August 2008
Today Senior Medi-Benefits formally launched The SMB Special Needs Pooled Trust after successfully completing a one year trial phase.
The pooled trust meets state and federal guidelines and allows individuals who are on SSI or Medi-Cal to protect and preserve lump sum distributions such as inheritances or settlements without losing their benefits. The funds can be used for the supplemental needs of the individual. For more information on how to join this trust and protect a lump sum distribution, go to www.seniormedi-benefits.org/PooledTrust.html
JULY 2008
Senior Medi Benefits announced today the launch of a new program and the expansion of an existing program, both designed to meet the complex benefits needs of the aged.
"We are pleased today to launch the SafeCare Program, an integrated service to meet the preplanning strategy, immediate need benefits, and trust administration requirements for seniors and elders across California and the United States," said Matt Olesen, Executive Director of Senior Medi-Benefits, adding, "SafeCare is an opportunity for clients to make the right plan, now, integrating all of their present and future needs into one timeline and plan, thereby reducing the fear and anxiety they feel about end of life issues."
FOR MORE INFORMATION on the SafeCare Program, please click
In conjuction with the launch of SafeCare, Senior Medi-Benefits also today announced an expansion of its ongoing community advocacy project, which meets the growing needs of underprivileged seniors and the disabled.
The project is offered to those needy individuals who qualify based on low income and low assets; these individuals are often the ones who need advocacy services as they navigate an unwieldy, bureaucratic, and dehumanized system. A portion of profits from SafeCare will be used to fund the expansion of these needed services. "People are turning to Senior Medi-Benefits to help in the most desperate circumstances; our community advocacy project allows us to serve more people and solve more problems, without putting the entire onus of payment on the individual," said Arleen Goodwin, founder and current Director of LTC at Senior Medi-Benefits.
TO APPLY for the Comunnity Advocacy Program, please click
SPRING 05
Senior Medi-Benefits announces the publication
of "...And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life", by Sharon R. Kaufman, Ph.D.
President of the Board of Directors, Senior
Medi-Benefits
Most Americans die in a hospital. Kaufman,
professor of medical anthropology at UC San Francisco, spent two
years at three California community hospitals (none affiliated with
UC) observing and interviewing doctors, nurses and other medical
personnel, plus families and patients. She found an improvised yet
often intractable system that craves order but struggles in the
deathly hospital quiet with the roiling chaos of conflicting understandings,
technologies, protocols, commitments, rules, core beliefs, loyalties,
emotions and capacities. Kaufman's sentences are clear and direct,
and while the harrowing content is sometimes overwhelming in density,
this book is exceptionally readable.
Recommended reading in the San Francisco Chronicle
Book Review Section, Chronicle
TO PURCHASE "...And a Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life" please click
DECEMBER 2004
Senior Medi-Benefits announced today that Arleen
Goodwin will step down as Executive Director, effective immediately.
She will be replaced by Matt Olesen, who has served as Director
of LTC Medi-Cal eligibility programs for the last two and half years.
Arleen will take on the LTC Medi-Cal directorship as well as focus
on her new and expanding business, SMB Asset Solutions.
Matt Olesen said, “Arleen’s dedicated
service to the community has resulted in hundreds if not thousands
of satisfied families. She has consistently and selflessly responded
to people’s problems with empathy and wisdom. Luckily she
will continue with the organization as we continue to grow and prosper.”
OCTOBER 2004
Senior Medi-Benefits announced today that it
was disbanding its Medical Claims Management Service after seventeen
years. Arleen Goodwin, Executive Director, said, “We started
this business to help families with their billing problems and we
have consistently met their needs. But with the rise of managed
care and more sophisticated billing systems, the demand for the
service has diminished. Therefore, the Board of Directors have decided
to discontinue the claims management service so that we can focus
on a more current problem, understanding and navigating the complexities
of LTC Medi-Cal benefits.” |
