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Saturday, December 1, 2012 – Daily News 7A Glory Days maturity &lifestyles Year-end tips for your flexible spending account When aging parents need help By Kristen Gerencher MarketWatch (MCT) Pay close attention to your aging parents this holiday season. Does the normally tidy house now seem neglected? Is there hoarding? Do you notice memory problems, confusion or physical unsteadiness? Discovering that a parent's physical or mental health is declining can be heavy on the heart. It also can be hard on your finances. "The first thing we tell our clients is, don't panic," says Byron Cordes, president of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, and a geriatric-care manager in San Antonio. "Come up with a plan." Feeling overwhelmed may prompt you to spend money on the wrong things, such as full-time care, when your parent just needs delivered meals or someone to run errands a few times a week. Here are some tips: 1. Assess needs Ask your parent's physician what his or her physical and mental deficits are — assuming your parent allows you to sit in on appointments or consents to the release of their medical information. You can always send written concerns to the doctor, and if you have power of attorney for a parent's health care, attach a copy of that document, says Linda Fodrini-Johnson, a geriatric care manager in Walnut Creek, Calif. Also consider hiring a geriatric care manager — a social worker, nurse, psychologist or gerontologist with additional training and certification — for a By Diane Stafford The Kansas City Star (MCT) MCT photo Denise Peace walks her granddaughter, Shaniya Davis, 4, home from school. consultation or an assessment. They know the nuances of elder care and local organizations that help seniors remain independent, says Ms. FodriniJohnson. A one-time consultation costs about $150. An assessment typically runs $500 to $700, Cordes says. You can find a geriatric care manager near you at caremanager.org. 2. Take stock of benefits Visit BenefitsCheckUp.org, a site run by the National Council on Aging, to find out what benefits, discounts and programs your parent may be eligible for. A search for a Medicare beneficiary who owns her Arizona home and has three chronic medical conditions turned up 11 programs, including a discount drug program, free legal assistance and care- giver respite. Your local Area Agency on Aging offers information on in-home support, transportation, adult day care, skilled nursing facilities and senior nutrition programs. See a directory of those agencies here http://www.n4a.org/. Is your parent a veteran or the widow or spouse of one? Eldercare.gov, a government-sponsored site, can direct you to your local veterans' resource center for help applying for benefits, among other services. (You can also call 1-800677-1116.) If your parent is low-income, he or she doesn't have to be on Social Security's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program to be eligible for in-home supportive services, Fodrini-Johnson says. And don't forget your workplace benefits. Some employers offer elder-care referral services or cover need assessments for a parent. 3. Timing is everything Medicare doesn't cover most long-term care costs. Medicaid covers them under certain conditions. If your parent needs Medicaid coverage, timing matters, says Gregory French, president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, or NAELA, and an elder-law attorney in Cincinnati. Eligibility can be harmed if your parent makes cash gifts or transfers assets within five years of applying for Medicaid, he says. As the year winds down, do you have funds remaining in your flexible spending account for health care? Or have you spent more than you put into the account? If so, you have company. Only 16 percent of flexible spending account users contribute the right amount, according to the "2012 Aflac WorkForces Report" released this month. If you overestimated your health care spending and still have pre-tax FSA funds remaining, here are some tips from Audrey Boone Tillman, executive vice president of corporate services at Aflac: —Schedule an annual checkup with your primary care physician, optometrist, dentist, dermatologist, gynecologist or other health care provider you haven't seen this year. —Buy another pair of eyeglasses, prescription sunglasses, contact lenses or other eligible medical aids or devices. Even orthotic shoe inserts might qualify, she notes. —Buy eligible health care items such a first aid kit; contact lens solution; a thermometer; neck, wrist or joint braces; and pain relievers. —Check with your employer to learn whether there are other eligible offerings such as massages, acupuncture, Lasik eye surgery or other treatments or procedures. If you've already spent more on health care expenses than you allocated to your account, Tillman has suggestions for that too: —Keep receipts for your health care expenses. Your tax adviser might recommend that you can take some 2012 tax deductions for expenses that weren't covered by your FSA. —Knowing what your out-of-pocket health care costs actually were this year can help you do a better job estimating what those expenses might be next year. And remember: The maximum you can put into your FSA has been cut from $5,000 this year to $2,500 next year. —Make sure you know what FSA options are available to you if you're participating in the open enrollment period at your workplace. Holiday Shopping Exercises relieve frozen shoulder DEAR DOCTOR K: Is there any way Then move it all the way up until your fingers are pointing to the ceiling, and to unfreeze a frozen shoulder? then all the way down. Then stick DEAR READER: The term your arm straight out to the side "frozen shoulder" describes a and move it all the way up and condition in which pain and stiffdown. Now try running the tip of ness cause a loss of the normal your thumb up the middle of range of motion. I saw a patient your back. with a frozen shoulder a few If in any of these maneuvers months ago who could not you heard or felt a little "click" scratch his back when it itched. or "pop," a part of your shoulder He had to ask his family for help had started to stiffen — and you to take a book off an overhead Dr. K just loosened it up again. If you shelf. Fortunately, a frozen by Anthony L. found that you couldn't do some shoulder can usually be unfrozen — if you have the time, patience Komaroff, M.D. of these maneuvers at all because and willingness to experience a little of pain or stiffness, you might already have a frozen shoulder. pain. An anti-inflammatory medication Normally, the shoulder has a wide and varied range of motion. Like the hip, the such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint. The Advil) or naproxen (Aleve) can help rounded head of the bone of the upper relieve pain and inflammation. A cortiarm (the humerus) sits in a scooped-out costeroid injection may help decrease indentation of another bone, the scapula inflammation. But the cornerstone of treatment is (commonly known as the shoulder blade). The meeting of the humerus and physical therapy. At first you'll concenscapula is called the glenohumeral joint. trate on exercises that stretch the joint A frozen shoulder usually begins capsule. Then you'll move on to when injury or overuse causes pain that, strengthening exercises. (I've put some in turn, limits the shoulder's range of examples of stretching and strengthening on my website, motion. Common conditions that cause exercises pain in the shoulder are bursitis or a tear AskDoctorK.com.) Full recovery can take several months in the rotator cuff (a group of muscles or even longer. If you don't improve and tendons in the shoulder). If you don't move your shoulder steadily, go back to your doctor or conmuch at all for many weeks, the tissue sult a shoulder expert. In rare cases, a surrounding the shoulder joint thickens frozen shoulder that doesn't respond to and shrinks. It loses its ability to stretch. the treatments I've discussed may When you try to move it even a little, it require surgery. Fortunately, that's not hurts. So to avoid the pain, you move the often necessary. shoulder even less. As a result, the joint Dr. Komaroff is a physician and capsule stiffens even further. It's a professor at Harvard Medical School. To vicious cycle. A frozen shoulder can take send questions, go to AskDoctorK.com, months to develop. 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