Sorted by date Results 856 - 880 of 959
The Senior Access Program, administered by RuralCAP, provides grants to seniors 55+ for accessibility modifications to their principal residence. In 2014 nearly $600,000 was available statewide. Grants to more than 30 people have ranged between $7,000 to $15,000. Once an application is received and approved, RuralCap staff assists with planning and oversight of the actual construction. The program is expected to continue in 2015. For updated information, RuralCap staff may be reached at...
Mabel T. Caverly Senior Services in Anchorage is seeking donations for its annual Parcel Post Party, one of its biggest fundraisers and takes place Sept. 25 this year at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, inside the Athabascan Ceremonial House. The event includes bidding on donated gift packages. If you are traveling, even inside the state, buy a few things from that area in the $25 to $30 price range that you think would make a good gift and drop them off at Mabel T. Caverly’s downtown office, 911 W. 8th Avenue, Suite 104. This is also a g...
The Alaska Commission on Aging will hold its quarterly meeting September 15 - 18 in Fairbanks. In addition to the usual business meeting and updates from senior service agencies, commissioners will attend site visits to local senior housing facilities, health care providers in and around the Fairbanks area on Sept. 17. There also will be an Elder-Senior Community Forum, to help assess activities and needs related to the Alaska State Plan for Senior Services, FY2016-2019. More information will be available on the commission’s website at w...
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 for business and agency representatives. The August meeting is Aug. 13 and will be hosted by Day Break Adult Day Services. Begins at 8 a.m. Call Older Persons Action Group to RSVP and get directions to the event, or for more...
If you are 65 or older, 70 percent physically disabled or blind, you are eligible for a fishing proxy. This means you may have someone else fish for you for most fish and shellfish, though proxy fishing for halibut is not allowed. For more information or to pick up a form, visit your local senior center or Dept. of Fish and Game office. Or visit the website www.adfg.alaska.gov. The Proxy Fishing Information Form can be downloaded, printed, then filled out, but it has to be brought in, faxed, or scanned and then e-mailed to an Alaska Fish and...
It’s one of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams and it’s making its way across the Pacific Northwest again. Better Business Bureau serving Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington has received several reports of IRS impersonators. The Internal Revenue Service issued the initial alert in February 2014, as did the Federal Trade Commission. Callers pretend to be from the IRS in hopes of stealing money or identities. Here are some examples of how the scammers attempt to swindle taxpayers. • Victims are told they owe money to the IRS or are entitled to a huge...
According to a new, state-by-state, long-term care scorecard from AARP, Alaska ranks fifth in the nation overall when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents. But AARP cautions against too much optimism since improvements must be made when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents, especially the support provided for family caregivers. “Raising Expectations 2014: A State Scorecard on Long-Term Services and Supports for Older Adults, People with Physical Disabilities, and Family Caregivers,” was pro...
July 20 Deadline for voters to register to vote or to update their registration. Aug. 4 First date for Absentee In Person; Early Voting; Electronic Transmission; and Special Needs Voting to begin. Aug. 19 Primary Election Day, Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Contacts • Online registration; apply for absentee ballot; Look-up your voter registration: https//www.elections.alaska.gov/ot/php • Division of Elections Director’s Office contact: https//www.elections.alaska.gov/csm.php Or call 1-866-952-8683 or 465-4611...
Seniors are often the target of fraud aimed at obtaining money or personal information from them which will make it possible to obtain money using the identifying information. About one-third of the victims of identity theft are over the age of 50, according Michelle Tabler, Alaska Regional Manager of the Better Business Bureau. Tabler says the individuals in this age range are a popular target because many will be too embarrassed to talk about money which they have lost to a trick. In addition, she notes that some people may be easier to take...
Dying patients may find it more difficult to get certain medications under new rules Medicare has recently put in place. Meanwhile, another set of rules could make it easier for seniors to get Medicare to pay for home health care services. Medicare has recently issued different sets of rules for payments involving hospice care and home health care services, as a result of a lawsuit settlement. But both of the rules changes are complicated and confusing and seniors may need some help in working their way through the changes. In an effort to crac...
To sum up the 2014 session: It was a good news, bad news session for Alaskans. I had the honor of serving as the Democratic leader in the state Senate, so what follows is a report from our caucus on some issues of importance to Alaska’s fast growing senior population. Established in 2007, the Senior Benefits Program pays cash benefits to Alaskan seniors with low or moderate incomes. The program faced an approaching sunset date, and Democrats offered a bill in 2013 to keep the program running indefinitely. This session the legislature voted t...
From July 1 to Sept. 30, 2013, the participants in Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training (MASST) performed 25,545 hours in community service statewide while learning skills that helped them find unsubsidized employment. In the program, qualifying participants are matched with agencies, located all around the state, that are able to train in skills the participant needs to find a job. Participants are trained on how to get a resume ready to apply for a job, where to look for jobs, and how to...
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 for business and agency representatives. The June meeting is June 11 and will be hosted by the Municipality of Office of Emergency Management. Begins at 8 a.m. Call Older Persons Action Group to RSVP and get directions to the...
In recognition of National Safety Month, the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley is offering free home safety checks for area seniors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 20 million seniors ages 65 and older visit the emergency room each year with almost a third of the visits related to injuries, many of which are sustained in the home. However, almost half of all home accidents by seniors (48 percent) can be avoided according to a recent survey of emergency room doctors, condu...
The 2014 Alaska Legislative Session included a handful of bills that were important to seniors, from formalizing a change to the mediset program that allows smaller pharmacies to distribute medicine in hourly or daily dosage packs to Medicaid patients, to extending the Senior Benefits Program that provides a cash benefit to seniors who have a low to moderate income. At press time the Senior Benefits Program was being approved and several other bills debated as the Legislature worked to close out the session. Another important bill, Senate Bill...
The White House, after an aggressive pushback from seniors, patients, pharmaceutical companies and lawmakers from both parties, recently scrapped most of a proposed plan to limit Medicare coverage for certain classes of drugs including those used to treat depression and schizophrenia. In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed broad changes to the Medicare Part D prescription-drug program that covers medicines for about 39 million beneficiaries. Medicare officials had said the proposal would save money and reduce the...
I sat there, transfixed by the diversity in the room. "Sad, sadder, saddest," Cindy Johnson said to the group. She wrote the three words on the board at the front of the classroom, then drew simple faces wearing these three expressions. She passed out paper. "Draw," she told the class. It seemed as if the world had found its way to one room that morning. Sitting at the long, classroom tables were several people from both Sudan and the Dominican Republic, someone from Somalia and Mexico,...
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Senior and Disabilities Services Division has placed a six month moratorium on certifying new agencies which provide personal care assistant (PCA) services funded by Medicaid. Lynne Keilman-Cruiz, Director of Quality for the Division, emphasizes that the moratorium does not affect individuals seeking to enter the program for the first time as personal care assistants. Nor does it affect recipients – clients who are currently receiving PCA services from or through an established agency. Or w...
Gov. Sean Parnell has named nine Alaskans to serve on the Medicaid Reform Advisory Group, which was created by the governor to bring in stakeholders and craft a proposal for meaningful reforms to the state’s Medicaid program. Specifically, the group will engage stakeholders such as physicians, specialists, pharmacists, dentists, the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, community health centers and other non-profit health care providers, behavioral health providers, tribal health leaders, veterans affairs, insurers, and c...
The Alaska Kidney Patients Association will present their free 9th Annual Education Symposium on Saturday, May 31, 2013 at Changepoint Church in Anchorage. The Symposium consists of live speaker lectures from local kidney doctors and other professionals for individuals experiencing reduced kidney function, persons at risk for kidney failure or disease, dialysis patients, transplant recipients, and their families and caretakers. The workshops are targeted at improving the quality of life for people with kidney disease and providing information...
The Alaska Commission on Aging will hold its quarterly meeting April 30 and May 2 at the Anchorage Senior Activity Center in Anchorage. The commission has provided the following draft agenda: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 8:30 a.m. Good Morning & Welcome All! Breakfast snacks will be provided. The public may call in to listen on April 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on May 2 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Public comment is scheduled for Wednesday, April 30 from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The toll-free number is 1-800-315...
Anchorage seniors who use the AnchorRIDES transportation program can expect new policies about hours of service and fares effective May 1. Weekday senior transportation service hours will be expanded for the core service area, with the earliest pickups available at 5:45 a.m. and the latest dropoffs at 11:30 p.m. This increases by over six hours the Monday through Friday availability in areas where the pickup and dropoff is within three-quarters of a mile of a bus route. The Municipal Department of Transportation, which administers AnchorRIDES,...
When do you fix a government program that’s not broken? That’s the question many in Washington are asking, after Medicare recently proposed a series of changes to its Part D prescription drug program – a program that, by most everyone’s view, is working very well. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed new rules recently that would fundamentally change the program's private insurance coverage for certain drugs, alter the pharmacy networks that some plans cover and limit the number of policies available to benefic...
Local non-profit Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska holds an annual walk every spring. This will be a special year though as they reach the ten year milestone. The walk began in 2005 with 146 walkers raising $30,000. Today, the walk has grown to as many as 289 walkers and has raised a combined total of over $500,000 to support Alaska’s seniors and those with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. The walk has taken various paths over the last decade, literally, with the first walk beginning at the Sourdough Mining Company restaurant and meand...
The Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent organization within the IRS. We help taxpayers whose problems with the IRS are causing financial difficulties; who have tried but have not been able to resolve their problems with the IRS; and those who believe an IRS system or procedure is not working as it should. Here are some things every taxpayer should know about TAS: TAS is your voice at the IRS. TAS is an independent organization within the IRS and helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS and recommend changes that will prevent the...
