Consumer Reports Complete Guide to Health Services for Seniors : What Your Family Needs to Know About Finding and Financing, Medicare, Assisted Living, Nursing Homes, Home Care, Adult Day Care

Whether you're exploring options for yourself or for your aging parents, you know that navigating the world of health care services and long-term-care facilities can be a daunting task. Consumer Reports, unrivaled in its unbiased expertise, provides the essential guide to getting the best care.

Filled with hands-on practical advice in a user-friendly tone and format, this invaluable handbook will help you find the right services and secure them at the lowest cost. How can you take advantage of pharmaceutical company drug-assistance programs? What essential services should a home health aide provide? How can you calculate annual health care expenses? How do you decipher a state survey report for a nursing home? Where can you find adult day care? What should you look for in an assisted-living contract? You'll find the answers to these and hundreds of other questions in this book, including:

* The ins and outs of paying for health care services, including Medicare coverage and insurance options.

* How to find the best long-term care, whether at home or in the community, whether you're looking at assisted-living facilities or nursing homes -- and how to pay for it.

* City-by-city ratings for Medicare HMOs and Medicare supplement insurance policies, as well as a guide to how well your state is monitoring nursing homes.

* Easy-to-use worksheets and tables to help you figure out your assets, judge an assisted-living facility, compare home care costs, evaluate an HMO drug plan, and much, much more.

* Comprehensive appendixes to guide you to state-by-state information on insurance counseling, advocacy groups for the elderly, other helpful organizations, and more.