Pennsylvania - South Central

Need short term rest and relief?Want time to recover safely from surgery or a fall?A Respite Stay is the answer.  The Middletown Home provides easy, hassle-free Respite Care.Whether a caregiver needs a break, a family is going on vacation and needs assistance with a loved one, or you need extra support recovering from accident, illness or surgery, we are here for you! Our fully furnished Respite Rooms take the headache out of a brief stay and are the best option for those needing care for a short time. Caregivers have no need to feel guilty for placing a loved one in our very capable hands.  Many of our Respite Guests come back year after year.  One such gentleman, with a chronic, life-long condition, comes to stay for two weeks each time his wife goes on a Girls Trip.  He claims these respite stays have only served to strengthen their bond and provide her with much needed rest and relaxation.Age isnt an issue.  While many of our residents and guests may be up in years, The Middletown Home welcomes persons of all ages, who need care, to come stay with us.The level of care isnt a problem.  The Middletown Home has assisted personal care, as well as skilled nursing Respite Care available.Experience you can trust.  For nearly 100 years, the experts at The Middletown Home have provided care that is first class, compassionate and professional, for the short term and the long term.  We are a 501 (c)(3), non-profit, continuing care community unlike any other.   We are committed to providing care to 18 year olds recovering from a knee injury, to 103 year olds with a new hip needing extra time before going home.  Your respite stay can last anywhere from 7 days to several months.  Its a relief for many to know their loved one has 24/7 access to medical care, as well as being socially engaged, and able to attend exciting activities both here at The Middletown Home, and outside in the Community.  The following features are included with Respite Care:Safe and secure locationFully furnished accommodationsThree nutritious meals dailySnacks and beverages throughout the dayProfessional medical team onsite 24/7Medication administration and managementAssistance with daily activities like dressing, bathing and groomingIncontinence managementIn-house rehab services, no need to leave the buildingFun activities available dailyAt The Middletown Home, we offer a special opportunity for Respite Care, just a minimum 7-day stay is all thats required. Whether youre traveling or simply need a break from caregiving, think of The Middletown Home as your families home away from home!  Call 717-944-3351, take a tour and find out more!  This article was submitted by Cindy Miller,Director of Marketing, The Middletown Home. 

We recently did a blog that talked about how national companies and mainstream media often talk about avoiding probate at all costs and the advantages with it. I warned in that article that probate is not a bad thing in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In fact, the process itself is very straightforward and fairly inexpensive. Many of our national companies and spokespeople come from states where the rules are very difficult and expensive, and make it sound like every state follows the same process when, in reality, each state has different rules, and overall, Pennsylvania is a very easy state to go through probate and is overall fairly inexpensive.Several people have asked us to provide more in-depth answers as to what are the tools to avoid probate. In the previous article, I avoided getting into that conversation because I simply wanted to address the fact that we dont necessarily need to do that in the state of Pennsylvania and that we recommend that you seek counsel to advise you on the pros and cons of such decisions. I will take a minute in this blog to discuss some of those options briefly but still recommend that you speak to an attorney to discuss whether it is applicable for you in your specific particular situation.Here are a few options or ways that people can avoid probate:Create a trust.Joint ownership.Outright gifts.Beneficiary designated accounts.Trusts are certainly very viable options and can provide a lot of benefits. Some of these benefits can include avoiding probate in several different states, as well as potentially asset protection. In some rare instances, some people need advanced tax planning, in which case a trust can serve as a way to reduce the federal taxable estate to avoid paying higher taxes to the government. Each particular trust certainly has pros and cons and the rules are different for each one. Depending on whether you are doing a trust simply for probate avoidance, for asset protection, or for tax planning, each trust will have its own rules and will be governed by a different set of restrictions and limitations. Fully understanding the restrictions and limitations and weighing that with whether or not the benefits outweigh the negatives is something that each person should do individually and should do with an experienced trust planning attorney.Joint ownership. It is very easy to encourage people to add family members as joint owners on their accounts. Oftentimes, people will say that theyre doing this for convenience. I believe that it is important to understand some of the negatives that can come out of joint ownership property ownership, such as if the child were to die first, there would be tax implications in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the parent for adding their child at a 4.5% tax rate. It is a very difficult conversation to be the person who calls the parent who lost a loved one who has to tell them that they are very sorry for their loss and to remind them that theyre going to have to pay inheritance tax on the joint owned account when it was the parents money in the first place, and why do they have to pay tax on their own money? Once you add a joint owner to an account, there are implications of that transfer that very few people discuss or are aware of.If you would like to learn more about estate planning and elder law, please give our office a call at 717-844-9218.

You have probably seen advertisements for senior care referral services promising to find the best retirement community care for you or a loved one at no cost to you. Some of these services even utilize paid celebrity spokespersons to pitch their senior living placement services. However, these services do have a high cost in the form of missed opportunities. It is important for you to understand how these retirement community referral services such as A Place for Mom, Caring.com and SeniorAdvisor work.Some retirement communities pay to playMany retirement community referral services tout their services as free to the consumer, implying the assistance they provide is done as part of a not-for-profit model. This couldnt be further from the case. These retirement community referral services require senior living providers to pay high fees for inclusion on the services list of preferred communities. Many consumers assume, incorrectly, that a services preferred communities are evaluated or rated based on the quality of care provided. Unfortunately, the only reason a senior living facility earns this preferred status is simply that the retirement community has opted to pay a fee. A high fee. If a free service recommends a particular retirement community to you, be sure to do your own research to confirm it truly is the right fit for you or your loved one.Retirement community advisors paid by commissionMany retirement community referral services employ advisors who assist consumers by calling a toll-free phone number seeking help and advice in finding senior care.  According to one referral services website, The advisor will conduct an assessment to gather information on you or your loved ones lifestyle, care needs and budget. The website omits an important piece of information: Advisors are often paid commissions when a caller moves into a recommended retirement community. This encourages advisors to recommend more expensive locations as the cost paid by participating retirement communities is typically one months rent, which may be equivalent to several thousand dollars.It is important to know the qualifications of the person advising you in such an important life decision. Ask the advisor about his/her professional qualifications to truly understand you or your loved ones needs and why he/she recommends a particular retirement community. If the advisor cannot list specific qualifications, you are most likely interacting with a subcontractor whose top concern may not be in your best interest. In fact, these individuals may do more harm than good since the senior living facility suggested might not always be based on your or your loved ones needs, rather driven by the prospective commission fee to be earned. Find out for yourself and ask the advisor how he/she is paid and ask for the individuals qualifications to make recommendations.Quality care in each featured retirement community is not guaranteedWhile the retirement community referral service advisor may seem to care deeply about your personal situation, it is critical to know that this person is doing his/her job. Once the advisor makes retirement community recommendations, arranges tours and assists you in making your final decision, this is where the relationship ends. Most times a free service will not monitor the care received by you or your loved one at the senior living facility. You can take things a step further by asking your advisor if the retirement community referral service carries liability insurance. If he/she asks you to sign a document stating that the retirement community referral service is not liable for the quality of care received at the recommended location, DO NOT use the service.Honesty is more than not lyingWhile conducting research for this article, we called a retirement community referral service for a first-hand experience. When inquiring specifically about a Country Meadows Retirement Communities location, the advisor said, You dont want to go there. They are too expensive. In truth, the three retirement communities the advisor recommended cost more or were the same monthly cost as Country Meadows.

By Jason KavulichPennsylvania is home to more than 13 million people according to the 2020 Census, with more than 2.5 million of those residents being aged 65 and older. The growth rate of the Commonwealth's older adult population is more than 20 times higher than the growth rate of its entire population. As the population ages, we expect many will remain here to live out their golden years. According to U.S. News & World Report, that seems to be a good thing.The company recently released its ranking of the 150 best places to retire in the U.SOpens In A New Window. and seven of the top 10 are in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg took top honors, followed by Reading, Lancaster, Scranton, Allentown, York, and Pittsburgh. The company looked at six areas as part of its ranking results: affordability, happiness, desirability, retiree taxes, job market, and health care quality.As a lifelong Scrantonian and proud Pennsylvanian, I'm boastful of Scranton's #4 ranking, and not at all surprised by our state's showing. Scranton and its surrounding communities, that I know so well, represent what I see as I travel across our amazing Commonwealth: welcoming communities that take an interest in the health, safety and well-being of their neighbors working with committed civic leaders to make sure we have the programs, supports, and services we need for older adults to live with dignity, independence and above all else, age in place.  One of many critical factors that sets us apart is the Pennsylvania Lottery -- the only state lottery that designates all its proceeds to programs for older adults. That money translates into supports offered through the Commonwealth's 52 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), which coordinate services on the local level including home-delivered meals, 500 Senior Centers, in-home services, protective services, and more. The Lottery proceeds also support the PACE program, a national model which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary of providing low-cost prescriptions to over 1.6 million qualified older Pennsylvanians.Another popular Lottery-funded program serving older adults for decades is the Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program (PTRR). Administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, this program provides older adults rebates on property taxes and rent paid in a previous year.Starting in January 2024, this popular program will see some much overdue updates thanks to Governor Josh Shapiro. In his inaugural budget, he delivered the largest targeted tax break for older Pennsylvanians in nearly two decades. The Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program expansion will raise the maximum amount of the rebates, increase income limit eligibility, and tie the income caps to the cost-of-living moving forward.The Governor's budget also invested an additional $1 million in Senior Community Center grants to create a non-competitive grant program. This will allow more centers to receive grants to continue creating safe spaces for seniors to stay connected, improve their physical and emotional health, continue on the path of lifelong learning and share a meal with a neighbor. The budget allocated an additional $5 million to the Help at Home (OPTIONS) program which aids eligible adults to continue living in their homes. This funding will assist in removing more than 1,200 older adults from existing waitlists..In addition to those investments for seniors, Governor Shapiro signed an executive order in May to direct the Department to develop a Master Plan for Older Adults. This plan is a 10-year, state-led and stakeholder-driven strategic plan designed to help transform the infrastructure and coordination of services for older Pennsylvanians.The Department and our stakeholder partners are currently reviewing input on the plan from thousands of Pennsylvanians and will accept input until the end of the year. If anyone plans on aging in this Commonwealth, I invite them to provide feedback. Everyone can learn the various ways they can have their voices heard by visiting the Master Plan webpage on the department's website. The Master Plan will be published before the Governor's second budget address in February 2024, and it will chart a brighter future for aging in Pennsylvania.It's clear why Pennsylvania dominates U.S. News and World's list: not only do we have a growing population of older adults, but Pennsylvania has also taken critical steps to allow them to remain in their homes and to be active in their communities.. The health, well-being and quality of life for older Pennsylvanians are clear priorities for the Shapiro Administration, the Commonwealth, and the Department. For any older adult who may be seeking services and supports in their community, I encourage them to visit the Department of Aging's website or contact their local AAA. We are here to help achieve that brighter future for all.Jason Kavulich is the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.