Dutchess County Office for the Aging’s
AGING NEWS
For the week of March 8th
www.dutchessny.gov/coronavirus is where to go for up-to-date information on COVID-19 prevention and vaccines.
Golden Living . . . News for Seniors, Their Families and Caregivers
Todd N. Tancredi, Director
Dutchess County Office for the Aging
Two years ago, we wrote a column entitled “2019: The Year Phone Scams End?”
Unfortunately, it hasn’t come to pass…yet. In 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave phone carriers a year to devise a system that would validate that a call originates from a legitimate source, wherever in the world the source might be.
The deadline for implementation now stands at July of this year. We’ll try to simplify the technical details, but it’s going to work like this:
Telephone carriers and internet voice service providers will be required to digitally “sign” each call with an identifying token that indicates the carriers and providers know for sure where the call is coming from, and that the caller has the right to use the Caller ID info encoded within the call. Without the token, the call won’t go through.
That sounds like a promising development and finally, the end of phone scams might really be in sight.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made scam and fraud prevention more essential than ever before, both for seniors and the general population.
How much money is lost to scams and fraud? The hard truth is that no one really knows – after all, the most successful crimes are the ones that go undetected. But between fraud aimed at Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers, COVID-related financial relief, and people’s savings, the annual number is easily in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) estimated losses just from health care fraud at between $108 billion and $360 billion – and that’s a number from before the pandemic.
Here’s another hard truth: You’re paying for it. Whether the victims are government or private sector, fraud costs you money. When your Medicare and insurance premiums go up, for example, fraud is one big reason why.
Phone scam losses nearly doubled in 2020 because of the pandemic, to $19.7 billion dollars, according to Harris Poll numbers. Our advice on stopping phone scams remains the same: Don’t pick up the phone unless you are 100% certain of who’s on the other end.
Prevention is key in the fight against both scams fraud, because once the money is lost it’s all but unrecoverable.
You Can Prevent Scams and Fraud
Here’s a few starter tips from the NHCAA. They apply whether you have Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance:
- Protect your health insurance card like you would a credit card.
- Read your policy and explanation of benefits statements. Make sure you were at the doctor on the dates listed, and that you received the treatments listed.
- Beware of “free” offers – they’re often schemes to bill you and your insurance for treatments you didn’t receive.
- Be careful when providing your Social Security number, credit card numbers or any other personal information.
- Most importantly, report any suspicious activity to your insurance company, and always ask questions and get answers.
A printable scam prevention resources sheet is available at www.dutchessny.gov/aging. It will also be in the Spring 2021 edition of OFA’s Spotlight on Seniors newsletter.
Golden Living is prepared by the Dutchess County Office for the Aging, 114 Delafield St., Poughkeepsie, New York 12601, telephone (845) 486-2555, email: ofa@dutchessny.gov website: www.dutchessny.gov/aging
VOLUNTEER EXERCISE PROGRAM LEADER(S) WANTED IN LaGRANGE
(Socially Distanced, Tuesdays and Fridays)
The Office for the Aging’s senior exercise class in LaGrange is seeking a volunteer exercise class leader for its Tuesday and Friday morning socially-distanced one-hour sessions. Classes take place at 9:00 a.m., starting in mid-March. For more information, or questions about OFA volunteering opportunities in general, email bjones@dutchessny.gov or call (845) 486-2544.
VOLUNTEER HOME DELIVERED MEALS DRIVERS WANTED
The Office for the Aging’s Home Delivered Meals Program (www.dutchessny.gov/ofanutrition) is looking for volunteer drivers to bring midday meals to homebound seniors throughout Dutchess County. Areas of specific need include the following:
Northwestern Dutchess – Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Staatsburg, Milan
Northeastern Dutchess – Millerton, Pine Plains, Stanford, Amenia
City of Poughkeepsie
City of Beacon
Towns of Poughkeepsie, LaGrange and Pleasant Valley
If you have a driver’s license and your own vehicle, and are available any weekdays between 9:30am and 12:30pm, we’d love for you to join us. You can volunteer one day a week or all five. We’ll work with your schedule.
Mileage reimbursement is available, and all COVID-19 safety protocols are observed.
For more information, email ofa@dutchessny.gov or call Outreach Coordinator Brian Jones at (845) 486-2544.
“IN OUR RIGHT MIND” SYMPOSIUM (Sat. 3/6)
Join the Alzheimer’s Association of the Hudson Valley for a free virtual screening of “In Our Right Mind,” a film that shares the stories of African Americans and Hispanics grappling with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. It’s scheduled for Saturday, March 6th from 9:30 a.m. to noon, and is followed at 12:30 p.m. by a program on COVID and Caregiving.
Register by using this link: https://www.communityresourcefinder.org/ResourceView/Index?id=2106996&profileDefinitionId=93&_ga=2.214236311.1636179320.1614713023-1259522294.1614713023, or by calling (800) 272-3900.
Symposium is also available via phone.
Other aging news online:
Understanding Loneliness and Social Isolation – How To Stay Connected, from the National Institute on Aging. Link points to the downloadable PDF as well as a way to have from 1 to 25 free copies delivered to yourself or your seniors’ group: https://order.nia.nih.gov/publication/understanding-loneliness-and-social-isolation-how-to-stay-connected?utm_source=nia-mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=socisolation-20210301
“Now is not the time to stop moving” – on the importance of exercise to successful aging: https://theconversation.com/these-at-home-exercises-can-help-older-people-boost-their-immune-system-and-overall-health-in-the-age-of-covid-19-148142
Seniors in the San Francisco Bay area who’ve gotten both COVID-19 vaccine shots are being treated to…margaritas and belly dancers? https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02/28/free-again-seniors-celebrate-covid-vaccine-second-shot-with-margaritas-and-belly-dancers/?utm_email=C43D644945E3A55414D59562D9&g2i_eui=j%2fFKQEGeW8B%2fwP%2b5xPGkXVSfUWi%2bfZ6I&g2i_source=newsletter&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.mercurynews.com%2f2021%2f02%2f28%2ffree-again-seniors-celebrate-covid-vaccine-second-shot-with-margaritas-and-belly-dancers%2f&utm_campaign=bang-mult-nl-morning-report-nl&utm_content=manual
March gardening tips! https://awaytogarden.com/the-march-garden-chores/
This week’s virtual tour takes you to the Faroe Islands in the north Atlantic: https://www.visitfaroeislands.com/remote-tourism/virtual-tours/
Older actors and topics related to aging are starting to show up in movies more often: https://gero.usc.edu/2021/01/13/older-adults-in-movies/
See if you can recognize where in the world (or the US) you are, just by “walking around”: www.virtualvacation.us
This week in senior birthdays:
3/8: Musician-actor Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) (76)
3/9: Former New York US senator James Buckley (98)
3/10: Actor/martial artist Chuck Norris (81)
3/11: Journalist Sam Donaldson (87)
3/12: Singer/actress Liza Minnelli (75)
3/13: Cartoonist Al Jaffee (100, and only recently retired from “Mad” magazine)
3/14: Actor/author Michael Caine (88)
And here’s the Bad Joke:
Did you know that “muffins” spelled backwards is what you do when you take them out of the oven?
