Kansas Senior Press Service News ArticlesKansas Senior Press Service News ArticlesBy Don Carter
Kansas Senior Press Service
It is not uncommon for basement repair contractors to oversell their services. I have seen this happen many times with companies that, through intent or ignorance, will promote much more repair than a home really needs. With more than 75 foundation repair advertisements in the Yellow Pages, how does one make the right choice?
First, remember this: There are no perfect houses. Simple plaster flaws or a seasonally sticking door are no cause for panic. But damage that includes a break in the wallboard, leaning or split basement walls, springy floors, doors that won’t open or recurring wall leaks require attention and should be evaluated.
You may know one or more people who have training or experience in home construction. If so, ask them to look at the damage. Even if they aren’t sufficiently schooled in codes and practices to appraise your damage, they may be able to refer you to a colleague who is.
It should surprise no one to learn that I favor using a structural engineer for damage assessment. Licensed engineers and architects are empowered by the state to evaluate and certify buildings for safe habitation. No other disciplines have this authority. Engineers are also bound by a code of ethics to restrain side-stream business deals that return money for referrals. In short, engineers who have nothing to sell but their know-how only recommend what is essential for the stability and safety of a home.
Recently my business partner, Bill, was asked to look at a home described by the caller as “severely damaged.” She referred to her house as a “disaster.” Bill used a laser level to define basement wall elevations and found that the back wall, center I-beam, and side wall all measured within a half-inch of each other — well within accepted limits. When he measured the front wall, though, it varied more than two inches in one corner and this condition was broadcasting damage symptoms throughout the house. When Bill left, the owner had a clear picture of where the problem was and — equally important — where it wasn’t. He gave her a drawing and written repair plan specific to her needs. When all the bids have been received, Bill will review them to make sure they address the exact problem and nothing more.
Here are some basic things to consider:
Most areas have some very competent and trustworthy foundation repair contractors. Finding and directing them is fairly easy when you do your homework. Evaluate first, and then make your repair selection from a position of knowledge. The better informed you are, the more gratifying your results will be.
Don Carter is a licensed structural engineer and managing general partner of Foundation Engineering Specialists LLC, a company specializing in residential design and assessments: don@fdnengineering.com.
By Kansas Senior Press Service
Q: What is Medicare fraud?
A: Medicare fraud is when doctors or other providers deceive Medicare into paying when it should not or paying more than it should. This is against the law and should be reported. Types of fraud:
Q: How can I help prevent Medicare fraud?
A: You can do several things to help prevent Medicare fraud:
Q: How can I recognize fraud?
A: There are several arenas in which fraud often appears:
Billing. When you receive your Medicare Summary Notice or your Explanation of Medicare Benefits, if you are in a private health plan, look at it carefully to make sure you actually received all the services listed. This can be hard if you received services from several doctors at the same time.
Marketing. Be suspicious of people who tell you they represent Medicare and want to offer you a service for free, call you or visit your house to offer services or equipment, or offer “free consultations” only to people with Medicare and ask for your Medicare number.
At your doctor’s office. If you have original Medicare, your doctor should not charge coinsurance for most preventive services, such as pap smears or flu shots; offer tests or other services you don’t need, especially if the doctor says that the more tests you receive, the cheaper they are; or fail to charge coinsurance all the time. (Doctors sometimes forgive coinsurance if a patient is in great financial need, but they should not do this routinely.)
Durable medical equipment. If you have returned your equipment, your supplier should not continue to charge Medicare for rental fees or maintenance. Look at your Medicare Summary Notice or your Explanation of Medicare Benefits carefully to make sure this is not happening.
Q: How do I report fraud?
A: If you think a mistake has been made in a bill, call your doctor, hospital or other provider first. It may have been a simple, honest error. If the provider’s answer does not satisfy you, you may call your Medicare carrier at 800-633-4227 or the Inspector General’s fraud hotline at 800-447-8477. When it investigates the potential fraud, Medicare will not use your name if you do not want it to.
Q: Why should I report Medicare fraud?
A: Fraud and abuse costs Medicare an estimated $16 billion every year and leads to higher costs for everyone with Medicare, in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and other costs. In addition, doctors and other health care providers who commit Medicare fraud may be dishonest about other things, as well. Finally, reporting fraud can help Medicare ensure that people with Medicare receive health care only from health care professionals who provide quality services.
Medicare offers a reward for reporting fraud. If you report fraud that cost Medicare more than $100, Medicare may pay you up to 10 percent of the money you helped recover, up to $1,000.
Source: MedicareRightsCenter
By Gene Meyer
Kansas Senior Press Service
The invitation sounds like a good deal: Free lunch or dinner at a nice steak house, an amiable discussion of investments and financial strategies for retirement, and absolutely no selling.
It may indeed be a good deal, but I urge you to know what you are getting into before you phone in your reservation. Regulators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA), and state agencies last year found disturbing potential sales abuses in at least half of the 110 such seminars they checked out.
There are honest seminar sponsors who include educational information in their presentations and draw clear lines defining where sales pitches start and stop. But among the 110 events the regulators sampled, more than half of the presenters made exaggerated or misleading claims about the potential growth of investments and more than a third peddled either unsuitable investments for their listeners or fraudulent ones.
Such misrepresentations are the leading cause of more than 550 formal complaints that Kansas consumers have filed since the beginning of 2003 about annuity sales, says Sandy Praeger, the state insurance commissioner. Kansas insurance regulators have recovered $8.1 million for investors in those nearly seven years. Annuities and other insurance-based investment contracts are a staple among free-meal seminars, along with real estate deals and a variety of exotic securities schemes.
You can find a good basic list of investment seminar warning signs on the AARP Web site, www.AARP.org. Just click on the “Money” button near the top of the page and type the words “free lunch seminars” into the search box. The list and other information are available for downloading at no charge.
Free investment seminars are a big deal in the United States, particularly in places with higher-than-average concentrations of older and wealthier residents. Four of five investors age 60 or older have received at least one invitation to an investment seminar in the last three years — and three of five have received a half-dozen invitations or more, FINRA found in a recent survey.
Many investors trash-canned the invitations, but one in four signed up for at least one event, the survey found.
It’s OK to participate, especially if the meal looks like a good one. But be prepared for a sales pitch. Seminar sponsors might not ask you to buy their deal on the spot, but they likely will try to persuade you to agree to a follow-up meeting, where the sales pitch will intensify.
So how do you cut through the sales jargon and tell potentially good investment offers from bad ones? Do some homework before you go, and ask good questions when you are there, regulators say.
Legitimate investment sellers are licensed and their firms are registered with FINRA, the SEC, or state securities regulators. Firms or individuals offering annuities or other insurance-linked investments must also be licensed by the insurance department in their home state.
Before the seminar, contact regulators and check out the presenters’ credentials. Ask about any complaints or disciplinary history in the records. Don’t wait until the last minute, however, because some agencies may need a few days or even a week to get the information to you.
At the seminar, ask the speakers as many questions as you can think of until you are satisfied you know what the investment is, how it works, and what the risks and costs are. You will think of the questions most important to you, but here are a few you should be sure to ask:
If the presenter can’t or won’t answer these questions to your satisfaction, the investment may not be right for you. So take a pass — and enjoy dessert.
Gene Meyer, a Fairway resident and former staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Kansas City Star, has been covering personal finance and financial planning for nearly two decades. He continues to report and write about those topics at http://kitchentablenomics.blogspot.com/. To communicate with him, e-mail geneameyer@gmail.com.
Before the seminar, be a sleuth
Check out securities brokers through FINRA, either online at www.finra.org or by calling 800-289-9999.
Check out investment advisers through the SEC at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Check out insurance agents in Kansas through the Kansas Insurance Department at www.ksinsurance.org or by calling 800-432-2484. For other states, go through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners at www.naic.org or 866-470-6242.
Check out other sellers at the Kansas Securities Commissioner’s office, www.securities.state.ks.us or 800-232-9580.
By Ardythe Kolb
Kansas Senior Press Service
The “age-in-place” concept is understandably very popular these days. We don’t dread those fabulous golden years quite as much if we’re able to face them in familiar surroundings.
My husband and I decided a couple of years ago to escape from lawn mowers, squirrels, and all the other enjoyable aspects of a large, tree-covered lot. We figured we’d move before the kids began to hint, “Have you thought about a retirement community?” while pounding a “For Sale” sign in our front yard.
We found a maintenance-provided home we love, and we can still putter with some flowers, so we’re not missing out on anything. The house can easily be adapted with safety features if we need more help some day. It has wide doors that could accommodate a wheelchair, and all the essential rooms are on one level in the event that stairs become a problem.
So, we’re all set — except for one major problem: How to deal with all those easy-open containers as our muscles lose a little vigor.
I learned to operate a can opener when I was about 5 years old and mastered the tool quite adequately through the years. But those old, unimproved cans that use a simple can opener are fast disappearing.
My first adventure with an “easy-open can” came several years ago, before I retired. At noon, I took a little container of ravioli from my lunch box, pried up the pull-tab, and struggled in vain to get the thing to cooperate. I put on my bifocals to read the instructions: “Lift tab to rim. Pull back slowly.” I tugged, yanked, and cut two fingers.
After I found a couple of bandages in the back of a drawer, I once again tackled the obstinate contraption. Then the pull-tab broke off entirely, providing a cute little ring on my index finger. So I resorted to a pair of pliers and a screwdriver from the office toolbox. Finally the lid popped off — and tomato sauce splattered all over my shirt, pants and papers on the desktop. By the time I sopped up the mess, my lunch break was nearly over, soggy paper towels lay in the trash, and my beige clothes definitely told a story. Besides that, the few little pasta pillows (without sauce) were barely enough to whet my appetite. I surely expended more caloric energy than I consumed.
I can’t offer any tips about how to accomplish the opening process with finesse, but I learned one valuable lesson: Always wear something that matches the food you hope to eat. Orange floral prints blend with almost anything.
For some mysterious reason, known only to corporate executives who never prepare their own food, the number of “easy-open” cans on grocery store shelves keeps increasing. Soup, which spills even more readily than ravioli, is one of the main culprits.
“Easy-open” is in the same category with “child-proof.” Toilet cleaner comes in almost-impossible-to-open containers. These used to be simple, yet safe from young explorers who might get hurt. Now every new bottle is a fresh challenge. I struggled to open a bottle of toilet cleaner to no avail one day, and finally asked my husband for help. He had no more success than I, though he is much stronger. Eventually he took it to the garage. I heard a series of inarticulate sounds and the clang of tools.
Before long, he emerged triumphantly with a broad grin and an open bottle that would never close again. That’s OK. I put it on a shelf where no one under five feet could reach it. I never asked exactly what happened in the garage, but a telltale puddle remained under the vise and a heavy hammer sat on his workbench. The whole process took the better part of an hour, but at least it gave us something to grumble about.
Some medicine bottles are getting easier, but many are still horrific. Nothing is more disheartening, when you have a major headache, than a battle with an ibuprofen bottle. I realize that it’s important to keep children safe, but there again, most kids have no problem getting lids off. I, on the other hand, push down and twist — but nothing happens. Using my teeth to pry the cap off only makes my mouth hurt. Banging the bottle on the counter doesn’t do the job, but may ease a little frustration. By the time it finally opens, I need an extra tablet or two.
Should I even mention the insidious molded plastic that encases all sorts of products, ranging from toothbrushes to tools to toys for our grandchildren? The idea, I suppose, is to pry or peel the plastic off without breaking the item it’s designed to protect. That usually doesn’t work, nor can the plastic be cut with normal scissors. A knife is a dangerous option that’s liable to do more harm than good. We might try an acetylene torch, but probably ought to notify the fire department and hospital first.
One possible answer to these packaging problems is to ask a young, athletic-looking person at the store to open everything before you even take it home. (Well, maybe that’s not such a good idea.) Perhaps neighborhood kids or grandchildren could be called in to help. How else can we successfully cope with such a dilemma while we age-in-place with poise and aplomb?
Ardythe Kolb is a retired church secretary, before which she and her husband owned and operated a Christian bookstore. She lives in Shawnee.
These articles are also available electronically at the Center on Aging Website: http://www2.kumc.edu/coa/Senior_Press_Article/Topic_Index.htm