More Seniors Becoming Entrepreneurs
Older adults are starting their own businesses for many reasons. Not only do they have the assets to do so, but also the knowledge and connections garnered over a lifetime. Two women who made the leap talk about the challenges and rewards. Click here to view article.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, seniors are the largest group of individuals starting new businesses. The reasons for this are many:

• Older adults tend to have accumulated assets and savings over their lifetimes, so have the money needed to start a business, establish a line of credit and withstand the initial period of little or no revenue.
• Their years of working experience give seniors the ability to make knowledgeable decisions about what works and what doesn’t, especially if they are starting a business in which they have previously worked.
• Years of establishing work and business relationships can benefit seniors with a ready-made customer and networking base.
• Older workers with experience have more confidence that they know what they are doing, and confidence is one of the key indicators of success.
• Baby boomers, now entering the age where most people retire, want to keep working.
• The recession has forced many companies to lay off older workers who have large salaries, as well as prevented experienced workers from being hired elsewhere. Many of those laid-off workers are starting their own businesses, whether small, home-based ventures or larger.

Following Your Values

One older adult who decided to embark on a new career is Karen DeLeeuw, MSW and a Certified Senior Advisor® (CSA). Before she started Seniors Helping Seniors®, which hires older adults to help seniors remain independent in their own homes, she had worked for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for 15 years. One of her projects dealt with the implications of chronic disease as our population ages.

“I came to understand the extent of some issues we faced as a country,” she says. . . . “Is society prepared to take care of such a large aging population?” DeLeeuw realized how few people go into gerontology or have backgrounds working with older adults. “The health care system is not prepared to deal with an older population,” nor is there “sufficient family or community structure to care for such a huge aging population,” especially one that is living much longer than previous generations. Clearly, help was needed.

About that time DeLeeuw, like thousands of other government employees across the nation, lost her job and decided to start her own business. She was drawn to Seniors Helping Seniors, whose focus is “keeping people at home so they can live independently and be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,” she says.

The founder of the organization was born and raised in India and had worked with Mother Teresa for 14 years. When the Indian woman first visited the United States, she saw “seniors being pushed aside and not allowed to do anything meaningful nor have employment opportunities because of their age,” DeLeeuw said. “Other seniors had families living in various places throughout the country and thus were isolated and in need of help and social support. The Seniors Helping Seniors in-home care mission and model appealed to me, not only to help seniors remain in their own homes, which over 85 percent want to do, but to also help seniors who wanted to give back and help others.”

DeLeeuw, now 59, started the franchise business a year and half ago. Not only is the work “consistent with my values and employment history of wanting to make a difference “ she says, but she welcomed the autonomy, flexibility and chance to try her hand in the business world.

While having your own business affords many benefits, for DeLeeuw it’s been “more of a difficult adjustment than I anticipated.” For 40 years, she held high-level positions in work settings where she interacted with people all day long, frequently worked in project teams and had colleagues to help problem solve. “Making the transition to one where primarily I work alone and essentially made my own hours has taken some getting used to.”

To counteract feelings of isolation and contribute in other ways, DeLeeuw has become involved with a county “Aging Well” project, sits on the Jefferson County Council on Aging and is involved in local CSA activities and in other networks. “We all know changes can be difficult,” she warns. “When it comes to starting a new business, it’s important to persist; a common reason many new businesses fail is that they give up on things too early.”

On the other hand, the rewards have been great. DeLeeuw has enjoyed learning about a new field and developing new skills. She also gets calls from clients who are grateful that she’s been able to help them age in their own homes.

Her advice for others wanting to start their own businesses: It helps to have the entrepreneurial spirit, and it’s important to do research, to really understand what you’re getting into, both in terms of the business itself and the lifestyle changes it can bring. Over the past 18 months DeLeeuw took more than 30 classes and workshops, plus franchisee training. “Be prepared to make a commitment,” she said. . . . “Be prepared for the ups and downs, and have a plan for dealing with the downs, like a mentor or coach.” It really helps “to have a passion for the work you’re doing.”

Using All Your Experience

Erika Walker is another older adult and CSA who started her own business based on her previous work experience. She was in her early 50s when she started SAGE WAVE Consulting, which “provides strategic planning to help businesses and communities across the country prepare for the growing aging population.” For Walker, it was the latest “reinvention” of her career which she began as a math teacher and adapted as her husband’s career took the family from state to state. After one move, she earned an MBA, working as the director for a financial institute. When the couple moved to Montana, she reinvented herself again as the director of continuing education at a local university. Later in Seattle, she developed international business training programs, and in South Carolina, she ran a research institute that analyzed and replicated best practices for aging services and worked as the director of geriatrics at a hospital system. When that position closed, she decided to start her own business.

Like many others who start their own businesses, she is using many of her past professional experiences. “I have learned enough about the service sectors across the aging industry to help communities and organizations reduce gaps and replicate best practices from a business perspective. I have worked in the for-profit, non-profit and health care worlds, and have researched and replicated best practices in aging services across the continuum of care.”

In business for six years now, Walker’s main piece of advice for anyone who starts a business is that “success is based on the relationships you build.” She advises joining boards, speaking at national conferences and promoting opportunities for others. “Be persistent and don’t give up. Get out there and be part of the community. Networking and building relationships and trust with your communities and business associates will lead to increased business.”

In starting your own company, “You have to be flexible enough to financially take some risks and manage the inevitable ebbs and flows.” It helps to have a back-up income, like she had with her husband.

If your business is a “one-man show, you have to be willing to do everything—from budgets to the legal side, and market yourself,” Walker says. “It may take lots of effort and time before you start seeing a profit.” But the upside is that “you get a chance to learn about a world you may not have known about, in a new way.”

For those ready to make the jump into entrepreneurship, free help is available from several sources, both local and national (see sidebar).

Resources for 50+ Entrepreneurs

• On the local level, check out nearbySmall Business Development Centers, which offer technical assistance to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. Clients receive free, one-on-one long-term professional business advising, low-cost training and other specialized services.
• Many cities and counties offer their own form of business assistance, as do local business associations such as the Chamber of Commerce. Check out classes at local community colleges and other educational venues.
• On the national level, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers free online training, local assistance and loans, as well as information aimed specifically at seniors: “50+”.
• SCORE is a “nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. In business for more than fifty years, SCORE is supported by SBA and utilizes volunteer mentors who share their expertise across 62 industries; free business tools, templates and tips online; business counseling in person or via email; and inexpensive or free local business workshops as well as webinars (online).”
• Another nonprofit organization helping people start businesses is My Own Business, which offers free business courses, including how to write your business plan.

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Tips for Choosing a Medigap Plan
For those ready to enroll in Medicare or those thinking about changing plans, the choices are many and complex. Fortunately, resources are available to help you navigate through the different Medicare Supplemental Plans. Click here to view article.

Seniors getting close to the eligibility age for Medicare are bombarded with appeals from insurance companies—both in their mailboxes and on their computers. For those who already have the health plan, the busy time comes during Medicare’s Part D (drug) and Part C (Advantage Plan) open enrollment period, which runs from October 15 to December 7. Each year, you can switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan or from one Medicare Advantage plan to another, or from one Part D to another, with the new coverage to commence on January 1.

Deciding which plans are best is not an easy decision because the choices are many and complex. To demystify the process, older adults can get help from guidebooks, classes and their insurance agents. Keep in mind that Medicare was never intended to completely pay for seniors’ medical costs. Basically, Medicare pays for 80 percent and you pay 20 percent. Over the years, more options have become available to fill in the gaps, with private companies offering ways to mitigate costs.

Choosing Between Original and Advantage

The first choice you need to make is whether to go with the Original Medicare Plan, in which the government directly pays for hospital and medical care (Parts A and B, respectively), or to use the Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C), in which the government pays a private health network (such as an HMO or PPO), which often covers Parts A, B, and D (prescription drugs).

With the Original Medicare Plan, you still must pay for copayments, coinsurance and deductibles. For example, Medicare requires a $1,184 deductible for the first 60 days of a hospital stay and 20 percent of the cost of Part B services such as doctor visits, outpatient treatments and laboratory tests. To cover these costs, you have to get supplemental insurance from a private insurance company. These plans are called a Medicare Supplement or Medigap policies.

The majority of Medicare users stick with the Original Plan, because they can choose their own health care providers rather than having to stay within the HMO network, which doesn’t work if you’re traveling outside of the HMO network. However, because HMOs carefully control costs, the Advantage Plans are often cheaper than the Original Medicare Plan.

Options for Medigap Plans

Choosing the Original Medicare Plan (in which the government directly pays your health care provider) opens a whole host of options. Supplemental plans, also known as Medigap, are confusingly named Plans A–N, although totally different than the Medicare Parts A–D. This is where most people’s eyes start to glaze over and you start wondering why someone couldn’t have chosen different names for all the plans.

Medigap policies come in 10 standardized benefit packages labeled as the letters. Each plan offers a different set of benefits, fills different gaps in Medicare coverage and varies in price. (Be aware that Medigap policies never cover long-term, vision or dental care; hearing aids; eyeglasses or private-duty nursing.) Some insurance carriers offer some of the plans but not all of them. Although premiums vary between carriers, each company conforms to the Medicare definition of that plan. That is, Plan C will always be the same no matter which insurance carrier you use.

The difference among plans has to do with how much each company pays for deductibles, coinsurance and copayments, and some plans offer to pay for emergency medical care while you are traveling in a foreign country. For example, Medigap Plans B, C, D, F, G and N cover the hospital deductible for each benefit period, while Plans K, L and M cover part of it. If you have to stay in the hospital, this benefit usually saves you money. Buyers need to carefully review insurance carriers’ offers, because premiums for the same plan can vary more than $100 per month.

The most popular plan is F, which pays for pretty much everything Medicare doesn’t, including the 15 percent excess charge from doctors who don’t accept Medicare as payment in full. Plan C is the next most popular. Plans M and N, the two newest options, are cost-sharing plans that have cheaper premiums, making them appealing to healthier retirees who don’t use as much health care (“How to Choose a Medigap Supplemental Policy,” Huffington Post). If, however, you live in Massachusetts, Minnesota or Wisconsin, you have different standardized Medigap plans that you can buy.

Different Methods to Determine Premiums

If all that’s not confusing enough, insurance companies have three methods of determining the cost of a Medigap policy premium. A policy that looks inexpensive when you first buy it at age 65 could end up being the most expensive when you hit 80, so it’s important to figure out what is best for the long haul. The three types are:

1. Attained-age: Premiums start low but increase as you get older.
2. Issue-age: Premiums increase with inflation rather than age. These policies may start out a little more expensive than attained-age policies but generally have fewer rate increases over time.
3. Community-rate: The same premium is charged to everyone, regardless of age. Issue-age and community-rated policies will usually save you money in the long-run (“How to Choose a Medigap Supplemental Policy”).

The best time to first enroll for Medigap is the three-month period before you turn 65, the month you turn 65 and the three-month period after turning 65 . During this seven-month period, insurance carriers must accept you without underwriting; that is, they must enroll you no matter your state of health and whether you have a pre-existing condition. After this seven-month period, you can enroll with (or change) different carriers every year, but insurance companies can reject you for any health reason.

The main differences among insurance companies are premium amounts and kind of service you get. Prices also vary between tobacco and non-tobacco users, for different zip codes and for city and rural areas. You can count on premiums going up as you get older.

How to Find the Best Plan

Beyond the costs, how do you choose a reputable insurance company? “Ask your doctor,” says Mickey Batsell, an insurance agent and Certified Senior Advisor®. “Does he or she have any experience with certain companies?” You’re looking for candid feedback.

Medicare provides information on the different types of plans. You can call Medicare at 800-633-4227 and ask them to mail you a free copy of the “Choosing a Medigap Policy” guide (publication 02110) or go online towww.medicare.gov.

Different organizations offer their own advice. Consumer Reports ranks health insurance plans nationwide. You can use the tool to choose a plan category such as private HMO or PPO, or Medicare HMO or PPO. Then, choose your state and customize your search to compare plans’ scores and their performance in measures such as consumer satisfaction and providing preventive services.

AARP has lots of information and several guides, including one just for baby boomers.

Your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) or state insurance department can give you information on your state’s rules, as well as provide free counseling about Medicare, Medigap and Medicare Advantage. SHIPs are federally funded programs and not connected to any insurance company or health plan. SHIPs were established to help beneficiaries with plan choices, billing problems, complaints about medical care or treatment and Medicare rights.

Beware of Illegal Insurance Practices

Selling Medicare supplement plans is a lucrative business. Medicare offers tips to avoid enrolling in policies you don’t need or want. It’s illegal for anyone to do the following:

• Pressure you into buying a Medigap policy or lie to or mislead you to switch from one company or policy to another.
• Sell you a second Medigap policy when they know that you already have one.
• Sell you a Medigap policy if they know you have Medicaid, except in certain situations.
• Sell you a Medigap policy if they know you’re in a Medicare Advantage Plan, unless your coverage under the Medicare Advantage Plan will end before the effective date of the Medigap policy.
• Claim that a Medigap policy is part of the Medicare Program or any other federal program. Medigap is private health insurance.
• Claim that a Medicare Advantage Plan is a Medigap policy.
• Sell you a Medigap policy that can’t legally be sold in your state. Check with your state insurance department.
• Misuse the names, letters or symbols of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Social Security Administration (SSA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or any of their various programs like Medicare.
• Claim to be a Medicare representative if they work for a Medigap insurance company.
• Sell you a Medicare Advantage Plan when you say you want to stay in Original Medicare and buy a Medigap policy.

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Living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias inspires Chicken Soup book

http://www.chickensoup.com/form.asp?cid=submit_story&WT.mc_id=enews2013_10_16&utm_source=enews-aff-59&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews-2013-10-16

The Alzheimer’s Association is partnering with the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series to produce a book of essays about life with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. To create this book, we invite those living with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia, caregivers, affected friends and family members to share their stories. Those interested in submitting a story can do so online through Oct. 23.

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British researchers develop drug that halts brain degeneration in mice

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/10/11/ctw-alzheimers-breakthrough.cnn.html

In a new study, British researchers say they have developed a drug that stopped degenerative brain diseases in lab mice. The drug prevents brain cells from dying by targeting how the brain reacts to abnormally shaped proteins that are generated by the disease. However, the mice in the experiment had severe weight loss and raised blood sugar. While the results are encouraging, they are very preliminary; further research is needed to see if the intervention can be made safe and effective in people.

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You can take steps to live your best life with Alzheimer’s

Making choices about how you will live your life after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia can be very empowering. It is possible to live well with Alzheimer’s by taking control of your health and wellness and by focusing your energy on the most meaningful aspects of your life.

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