Is there anyone who you can hire to do the case management part of eldercare?

[Anonymous]

We have hired someone to help with my parents in their home. This person shops, cooks, cleans, helps with bathing and incontinence issues, does laundry, etc. She is great.

However, as my parent's daughter, I still have to do the bulk of the following tasks (and from a distance):
- make doctor's appointments
- get prescriptions filled and delivered to the house
- order groceries (when needed)
- talk to doctors
- attend doctors appointments
- file insurance claims
- monitor payments for insurance claims
- fill out increasing amounts of paperwork
- talk to the caregiver and 'manage' her as needed

Is there anyone you can hire to help with the case managemnet aspects of elder care?

[Anonymous]

Yes. I considered hiring one. I can’t recall the name but I think they were in NoVa. Google may help.

[Anonymous]

First, get a medigap plan. There's no reason your parents should be paying medical bills. My mother has Medicare and an AARP supplemental and she's never paid a cent or filed a claim.

Second, the rest of this list sounds like it would take at most half an hour a week, once you eliminate the insurance stuff. No one is going to attend doctor appointments for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, get a medigap plan. There's no reason your parents should be paying medical bills. My mother has Medicare and an AARP supplemental and she's never paid a cent or filed a claim.

Second, the rest of this list sounds like it would take at most half an hour a week, once you eliminate the insurance stuff. No one is going to attend doctor appointments for you.

Hahahahahahahah! (Laughing in Caregiver).

Oh my goodness, you have no clue.

May you remain blissfully unaware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, get a medigap plan. There's no reason your parents should be paying medical bills. My mother has Medicare and an AARP supplemental and she's never paid a cent or filed a claim.

Second, the rest of this list sounds like it would take at most half an hour a week, once you eliminate the insurance stuff. No one is going to attend doctor appointments for you.

Is this a joke, this must be a joke. You are clueless.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they are called geriatric care managers. They are generally employed by agencies and they aren't inexpensive, so you need to calculate the value of the time you're spending on these tasks and decide whether you want to pay someone else or remain in that role yourself. Care managers can be good and they can be not so good, and they will never be as invested in your elder's care as much as you are - assuming you still have a loving and respectful relationship with your elder.

- professional elder caregiver

[Anonymous]

You could start at either care.com for the area where your parents live or see if the caregiving service you use for the other help may have someone.

In absence of that some of the best advice I got from the forum awhile back was to just set aside a specific time slot to work on the issues relating to my mom. I think I had one to two hours once or twice a week set aside. And I tabled her issues until then.

For medications I used Amazon Pillpack when she was still able to take her own meds- they send the meds together in one package so they’re organized by when the meds need to be taken instead of individual medications that need to be organized into a pill holder. And Walmart delivery is great for groceries. My mom liked the same things so once every week or two I’d order her the same grocery order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First, get a medigap plan. There's no reason your parents should be paying medical bills. My mother has Medicare and an AARP supplemental and she's never paid a cent or filed a claim.

Second, the rest of this list sounds like it would take at most half an hour a week, once you eliminate the insurance stuff. No one is going to attend doctor appointments for you.

There are definitely people you can hire to attend doctors appts. Look into a medical advocate I think? I don’t know how good these people will be but there certainly are people that will do this.

Hahahahahahahah! (Laughing in Caregiver).

Oh my goodness, you have no clue.

May you remain blissfully unaware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First, get a medigap plan. There's no reason your parents should be paying medical bills. My mother has Medicare and an AARP supplemental and she's never paid a cent or filed a claim.

Second, the rest of this list sounds like it would take at most half an hour a week, once you eliminate the insurance stuff. No one is going to attend doctor appointments for you.

There are definitely people you can hire to attend doctors appts. Look into a medical advocate I think? I don’t know how good these people will be but there certainly are people that will do this.

Hahahahahahahah! (Laughing in Caregiver).

Oh my goodness, you have no clue.

May you remain blissfully unaware.

Thanks for this laugh. I am the OP and I was very discouraged by this comment!
Also, to those who say to set aside 1-2 hours per week…..right now, I need to spend 10-15 hours per week, sometimes up to 20. So, yeah, that advice doesn’t work that well…..
And I also have a kid and a full time job. Panini generation. Sandwiches have room to breathe.

[Anonymous]

OP again. The insurance stuff is long term care insurance so can’t be eliminated. We have to pay for the long term care and we need to submit the huge costs to the insurance.

[Anonymous]

Be careful about geriatric care managers - do your homework before you open hire one. Some are fine but others will overstep and become too involved in medical decision making as many are ex-nurses, etc. It's very costly too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. The insurance stuff is long term care insurance so can’t be eliminated. We have to pay for the long term care and we need to submit the huge costs to the insurance.

Why is that time consuming? I’m just headed down this road with my mom (ltc claim still being approved) - once approved wouldn’t this be pro forma? Are you using an agency that will submit for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be careful about geriatric care managers - do your homework before you open hire one. Some are fine but others will overstep and become too involved in medical decision making as many are ex-nurses, etc. It's very costly too.

We have one and it's expensive, the person is not as professional as I would like and has convinced the parent to never got to a residential so in a way I hate that all this money is draining to this person. However, the parent is combative and nasty to me, this agency contracts with many places and can set up care quickly as needs change, parent likes CM because parent assumes easy to control CM (much younger) and I have a challenging sibling with denial and mental health issue. So we needed someone more "objective" involved who can coordinate care without dramatics. It is far from ideal, but I have nothing left to give after many years of this and i have become enemy #1 to parent because I noticed all the concerning signs of decline first and pushed for an evaluation. Plus, I have a lot pulling at me with the family I created.

[Anonymous]

My parent who lived out of area had a nurse care manager. She did things for us like attend doct appointments when asked, coordinate follow up care and referrals, visit for medical needs, read his medical chart, recommend and navigate various services needed. They will also call your insurance company and do all that if you want them to and give them permission to access the accounts.

He had an in home aide 4 days a week who did some of the other tasks you are describing. Grocery shopping, mail, bills, errands. Life errands ans basic paperwork.

The person who thinks LTC health insurance is on autopilot. Um no. They do everything possible to stonewall you and not pay you. Lots of follow up required.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this exists especially in very wealthy areas. There's an agency like this near my mother's house which I intend to contact when the need arises.