<p>Archermom and nedad-
Thanks for your thoughts. They say 10% of the people do 90% of the work, and they aren’t kidding. Yes, it made it “easier” to have POA to deal with all the insurance stuff, change of beneficiary forms, ownership change of policies, bank accounts and such, but still, with the implementation of the Patriot Act after 9-11, most of the financial institutions wouldn’t talk to me over the phone, and insisted that when I came up to the NE to meet with them face-to-face that my Dad be there too (even though I had POA and he was in the hospital). Citibank was particularly onerous. They apparently decided that they could implement their own policy and ignore federal banking regulations . As soon as we could, we closed the account that my dad had with them for over 50 years and moved it. </p>
<p>As for long term and catastrophic are policies, they are great, but read them carefully. My mom’s Catastrophic care policy is unbelievably cumbersome, and the paperwork they require, and the way they want it organized is overwhelming. My dads’ long term care policy had a 100 day waiting period (deductible) and several exclusions that will put us in a potential battle with them. We are not sure it is worth the aggravation in either case. I still recommend these policies-- just read them carefully. </p>
<p>My dad also thought that the long term care policy would cover him if he had to go into a skilled nursing facility. It covers maybe $200/day and only for nursing homes, not for assisted living facilities, many of which, in NY, were $4000-7000/mo when you looked at all the costs (its like buying a base model car, with the cost rising with all the “extras”.) Fortunately dad can still live in his house, with some in-home help. </p>
<p>The BEST thing I ever did was find a GREAT geriatric case manager. She has been a godsend, and is worth every penny. What a relief-- its like having a family member there to stay on top of things, and if my dad needs anything, he can call her before he calls me. She is right there. She coordinates appointments, helps with the paperwork, meds, coordinated some of the in-home care, etc etc etc. When I really found myself drowning in all this stuff, and was spending half of every workday handling my dads affairs, I started the search for a case manager. I couldnt have done it without her. Now that dad is doing much better, we don’t need her as much, but she is there for whatever we need. And she keeps in touch to be sure he isnt isolating himself and getting too lonely. She will also be there to take him to/from the hospital for the upcoming outpatient procedures in a few weeks, so I don’t need to cancel everything again and fly up. It isn’t that serious a prcedure-- but someone has to be there.</p>
<p>Ok-- I feel like an ad for geriatric case management. But, as archermom, nedad and others have pointed out-- it frequently falls on one of the children to handle all of this stuff, and thank heavens there are resources out there to help us as well.</p>