Sorted by date Results 906 - 930 of 959
The Alaska Commission on Aging will hold its quarterly meeting Dec. 11 and 12 in Anchorage. The first day will be an orientation for new commission members at the BP Energy Center, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Dec. 12, the meeting takes place at the Anchorage Senior Activity Center. Public attendance is encouraged. Commissioners will hear presentations from and about senior service programs and agencies, including the Division of Senior and Disabilities Services; Senior Benefits program; Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education; A...
Seniors in Yakutat and Saxman will soon have new staff available to help link them with supportive services, thanks to federal funding. Catholic Community Services announced in early October that HUD had allocated funding to the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority to hire "service coordinators" in Yakutat and Saxman to work directly with residents to assess their needs and connect them with services available in their community. The goal is to promote independent living and aging-in-place....
The Alaska State Medicare Information Office is spreading this alert about a prevalent scam: Scammers pretending to be Medicare representatives have been calling Alaska seniors recently looking for their Medicare numbers and banking information. They say they need the information so that the senior can get a new Medicare card. (Frequently they say it is needed under the Affordable Care Act.) Medicare will never contact beneficiaries by phone, email, or at their door seeking personal information. Neither Medicare nor Social Security needs...
"Our objective is helping people to live as independently as they would like. Confidence is our goal." Lowell Zercher, Manual Skills Instructor for the Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, chooses these words to explain the mission of the center. "We want our clients to be involved in life, to meet their life and work goals and contribute their talents to others, to the community." Lowell has worked at the center in Anchorage for 14 years. He is often found in the shop at the...
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a noon lecture series in Juneau to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November. The brown-bag lunch series will focus on spirituality, said SHI President Rosita Worl. Native spirituality is a topic that has come up in issues dealing with repatriation and other areas. SHI’s Council of Traditional Scholars has wrestled with how to bring the knowledge of shamanism into the modern world and to correct the many misconceptions about shamanism. Also, an Alaska court recently heard testimony on Y...
The Division of Public Assistance is making a few minor revisions to the Heating Assistance Regulations to clarify language for expedite time frame for crisis application processing, to provide clarification for utility deposits and to update the definition of subsidized housing. These changes are as follows: • Revisions to 7 AAC 44.030 and 7 AAC 44.220 changes the processing time for crisis applications from 18 business hours to 18 hours. • 7 AAC 44.040 and 7 AAC 44.230 are revised to clarify that the utility deposit is only for sub...
On Oct. 3, approximately 650,000 Alaskans will wake up with an extra $900, so Better Business Bureau is taking the opportunity to encourage Permanent Fund Dividend recipients to shop smart and donate thoughtfully. Scammers and schemers are sure to notice the $567 million addition to the local and national economy, and taking advantage of unsuspecting seniors will likely be a top priority. “Seniors and baby boomers are the fastest growing demographic, and they are relentlessly targeted by scammers,” says Robert W.G. Andrew, CEO of BBB ser...
For tech-savvy fraudsters, Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends are like beacons, said Scott Sterling of the state Office of Elder Fraud and Assistance. Sterling was one of several speakers at a Sept. 20 resource fair for vulnerable adults at the Anchorage Senior Activities Center, organized by the state Adult Protective Services. Sterling and investigators with the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit gave tips on stopping scammers, and reported successes in apprehending them. “It’s faster and cheaper for crooks to use the Internet” than mail or...
A nationwide media contest has recognized Senior Voice for excellence. The 2013 National Mature Media Awards contest awarded Senior Voice for three entries: • a Silver award for regular contributor Stephanie Jaeger’s article, “Choosing Protective Sunscreens and Clothing” • a Merit award for writer Douglas Yates’ article, “Energy Costs Ignite Interior” • and a Silver award for the publication as a whole for its February 2012 issue. The National Mature Media Awards received a record number of entries for this year’s contest showcasing the nati...
While people in Alaska such as Navigators, Assistors and staff in many departments are preparing for people to enroll in the Affordable Care Act’s (Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace, scam artists and crooks are licking their chops, too. Fraudsters look for a period of transition where there is consumer confusion and prey on fear and misinformation. There will be con artists calling and sending literature that looks like the real deal and there will be scams of products offering what looks like a real insurance product but isn’t. And the...
My name is Charles Bischoff but I prefer to be known as “Toney.” I am a senior at University of Alaska Anchorage in human services and have been an intern at Older Persons Action Group for seven months. I received my Medicare Certification in August of this year and will be working with Rita Hatch in the Medicare Counseling and Assistance program at OPAG for another 10 months. I will continue my education with UAA until I receive my Master’s Certificate and plan to work within the Medic...
Bunkering down for the winter does not have to mean closing down the mind. University of Alaska campuses in Fairbanks and Anchorage both host educational programs for older people who like learning in a fun environment with likeminded peers. In Fairbanks, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) offers a full catalog of courses, lectures and educational travel and social activities for members age 50 and older and their companions. Most classes are held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Park Building – the old University Park S...
With Alaska having the fastest growing senior population in the country, we must lay the foundation for an Alaskan retirement to be as attractive as an Alaskan career. As our population ages we will face new challenges in providing services and adapting our communities to be more responsive to the needs of our senior citizens. Lawmakers must stay ahead of the curve in providing the services and outreach Alaskans need. I was proud to be the Senate sponsor of the recently enacted Silver Alert legislation creating an early notification system for...
Registered voters in many communities across Alaska will vote on October 1 to elect municipal candidates. Local clerks are responsible for these elections. REAA School Board elections will also be held on October 1, but those elections are administered by the Alaska Division of Elections. A typical city or borough ballot might include a mayoral race; assembly or city council members; school board members; spaces for write-in candidates; and a local bond issue. It is important to note that a voter must be registered at least 30 days before the e...
Alaska’s senior population is growing fast, and the number of complaints to the state agency tasked with protecting vulnerable adult Alaskans of all ages is growing too. Adult Protective Services is holding two free resource fairs to share information with vulnerable adults, families, caregivers and service providers in Fairbanks and Anchorage this month. Both events run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a Friday. Anchorage Resource Fair The Anchorage fair will be Sept. 20 in the Anchorage Senior Activity Center, 1300 E. 19th Ave. There will be a...
Deborah Blake had a dream to take care of herself and her husband by gaining good solid paying employment. And now that hope has become reality for her and more. She and her husband came to Alaska in 2006 to spend more time with the grandchildren. Dennis, her husband, had always provided for the family, but now he had a debilitating disease and could not do the work he was accustomed to. Deborah knew in her heart it was her turn to provide for the family. Unfortunately, Deborah hadn’t worked i...
September is National Preparedness Month. It is a time to prepare yourself and those in your care for emergencies and disasters. This September, please prepare and plan in the event you must go for three days without electricity, water service, access to a supermarket, or local services for several days. Just follow these four steps: • Be Informed • Make a Plan • Build a Kit • Get Involved While each person’s abilities and needs are unique, every individual can take steps to prepare for all kinds of emergencies. By evaluating your own perso...
Confusion is common when laws change. And that may be even more true with health care reform, since nobody – including those in Congress who created the law – seems to understand it. One thing is certain, scam artists are out there taking advantage of the lack of knowledge to steal from trusting victims across the country. “There’s been a rapid increase in scams exploiting the confusion over health care reform,” confirmed Jim Quiggle, the spokesman for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. “People are uncertain what it means to them and sw...
Seniors who list various deductions on their income tax returns are getting a little-known break. It deals with health costs. For 2013 taxes, the claim for health related costs was jacked up from 7.5 percent to 10 percent of Adjusted Gross Income — except for taxpayers or their spouses who are 65 or older. For us seniors the deduction remains at 7.5 percent from 2013 to 2017. If your health-care expenses this year are anywhere near those of the typical senior, they would be about $10,600 each for you and your spouse. In 2010, health expenses a...
Who knew there is so much going on around us – in the air, under foot, even under the ground or under the sea? OLÉ! seeks to explore, to help adult learners keep on discovering and learning about all that is going on around them. OLÉ! stands for “Opportunities for Lifelong Education.” Providing those opportunities is an expansive, wide-ranging goal, but I’ve found that OLE! does a super job of providing adventures for grabbing on to new knowledge. Take for example the weekend of July 19 - 21....
Ever forget to take your pills or simply fail to measure your blood sugar or some other routine health care daily chores? Would it help you remember if you knew that a nurse was coming by regularly to check in and make sure you were doing what you were supposed to do? Simple things sometimes can be revolutionary. A Medicare experimental program, being tested in Doylestown, Pa., that brings a nurse to regularly visit you for continued care – even when you aren’t seriously ill – has been given an 18 month reprieve from being shut down. If it is...
Imagine checking your bank balance and discovering your Social Security payment is 20 percent less than it should be. You contact the Social Security Administration only to be told that the Trust Fund is “insolvent,” and by law, benefits automatically adjust to the level of payroll taxes coming in. There’s only enough money to pay you 80 percent of your scheduled benefits. Think that Congress will never let that happen? I wouldn’t bet my benefits on it. This is, after all, the Congress that will be most remembered for letting $1.2 trillio...
On July 9, 2013, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Alaska Department of Law announced the filing of criminal charges against 29 Anchorage based personal care attendants (PCA) and Medicaid recipients as part of an ongoing state and federal investigation into medical assistance fraud by employees of Good Faith Services, LLC (Good Faith), PCAs and Medicaid recipients receiving services from Good Faith. The following state and federal agencies collaborated on the investigation: the Anchorage Police Department; investigators with the...
While the Obama administration battles with the Republican House of Representatives this summer in the public relations fight over getting people to sign up for the new health care insurance coverage, key decisions affecting millions of poor folks are being made at the state level with major consequences. Supporters and opponents are squaring off in efforts to sell or roll back the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare.” Both sides want to get the tactical advantage in advance of when people start to sign up for health...
In May, approximately 85 elders and seniors, providers and community members came together at the Millennium Alaskan Hotel to discuss the theme of the Second Annual Anchorage Elders Summit, “Connecting Elders, Strengthening the Community.” The format of the summit as envisioned by the sponsors, Alaska Rural Behavioral Health Training Academy (ARBHTA), and the Trust Training Cooperative, in partnership with the Anchorage Senior Citizens Advisory Commission, is to provide a place for our eld...
