By Rick Banas of assisted living provider BMA Management, Ltd.
I had the opportunity recently to join more than two dozen residents of the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community that BMA manages in McHenry, Illinois, for an introductory session on Laughter Yoga.
None of us had ever experienced Laughter Yoga before so we had no idea what to expect.
Certified Laughter Yoga Leader and Motivational Speaker Caryl Derenfeld conducted the session. She is the owner of a company called Learned Conversations.
Caryl explained that Laughter Yoga was developed by Dr. Matan Kataria of India as a way of achieving better overall health and well-being. It consists of a series of exercises that involve breathing, stretching, clapping and laughing.
Laughing increases your oxygen intake, Caryl said, which benefits both your body and your mind. It also increases your endorphin levels and reduces stress.
One of the beauties of Laughter Yoga, especially for older adults who may have some frailties, is that you can do it while sitting in a chair or while standing.
A key is that you are laughing for laughter’s sake. You are always laughing with other people, not at other people.
Caryl added that your body does not know the difference between real laughter and fake laughter. All that I ask is that if you do fake your laughter, you do it to the utmost.
We spent more than 20 minutes participating in the Laughter Yoga exercises. This was followed by a period of meditation and then feedback from the residents who participated.
For more information on Laughter Yoga, I invite you to visit learnedconversations.com/laughter_yoga and to watch these videos of a conversation I had about the Laughter Yoga session at Heritage Woods of McHenry with Janet Michel, the community’s Director of Resident Services, and Jenneen Hansen, Director of Marketing.
For those of you near the Quad Cities, a Laughter Yoga program is being held this Friday, Nov. 16, at 2 p.m. at the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community that BMA manages in Aledo, Illinois.
The program will be conducted by Tara Wassel from Homebound Healthcare.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
We appreciate being able to post this Guest Blog written by Erin Weir, Healthcare Consumer Protection Coordinator with AgeOptions, the Area Agency on Aging of Suburban Cook County.
The Illinois SMP Program at AgeOptions has received a number of complaints involving home health agencies in the south suburbs. We would like to alert residents in the community about these issues so that they can protect themselves from, detect and report fraud.
We are hearing the there are companies going door-to-door and offering “free” services in exchange for people’s Medicare or Social Security numbers. Some of these companies are also calling people on the phone and telling them that their “free” services are a new benefit under Medicare. We also are hearing that there are companies recruiting children and/or family members to obtain their loved ones’ Medicare or Social Security numbers and giving them to the home health company in exchange for payment (this may be marketed as a “job” or way to get paid for caring for your loved one).
Once these companies obtain someone’s Medicare or Social Security number, they bill Medicare for thousands of dollars in services that they are NOT providing.
We would like Illinois residents to understand that cases like these are fraud, and they put the individuals involved in danger of identity theft and loss of health care benefits.
For example, if one of these companies bill for physical therapy on someone’s Medicare account and that person actually needs physical therapy later, Medicare may not pay for it.
We would like to share the following tips and information about Medicare-covered home health care to help consumers avoid being victims to these scams:
NEVER give your Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid number away to anyone who calls on the phone or comes to the door – no matter what reason they give or what services they offer. Anyone who solicits business over the phone or door-to-door is not from a legitimate organization.
If you need services or care, contact your doctor. Your doctor should be able to help you find a legitimate provider of those services. Any care that you receive should be ordered by your doctor – do not listen to companies that tell you that “their doctor” can sign off on the care.
Medicare only pays for home health services when someone is homebound and needs skilled care. This means that the person must have a very difficult time leaving the home and that the person must need physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy or skilled nursing services (IV treatments, wound care, etc.) These services must be provided by skilled personnel employed by the home health agency – not the patient themselves or a family member. If the only services that a person needs are assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, cleaning, etc. this does not qualify as skilled care. If a home health agency offers aide services for “free” but takes your Medicare number, they are likely billing Medicare fraudulently for skilled services that they are not providing and they are using up your benefits!
If anyone has experience an issue like those mentioned above, please report it to the Illinois SMP program at Age Options by calling 1-800-699-9043 and asking to speak to an SMP staff member.
Additional resources on Medicare and home health are available on our website at www.illinoismp.org. Click on “Illinois SMP Materials” and scroll down to “home health.”
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management, Ltd. is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
Having worked in health care and senior living for the past 35 years, my ears really perked up as John Shaw began reciting his poem entitled “Health Care.”
John, who is a master story teller, poet and comedian, was performing at the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community that BMA manages in his hometown of Centralia, Illinois.
He says he has done probably 375 of these types of programs, telling stories and reciting poems that he has written for his own pleasure.
There is an Old Southern Saying, he told those in attendance. “You can say anything about anybody as long as you say ‘Bless Your Heart’.”
He noted that his happiness seems to be his wife’s biggest concern because “she always telling me, I hope your happy now.”
He says he wrote “Health Care” when President Bill Clinton gave wife Hillary Clinton the job of coming up with a health care plan.
John was kind enough to allow us to share his poem with you. I thought his observations would be a great way to spark debate about health care reform.
Health Care by John D. Shaw
Mr. President, I called today
To discuss my medical need
But they said you were getting a physical
By a team of specialists at Walter Reed
So I’m writing about the promise you made
That guarantees us all health care
And I’d like to raise an issue
If you think I might dare
When it comes to choosing a doctor
You said we would have no choice
Well I’ve seen the doctor you picked for me
And I have an opinion I’d like to voice
He seemed to be a friendly sort
I thought I might have been in luck
Til he picked up that big thermometer
And you can guess where that got stuck
He checked my ears for ticks and fleas
He checked the color of my gums
He drenched me with a rubber hose
And gave me capsules with a bolus gun
From distemper I am now immune
From rabies I’m protected
And the thought of being neutered
Has left me feeling dejected
One of the goals I had for my life
Was to become an octogenarian
But I fear I’ll never make it
Under the care of this veterinarian
I know I’m not important to you
You don’t even care if I’m a Democrat
But don’t you think that I deserve better
Than what you’re giving Socks, your cat
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management, Ltd. is the #1 provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and we are in the top twenty providers in the United States of America.”
The past Saturday, a book at the Palatine Library caught my attention.
Having been in senior living and health care for the past 35 years, I was intrigued by the title “You’re Old, I’m Old… Get Used to It!” and by the author, who is a product of the world of sex, drugs and rock and roll of the 1960s. As a journalist in her youth, author Virginia Ironside interviewed the likes of The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
Instantaneously the below songs began “rolling” through my head.
The Rolling Stones • Brown Sugar
Jimi Hendrix • Purple Haze
Virginia, who is blazing her way through her sixties, pens an advice column for the Independent newspaper in London, England. The inside back cover notes that the book has been developed into a one-women stage show called the Virginia Monologues, which was first performed in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2009.
Copy in a banner on the top of the front cover proclaims that the book contains “20 Reasons Why Growing Old is Great.”
She wrote “You’re Old, I’m Old” because she found nothing when she went searching for “something entertaining and perceptive” to help her through the decade of her sixties. After all, she notes, there was “Catcher in the Rye” to help her through her teens, books by Erma Bombeck once she became a “young mum” and, of course, the “Fear of Flying” by Erica Jong.
Being old is great, Virginia argues. It is fun, interesting and liberating. It is something to celebrate. “I don’t WANT to be young anymore.”
I thoroughly enjoyed many of her insights and humor.
On Downsizing — “I see reducing as being like something you do to a wine sauce.” After you have simmered it for ages, what started as something sloppy and tasteless turns into something delicious.
On Looks — “There is no excuse when you’re old to let yourself go. A good looking oldie can have the time of his or her life.”
On Terminology — She quite likes “over the hill” because once you’re over the hill the view of everything is better than when you were struggling up it.
If you find yourself pining for your youth, Virginia says that you can console yourself in the knowledge that there are many things that you will never have to do again such as sacrificing comfort for style, worrying about what the world will be like in 50 years, and thinking Bob Dylan is a god.
“The less future we have in front of us,
the more we can enjoy the now”
It is one of the reasons why growing old is great, says Virginia.
I think you will find “You’re Old, I’m Old… Get Used to It!” to be a funny and memorable read that challenges our obsession with youth.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
Several years ago, a man from Canada joined up with my cousin and me for a quick nine-holes of golf early one Sunday morning.
His wife was at the hospital across the street. She recently was diagnosed with cancer.
They had come to the United States, he explained, so his wife could immediately start undergoing treatment. She would be able to obtain the treatment she needed in Canada through the Canadian health care system, but only if she was able to survive the six-month wait.
He was at the golf course because he needed something to occupy his time before visiting hours started at the hospital.
They are by no means the only folks from Canada who come down to the United States to secure health care services. Just ask the folks in Florida how easy it is to get an appointment with a physician during the winter months.
This past year as health care reform was being debated, proponents kept assuring us that the legislation that was signed into law did not call for the rationing of health care services or for any reduction in the health care services covered by Medicare.
But will other provisions in the legislation result in the rationing of care and cuts in services?
After all, the rationing of health care would not be new in the United States. Citing budget constraints, the State of Oregon already rations care for those low income residents who are covered by Medicaid.
The Wisconsin State Medical Society suggests our neighbors to the north look at following Oregon’s lead. In a story written by David Wahlberg that was posted this past Sunday in the Wisconsin State Journal, the state’s medical society is planning to ask the State of Wisconsin to look at rationing as an alternative to payment cuts to doctors for treating Medicaid patients. The Society is concerned that payment cuts to alleviate shortfalls of more than $1 Billion could lead to a shortage of physicians willing to serve Medicaid patients.
What good is having health care coverage if there is not a doctor available, a representative of the medical society contends.
Do we not run the same risk at the national level? Will there be enough doctors to handle the Silver Tsunami that is about to hit the United States, at first doubling and then tripling the number of older adults in the next 40 years?
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
By Rick Banas of assisted living provider BMA Management, Ltd.
