Jeralean Talley, the world’s oldest-known person, has died in Michigan 26 days after her 116th birthday, a family spokeswoman said on Thursday. Born on May 23, 1899, Talley climbed to the top of a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group, which validates the ages of the world’s longest-living people, after Gertrude Weaver died at 116 in Arkansas in April. Talley died on Wednesday night in her home in Inkster, a Detroit suburb, which she shared with her daughter, Thelma Holloway, 77, said Christonna Campbell, a family spokeswoman. “She was just a beautiful woman,” Campbell said. “We enjoyed her words…
On June 9, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter finding that Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make stations for which it is responsible physically accessible to persons with mobility disabilities by the deadline in the ADA of July 26, 2010. That is, currently only 18 out of nearly 400 Amtrak stations are accessible. The Letter of Findings is available on ADA.gov. Source/more: U.S. Department of Justice David Wingate is an elder law attorney, who practices in Frederick and Montgomery…
A new Oklahoma law that took effect in November requires hospitals to train a designated family caregiver to tend to the medical needs of a released patient. Since then, 12 more states (Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia and West Virginia) have approved similar laws. In Illinois and New York, legislation is awaiting the governor’s signature. As many as 42 million Americans take care of a family member at any given time. Traditionally, family caregivers provide assistance with bathing, dressing, and eating. They shop for groceries and manage finances. But as the…
Theme parks and amusement parks have been creating more places where senior citizens can enjoy themselves. If the parks encourage repeat visits by elderly people, who have time and money to spare, the owners believe it could compensate for the drop in the number of customers in younger generations due to the low birthrate. If seniors enjoy themselves at the parks, the owners hope it could lead to an increasing number of visits by three-generation families, which would include their children and grandchildren. “We try to buy whatever our grandchildren want,” said a 61-year-old man who visited Tokyo Disneyland in…
Fifty hospitals in the United States are charging uninsured consumers more than 10 times the actual cost of patient care, according to research published Monday. All but one of the facilities are owned by for-profit entities and the largest number of hospitals — 20 — are in Florida. For the most part, researchers said, the hospitals with the highest markups are not in pricey neighborhoods or big cities, where the market might explain the higher prices. Community Health Systems operates 25 of the hospitals on the list. Hospital Corporation of America operates 14 others. “They are price-gouging because they can,”…
Millions of Americans could soon lose health insurance when the Supreme Court decides the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act this month, but states have made few concrete plans to deal with the potential fallout, and they may get little help from Washington, President Obama warned Monday. “If somebody does something that doesn’t make any sense, then, it’s hard…to fix,” the President said, suggesting his administration can’t do much if the justices side with the health law’s Republican critics. When the court rules this month, the justices may eliminate insurance subsidies in as many as 37 states that use…
With one out of four U.S. doctors older than 65, the AMA adopted a plan Monday to help decide when it’s time for aging senior physicians to hang up the stethoscope. The nation’s largest organization of doctors agreed to spearhead an effort to create competency guidelines for assessing whether older physicians remain able to provide safe and effective care for patients. Doctors have no mandatory retirement age, unlike pilots, military personnel and a few other professions where mistakes can be deadly. All doctors must meet state licensing requirements, and some hospitals require age-based screening. But there are no national mandates…
Securities and Exchange Commission Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher and Democratic Commissioner Luis Aguilar urged the agency to beef-up elder financial protection efforts. Gallagher criticized the SEC for letting anti-elder fraud activities fall away since the start of the financial crisis. “It’s time to step up again,” the Republican Commissioner said. On the Democratic side, Aguilar said the agency should do more. For one, it should establish a working group on senior fraud composed of representatives from the enforcement, examination, and investor education sections, he said. He added senior issues should be included in the agency’s rulemaking across the board. “Elder…
A Life Well Lived Legacy Planners, in partnership with Friends of Meals on Wheels of Frederick County, will be hosting “A Celebration of Life” on November 8th, 2014, at 8pm, at William Talley Recreation Center in Frederick, MD, to benefit The Frederick County Department of Aging’s Meals on Wheels progra. The Elder Law Office of Dvid Wingate is a sponsor of this event, aswell. Maryland has a growing senior population with over 144,000 seniors struggling with hunger. Meals on Wheels provides two meals a day, five days a week, to aging individuals within the program to address hunger in the…
Medicare beneficiaries who are admitted to a hospital and then discharged to a nursing home have been getting charged for care they thought Medicare would cover. A new self-help packet from the Center for Medicare Advocacy explains how beneficiaries can fight for the coverage they need. The problem arises if a hospital places you in “observation status” instead of formally admitting you. Observation status triggers Medicare Part B, a part of the Medicare law that does not pay for post-hospital care. Medicare covers nursing home stays entirely for the first 20 days, but only if the patient was first admitted…
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