Sorted by date Results 551 - 575 of 901
Editor’s note: This letter was mailed in February, announcing a new arrangement for providing senior rides in Fairbanks. Dear participant, parent or caregiver: I am writing to you today to let you know about a significant change to the way we offer our high-quality recreation programs. Parks and Recreation is excited to announce that we are partnering with Van Tran’s paratransit program, which will begin providing the transportation element of the Adaptive and Senior Recreation Programs, beginning April 3, 2017. Why are we making this cha...
AARP Alaska will present a free “Secure Your Future” workshop on retirement and Medicare in Kodiak, April 21 and 22 at the Best Western Kodiak Inn. “Get Ready for Medicare,” presented by staff from the Alaska Medicare Information Office, will discuss how and when to enroll; what Medicare covers and associated costs; when and how to choose prescription and/or Medigap coverage; Q&A. It will be offered twice, first on Friday, April 21, 5:30 to 7 p.m. and again on Saturday, April 22, 9:30 to 11 a.m. “Ready to Retire,” discusses fundamentals of inve...
Interested in learning more about businesses and agencies providing senior services in the Anchorage area? Want to get the word out about your own service? The monthly Interagency Breakfast, sponsored by Older Persons Action Group, is an opportunity for all of the above. Informal, early and free, with breakfast provided. The April meeting is April 12, hosted by AARP. Begins at 8 a.m. RSVP by calling Older Persons Action Group for more information on these events or to be added to our e-mail reminder list, 276-1059....
Keep track of senior-related bills, budget decisions and other issues by listening in to the Alaska Commission on Aging Legislative Teleconferences. Hosted by local agencies statewide, and available by toll-free call-in, the teleconferences provide a convenient forum for seniors and advocates across Alaska to share information about issues and specific bills of concern, including Medicaid, state budget and funding, senior assistance and more. Teleconferences are scheduled 9:30 to 11 a.m. every other Thursday and weekly during the last month of...
North Star Council on Aging, Fairbanks Senior Center and Senior Corps are very proud to announce the startup of our local Senior Companion Program. We were awarded a grant which makes this outstanding program possible and are currently rolling out in Fairbanks, closely followed by Delta Junction, and then we will expand to North Pole and Two Rivers. We are recruiting folks, age 55 and older, to volunteer helping seniors and disabled adults remain in their own homes as long as possible. The volunteers should have an income below $29,680 per...
In the fall of 2015, Martin Shkreli, the founder and former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, ignited a firestorm when his company raised the price of a little-known drug to treat toxoplasmosis to $750 a tablet from $13.50. Earlier that year, Valeant Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to a pair of life-saving heart drugs, Nitopress and Isuprel. The same day as the purchase, the company jacked up their list prices by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively. Last year, Mylan, supplier of roughly 95 percent of the nation’s EpiPens, an e...
Editor’s note: This press statement was received on Feb. 13, 2017. AARP has launched a comprehensive campaign to protect Medicare in the face of proposals by some in Congress that would hurt hardworking Alaskans who have paid into the program their entire working lives. Over the next few weeks, AARP staff and volunteers will meet with members of Congress to underscore the importance of Medicare to Alaska’s beneficiaries and the workers who currently pay in to the program. Congressional proposals to change Medicare into a voucher system wou...
In the sixth grade, my daughter was working on a school project and began asking a series of questions about family economics: “How much is our house payment? What does it cost to heat the house? What do we spend on groceries?” Our family records are in QuickBooks so I offered to run a report for her. She studied it carefully and said, “This doesn’t make sense, there’s more money going out than coming in! How does that work?” I asked her, “Well, what would you cut?” After looking over the report again she replied, “Cut all my brother’s stuff!...
I love the Senior Voice. However, I have a question regarding the January 2017 edition, page 25 statement: “The opioid crisis has hit nearly every corner of the country, with nearly 80 million Americans dying every day from heroin or opioid overdoses.” Google reports that the 2017 population count for the United States is 325,482,678 people. With 80 million of them dying every day due to heroin or opioid overdoses, the United States will run out of living people in five days approximately. We will be burning towers of dead Americans from overdo...
SENIOR VOICE STAFF Keep track of senior-related bills, budget decisions and other issues by listening in to the Alaska Commission on Aging Legislative Teleconferences. Hosted by local agencies statewide, and available by toll-free call-in, the teleconferences provide a convenient forum for seniors and advocates across Alaska to share information about issues and specific bills of concern, including Medicaid, state budget and funding, senior assistance and more. Teleconferences are scheduled 9:30 to 11 a.m. every other Thursday and weekly...
Interested in learning more about businesses and agencies providing senior services in the Anchorage area? Want to get the word out about your own service? The monthly Interagency Breakfast, sponsored by Older Persons Action Group, is an opportunity for all of the above. Informal, early and free, with breakfast provided. The March meeting is March 8, hosted by Serendipity Adult Day Services. Begins at 8 a.m. RSVP by calling Older Persons Action Group for more information on these events or to be added to our e-mail reminder list,...
Like most professions, financial advisors come in all varieties from great to self-serving and greedy. Before you trust your financial future to someone, make sure you’ve got a good one. White-collar prisons are full of people, male and female, each of whom appeared respectable and trustworthy, while bilking clients out of their savings. Many worked far harder to create a façade of success than they ever did to actually succeed at investing client money. That’s why it can be difficult even for sophisticated investors to detect the fraud at t...
The Alaska Commission on Aging Legislative Advocacy Committee has identified these three advocacy priorities for this legislative session: Preserve the senior safety net. This priority will focus on protecting funding and appropriate policies to the greatest extent possible in order to maintain existing core services for seniors. Specifically, this priority addresses (1) long-term support services (senior grant-funded services, Medicaid and Medicaid optional services, telemedicine/telehealth,...
Keep track of senior-related bills, budget decisions and other issues by listening in to the Alaska Commission on Aging Legislative Teleconferences. Hosted by local agencies statewide, and available by toll-free call-in, the teleconferences provide a convenient forum for seniors and advocates across Alaska to share information about issues and specific bills of concern, including Medicaid, state budget and funding, senior assistance, retirement, Pioneer Homes and more. Teleconferences are scheduled 9:30 to 11 a.m. every other Thursday and...
As we age, the more we need reliable health care, and an important part of the aging process is access to quality emergency and trauma care. As Republicans are looking to keep their promise to voters to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s important for lawmakers in Washington to understand how to repeal without continuing the damaging cuts to Medicare that were part of the ACA. In 2010, as we all remember, there was a fierce debate around health care reform - what it would look like and how it would be paid for. And sadly, as I warned d...
As Long Term Care Ombudsmen for Alaska, our mission is to meet with residents of assisted living homes and nursing facilities to see if they have any issues they need assistance in resolving. An important part of this process is to make sure residents and their families know there is a Long Term Care Ombudsman to help them if they need it. Established by the Older Americans Act, the Long Term Care Ombudsman program is federally and state mandated to provide independent oversight and advocacy services to residents in Alaska’s nursing f...
February marks the opening of Tax-Aide sites around Alaska. The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program is designed to prepare basic tax returns and anyone can use the service regardless of age or income. Sites are staffed by volunteers who are trained and certified by Internal Revenue Service and AARP Foundation instructors to prepare basic tax returns. By using AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, these taxpayers also avoid tax preparation fees and pitches for high-interest tax credit or refund loans. And the service is free. Following are the dates and hours...
Governor Bill Walker’s new operating budget for FY 2018 brings welcome news for the Alaska Pioneer Homes – no budget cuts for the homes. Since FY 2015, the Department of Health and Social Services, which includes services like the six Alaska Pioneer Homes, have seen the largest reduction in state funding, at $150 million in spending reductions. The homes have lost $1.3 million in funding, forcing numerous staff positions to be cut. “We lost 31 full time staff across the division since 2015,” says Julie Sande, administrator of the Ketchik...
Same incredible program, different local, non-profit, sponsor! The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is now actively serving and partnering with organizations in the Anchorage and Mat-Su region. This nationally-recognized program is sponsored and administered by the local non-profit, Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc. (APIAI). The RSVP program is a federally-funded program and is one of the largest volunteer networks in the nation for people age 55 and older. APIAI was awarded the three-year project in April of 2015, and has...
The Alaska Commission on Aging will hold a quarterly meeting in Juneau, Feb. 6 - 10, 2017. Interested parties are welcome to attend in person or on the phone. The teleconference number is 1-800-315-6338, code 53250#. On Monday, Feb. 6, the meeting will start at 3 p.m. and will end at 5:15 pm. Tuesday, Feb. 7, the meeting will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Public comment will be heard from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m. Anyone is free to call in and give comments on senior issues. We love to hear concerns, challenges and success stories. Wednesday,...
Interested in learning more about businesses and agencies providing senior services in the Anchorage area? Want to get the word out about your own service? The monthly Interagency Breakfast, sponsored by Older Persons Action Group, is an opportunity for all of the above. Informal, early and free, with breakfast provided. The February meeting is Feb. 8, hosted by Access Alaska. Begins at 8 a.m. RSVP by calling Older Persons Action Group for more information on these events or to be added to our e-mail reminder list, 276-1059....
If you’re a taxpayer who rushes to file early, don’t get in too much of a hurry. The tax filing season will begin on January 23, 2017, says the IRS, and the tax agency will begin accepting electronic returns on that day. But taxpayers who are expecting refunds through tax credits will need to wait longer than usual. More than 153 million returns are expected, about 80 percent of which will be sent electronically. A new law requires the IRS to hold refunds that involve the Earned Income Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit until Feb...
Keep track of senior-related bills, budget decisions and other issues by attending the Alaska Commission on Aging Legislative Teleconferences. Hosted by local agencies statewide, and available by toll-free call-in, the teleconferences provide a convenient forum for seniors and advocates across Alaska to share information about issues and specific bills of concern, including Medicaid, state budget and funding, senior assistance, retirement, Pioneer Homes and more. Teleconferences are scheduled 9:30 to 11 a.m. every other Thursday and weekly...
The growth trend in the aging population suggests that increasing numbers of Alaskans are rapidly becoming seniors at a pace that may exceed service capacity. Across Alaska and the nation, life expectancy has also increased substantially for people experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities. As Alaskans with disabilities are living longer, service provider agencies across the state are looking for ways to support seniors of all abilities. Although it has been stated that older adults present unique public health challenges and...
As the year winds down let’s take a look back at what types of businesses made it on Better Business Bureau’s list for most complained about industries. Complaints include both resolved and unresolved in the last year in the BBB Northwest territory. Since January of this year, consumers have filed nearly 17,184 complaints regarding the following industries in the northwest territory: Top 10 Most Complained About Business Industries (with number of complaints): • Cellular telephone service and supplies: 6,867 • Internet selling service...
