Thoughts On Managing a Parent’s Illness and Possible Continuing Care Options

photo credit: tempophage

Over the last few days I’ve been forced to think about possible continuing care options given my father in law’s recent stroke and seizure over the weekend. We were not prepared to deal with a major illness in that it required care after leaving the hospital. As adult children the thought of long term care is a daunting one at least it was for me.

Retiring Early and Losing Independence Due to Major Illness or Disability
My father in law (FIL) was forced out of his job due to his illness so he had no choice but to take the severance and wait for Social Security to kick in which it did this year. This no doubt led to his subsequent depression and isolation from friends and family as having a job at his age contributed to his sense of livelihood and independence.

I have often wondered why would any one want to work after the legal age of retirement but I fully understand the reasoning now. While visiting with him yesterday I had a chance to see and understand how deeply committed he is to remaining independent in certain aspects of his life. I think we could/should have paid more attention to his health once he retired but he always assured us that he was fine and life would go on. He continued to look for work and of course let his health slip by not following the appropriate diet recommendation for his diabetes and hypertension.

Senior Adult Individual Health Insurance
Is there even such a thing? After several talks with my spouse’s group plan administrator we figured that adding my FIL would not be an option. I will go through his Employee Assistance Program to see what options they may have to assist us in this transition. We also came across these programs while researching our options to supplement his Medicaid coverage from About.com:

Maryland Health Insurance Plan (MHIP)
MHIP offers coverage to individuals who are unable to purchase an individual health insurance policy because they have pre-existing health conditions. It also covers “HIPAA-eligible” individuals as described above. The MHIP website has information on their eligibility requirements, current premium rates, and a fact sheet which details the benefits available under their program here.

Maryland Health Insurance Plan
10455 Mill Run Circle
Mail Stop RR-291
Owings Mills, MD 21117-9185
Phone: 443-738-0667 OR 1-888-444-9016

Maryland Senior Health Insurance Assistance Program(SHIP)
SHIP provides free one-on-one counseling for Medicare beneficiaries with questions about any aspect of Medicare, including the new Part D prescription drug benefit, or Medigap coverage.

Medicaid
Medicaid is a government program designed to help the poor and indigent obtain health care services. Pregnant women and children under age 19 who meet certain income requirements may be eligible for Medicaid coverage, along with aged, blind, and disabled individuals. For more information about Maryland’s Medicaid program, including eligibility requirements, contact Maryland Medicaid at the number listed below.

Maryland Medicaid
Phone:1.800.492.5231 or (410) 767-5800

Ive already been in contact with the SHIP program and awaiting word from the administrator on how we may move forward.

Finding Important Documents In An Emergency

Get a lockbox. If your parents don’t have one, buy one for them. The time will come when you’ll need all important documents and this keeps everything in one place. This is especially important as we scrambled to find their important documents as neither kept them in a lock box. This included insurance, medical (allergies, current medications, medical histories), final wishes documents etc. You’d be surprised how much you don’t know when in a quasi-emergency situation when one or all of these documents are needed and you don’t know where to find them.

We don’t live in the same state as our parents so we had no idea where to find anything outside of talking to family members who pieced together information as we passed it on to the doctors and dealt with the insurance company. For the love and sanity of your children please put all important documents in an accessible lockbox, preferably fireproof.

This is an ongoing process so I will be writing about what we finally decide to do with regards to his care depending on the results of a few tests and what happens after he is released from the hospital today.