Hands to Help Seniors

View From A Nonprofit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Thanks to everyone who donated to nonprofits on #GivingTuesday, a program started last year to encourage people to give to charity after the huge campaigns for Black Friday and Cyber Monday following Thanksgiving.  According to Blackbaud, the program was a huge success in 2013, with giving up a massive 90% from $10.1 million in 2012 to $19.2 million this year.  The average online gift was up more than 40% from $101.60 in 2012 to $142.05 in 2013.  These are amazing results given that the National Retail Federation said that Black Friday holiday spending at for profits was down 3%.  "The growth in online giving during #GivingTuesday exceeded everyone's expectations," Steve MacLauglin, director of the Idea Lab at Blackbaud, told USA Today.  "This is a very positive sign as non-profits head into a very busy fundraising season," he said.  If you are thinking about giving to charity this tax year, we hope that you will support us and help us help seniors by making a donation to Hands to Help Seniors.  We have been chosen by the Community Foundation to participate in a matching funds program called Birdies for Charity, which is done in conjunction with the AT&T Pro Am golf tournament. This will occur between February 6-9, 2014. You can help in one of two ways. You can pledge an amount "per birdie". For example, if 1,800 birdies are made during the tournament, you would be committed to contribute $18. This past year, 1,823 birdies were made. In addition, you can make a cash donation at the following web site:

https://events.r2it.com/birdies/r.aspx?site=ATTPebbleBeach&charity=HandstoHelpSeniors

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View From A Nonprofit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

One little known fact about the so-called Obama Care (Health Care Reform or the Affordable Care Act) is that it's going to eliminate outrageous hospitals charges to the uninsured.  Currently, hospitals have "rack rates" which are ridiculously high charges for each item.  Private insurance companies, Medicare and Medi-Cal negotiate their own rates, so the only people who actually pay these outrageous fees are the uninsured.  One of our Platinum sponsors, Alliance Home Health, sees this on a daily basis as they deal with billing on Medicare and Medi-Cal patients.  The delta between the actual charge and the reimbursement rate is huge.  A Time Magazine. cover story earlier this year entitled "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us" profiled Emilia Gilbert who was 61 when and accident occurred and she had to be rushed to the ER after a fall.  However, she was in a catch-22 situation.  She only made $22,000 per year which was too high to qualify for Medi-Cal, and at 61 years old she was too young to qualify for Medicare.  She was charged $9,418 for treatment for a broken nose.  However, if she was on Medicare, the hospital would have been reimbursed only $825.  But since she was uninsured and paying rack rate, she was charged $6,538.  The hospital sued her when she didn't pay the bill and a judge ordered her to repay it at the rate of $20 per week.  Under the Affordable Care Act, these shenanigans won't be allowed.  If hospitals charge patients in need of financial aid more than they are being reimbursed by the average rate they are paid by private insurance and Medicare, their tax exempt status will be revoked.  That's a great idea which should have been implemented years ago.  No one should be able to have a non-profit status and then charge people in need exorbitant prices. 

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View From A Nonprofit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Much has been written about the problems with the new government web site which has enabled millions of people to sign up for health insurance.  The government reported that they have been unable to process 183,396 applications from people who signed up on the healthcare.gov web site.  The problem is, this site is to sign up for private insurance, but these 183,396 people realized while they were signing up for insurance that they were eligible for Medicaid (called Medi-Cal in California).  The Federal government has been unable to figure out how to transfer these applications to the individual states to that they can process the people for enrollment.  They have given "interim files" to the states, but the information is not enough to get the applications completed.  Government officials are now saying that if they were to have to comb through all of these files to get complete information, it would take time away from other important efforts.  What a sad situation.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors

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View From A Nonprofit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

I am happy to report that the booming stock market is causing people to open up their wallets and increase their charitable giving.  In particular, I want to thank our Platinum Sponsors Alliance Home Health and Family Caregiving for their generosity.  This allowed us to put on a great event at Bernardus Lodge which gave a huge jumpstart to Hands to Help Seniors.  According to the Blackbaud Index, which tracks domestic charitable giving, donations are up 4.4% for the first 10 months of 2013 compared to the tepid 1.4% increase that came in 2012.  "This has been a better year for the non-profit sector than it has been in a number of years," Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud's chief scientist said.  This is great news as it's been a tough slog for most non-profits getting through the recession.  One grant that we applied for came back with "refused" written on the envelope.  I researched the foundation and found that, sadly, they had invested all of their money with a crooked stockbroker and, a la Bernie Madoff, he had absconded with all of their funds.  This has happened more times than you would think.  I'm hopeful that we are beginning to put this terrible piece of history behind us and move forward.  Hopefully the job market will pick up as the stock market booms.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors

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View From A Nonprofit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Hospital bills are often baffling, and the price of just a small item like a band-aid or a Tylenol can fetch eye-popping prices.  The average hospital charges $20 for a codeine pill which can be had at your local pharmacy for about 50 cents, even without insurance.  Hardly anyone other than insurance companies and the government (such as Medicare or Medi-Cal) look at the bills, because there are pre-negotiated contracts between hospitals and insurance companies with an agreed upon price schedule for each item.  However, if you are uninsured you will most certainly be paying attention to the detailed hospital bill after you get home, and this is likely to give you significant heartburn.  The New York Times published a story today about this perplexing issue.  It said that that emergency rooms were big profit centers at most hospitals.  One woman went in and had three stiches put in.  She was happy to be in and out within an hour, but not happy with the $2,229 charge.  Another patient had a minor forehead wound.  The hospital dabbed on some skin glue and charged $1,696.  If you are admitted to the hospital, charges can run as high as $12,500 per day.  "How do hospitals set prices?  They set prices to maximize revenue, and they raise prices as much as they can.  All the research supports that," said Glenn Melnick, a professor of health economics at the University of Southern California.  If you are in need of elective surgery and don't have insurance, I urge you to get in contact with the hospital prior to having it done.  Most hospitals will negotiate rates in advance and lower prices if you can show financial need.  Unfortunately, if you try to do this once you are out of the hospital and the debt is already on the books, hospital collection agents will have little sympathy for you.  This can cause a considerable amount of stress as bill collectors call trying to collect on an astronomical bill that you know there is no way that you can ever afford to repay.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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