Saturday, February 4, 2012

If Grandkids Call for Money - Grandparent Scam

Would your grandkids call you
if they were in trouble?
Last weekend a close friend of mine received a terrifying call from her grandson, who lives in another state.  He had rear-ended a car containing tourists from another country, and he had a sealed bottle of vodka in the car when it happened.  He was in a heap of trouble.

My friend asked her grandson details about what had happened.  He told her he had hired an attorney, and he was at the courthouse with his lawyer trying to get everything sorted out.  My friend asked to speak to her grandson's attorney.  The attorney explained what was happening, the charges he was facing, and what the judge felt her grandson should do in order to reimburse the people he had rear-ended for their out-of-pocket expenses.

After talking with the attorney, my friend got back on the phone with her grandson, and asked what she could do to help.  He told her he needed $4000 to be sent to the tourists, to cover their expenses.  Then the charges would be dropped.  He had not been drinking the vodka, and he had passed the sobriety test.  He just needed to cover the expenses.  He was very upset and embarrassed.  He begged her not to tell other members of the family, including his parents.  After discussing the situation more with the lawyer and the prosecuting attorney, to be certain that the charges would be dropped, my friend discussed the situation with her husband.  Then, she and her husband went to her bank, removed $4000, took it to a Western Union office, and had the money wired to the "victims," who were now back home in the Dominican Republic.

The entire incident was part of the well-known GRANDPARENT SCAM!

My friend lost her entire $4000, despite the fact that both she and her husband had read about money transfer scams in our local newspaper.  She simply didn't connect the financial scams reported in the newspaper with the situation she was facing with her grandson.

Once she realized she had been cheated, she reported the case to the local Sheriff's Department and the FBI, but there was nothing they could do to help her.  All the calls originated from outside the US.  The money was wired to another country.  Her grandson had not been involved in an accident; he doesn't even own a car. He was happy and busy doing other things on the morning when all this was transpiring.  He had even called that morning and proudly left them a message about a new job.  However, they were so busy with the money transfer, they didn't listen to the messages on their answering machine.

How to Recognize the Grandparent Scam

When my friend thinks back on the call, she realizes that her supposed "grandson" simply said "grandma" when she picked up the phone.  Then she responded by saying his first name.  He was upset during the call, so it was difficult to recognize his voice.  Besides, she really didn't talk with him on the phone all that often, so she wasn't sure she would have known whether or not it was him, even if he hadn't been pretending to be upset and stressed.

Despite his request to not tell anyone, my friend and her husband should have called other relatives to check on their grandson.  Even if their grandson really was in trouble, taking an extra hour to help him would not have made a difference ... and would have given them an opportunity to check everything out.  These people work in teams, often with several different people available to talk to you on the phone.  You need to get completely independent confirmation before trusting anyone who calls you.

We have already told our own children and grandchildren to not get their feelings hurt if they ever call us for money and we tell them we will call them back later ... after we have had a chance to make a few confirming phone calls.  They understand.

The Grandparents Scam Can Happen to Anyone

In case you think these types of scams couldn't happen to you, my friend is a retired teacher; her husband, who was involved in the decision and helped her wire the money, is a retired parole officer who worked for the Sheriff's Department.  They are both intelligent, very conservative and suspicious of strange phone calls.  Neither one suffers from dementia or any other health condition that would have made them easy marks.  They have a grown daughter who is a lawyer, but they didn't consult her before sending the money.  They didn't try calling their grandson on his cell phone.  They didn't try calling other family members to see if they had heard from their grandson.  Despite all their natural reservations, they fell for this scam hook, line and sinker.

My friend knows that I am making a blog post about this financial scam. We took a long walk at the beach this morning as she relayed the story to me.  She was understandably upset with herself, and angry at the loss of her money.  She also felt powerless to do anything about it.  However, she was adamant that she wanted to do whatever she could to keep it from happening to anyone else, so she asked me to post a fraud alert.  Feel free to forward this post to your friends, in the hope that we can prevent others from becoming victims of money transfer scams and other retirement scams, as well.

Although she isn't sure why they contacted her, the authorities told her that the scammers often target residents of over 55 communities, such as the one where we live.  They also scour Facebook for older people who show photos or mention teenage grandchildren on the site.  These money transfer scams are well-planned, and organized by groups of swindlers who do a lot of research to make their phone calls seem real.

Don't let the grandparent's scam happen to you!

If you are interested in staying up-to-date with other news affecting retirees, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of this page to find links to hundreds of other articles of interest to Baby Boomers, including where to retire, financial planning, medical conditions, family relations and more.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.baby-boomer-retirement.com.

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Multigenerational Families Living Together Again

In the past, many generations
lived under one roof!
Historically, it was not unusual for three, four or even five generations of one family to live together under the same roof.  However, during the Twentieth Century this became less and less common.  Instead, young couples began to leave their parents' homes and moved to their own houses, often in other cities or states.  As the Twentieth Century progressed, the "nuclear" family became the norm.  In most households, it was rare for there to be more than two generations in residence ... typically a couple and their children.  Usually, when the children grew up and moved out on their own, the parents continued to live in their own home.  This is the exactly the path that life has taken for my husband and me, as well as our grown children.

Multi-Generational Families are Becoming More Common

There are several reasons why this has begun to change again.  Ethnic groups who move here from other countries want multiple generations to live in the same home. The recent recession has caused many young adults to continue to live with their parents.  Baby Boomers who were not well-prepared for retirement or who lost their savings in the stock market, have sometimes been forced to move in with their adult children.

According to a report on ABC News, there are now over 51 million Americans who are living in households with more than two generations.  Since there are approximately 307,000,000 residents of the United States, this means that about one in six people are now living in multi-generational homes, which means at least three generations are living together.  Now that this has become so common again, ABC also had some suggestions for making this lifestyle work.

How to Get Along in a Multi-Generational Living Situation

First, every generation needs their own private space.  In their news story, they showed examples of families that had added onto their homes to accommodate the new family members.  In other cases, families had fixed up basement areas, or cordoned off sections of the home to create small "mother-in-law" apartments.

In addition, they suggested that everyone have clearly defined roles and responsibilities in the family unit.  Rather than everyone trying to do the same things, the family needs to decide who is responsible for the yard work, the cooking, the dishes, the laundry, the childcare, etc.  Then, there is less duplication of effort, as well as less competition, criticism and confusion.

The upside of this arrangement is that many of the family members who were interviewed said that they felt the new family arrangement not only saved them money, but also brought the family closer.

Is Multi-Generational Living Right for Everyone?

However, I recognize that this living arrangement is not for everyone.  Although we have four daughters who lived with us for a period of time spanning more than two decades, we now enjoy having our own residence.  At the same time, we look forward to seeing our grandkids frequently.  In fact, we see two of them at least once or twice a week.  Although we have no plans to change our current living situation, I believe it would be possible for my husband and I to live with one of our daughters if we had to ... as long as we had our own private space and followed the other suggestions listed above.  Because of that, I thought others might also benefit from some helpful guidelines about how to make a multi generational family work!

If you are interested in reading other helpful articles for Baby Boomers, use the tabs or pull down menu at the top of the page to find links to hundreds of additional articles about where to retire, changing family relationships, medical concerns, financial planning and more.

You are reading from the blog:  http://www.baby-boomer-retirement.com

photo compliments of morguefile.com