How Does Ohio Respond to Increasing Demand For Long Term Care?

The Genworth Financial conducted a study of the statewide costs of care in some key cities of Ohio. According to data, the average annual cost of a nursing home in Ohio is $74,825 for a private bedroom while $67,890 for a semi-private room, these rates are less expensive than the national average. Long term care can be either medical or non-medical, and these services can be administered at home or nursing home facilities. Families in Ohio that stick with the traditional home care have average expenses of $42,328 for Medicare-certified home health aide, while those in assisted living facilities spend around $39,330.

Long term care services roughly batter people to debt and, worse, poverty. Elders are protecting their assets that they can pass along their heirs, but it could suddenly be depleted as long term care costs rise. People who are not insured are obliged to shoulder all long term care expenses, unless their assets are low enough to qualify for Medicaid assistance. An individual must have $1,500 worth of assets and couples with $2,250 to become eligible for Medicaid program in Ohio.

Ohio Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Program

On September 1, 2007, the Ohio Revised Code 5111.18 petitioned the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and several departments such as the Department of Insurance and the Department of Aging to conduct partnership with insurance companies in Ohio. This program was called the Ohio's Partnership for Long Term Care Insurance. Its goal is to encourage Ohioans to purchase affordable long term care policies to finance their health needs in the future.

Partnership Policy Features

The main selling point of the partnership policy is the asset protection benefit. This feature is not developed to lure people from purchasing policies and increase sales; the primary goal of this is to protect potential policyholders from losing their assets when applying for Medicaid assistance. Everyone can benefit from Medicaid without exhausting his or her benefits. The asset protection or disregard uses dollar-for-dollar model wherein every dollar that a person receives from policy benefits is the amount of dollar that he or she can protect from Medicaid. An individual's assets are protected regardless of the amount Medicaid sets for eligibility.

Through this, Medicaid has no control over how much assets a person wishes to keep, unless the person does not comply with the partnership rules. Thus, if the partnership policy doles out $300,000 for long term care benefits and services, an individual can still keep the same amount of assets or even more and still qualify for Medicaid eligibility. Private insurance policies purchased on or after August 12,2002 can be converted to partnership policies.

The second feature that is included in all long term care partnerships is the inflation protection minimums. The amount of inflation protection varies on the age of policyholder at the time of purchase. Policyholders aged 60 and below at the time of purchase are entitled for 3% minimum inflation benefit. Otherwise, policyholders above 76 years have the option to include inflation protection in the policy benefits.

Third feature is the reciprocity agreement. This allows partnership policyholders to continue the benefits when they move to other states. However the state the person has moved in shall comply with the reciprocity agreement to obtain the benefits of the partnership policy purchased in Ohio.

Desert Journey by Dr Jerry Burgener - Book Review

iUniverse (2007) ISBN 9780595908509

The basic premise of Jerry Burgener's well-written and moving book, "Desert Journey," is this: A middle-aged man, battered by a series of failed relationships and filled with self-doubt, decides to take a couple of months off and travel to the American Southwest. Once there, he plans to do very little but ride his horse, enjoy the breathtaking scenery of the Superstition Mountains, and maybe---just maybe---sort out the issues that had been plaguing his life. But destiny had something different in mind for him, and what was waiting for him in those mountains, was the start of a profound, mystical journey of self-discovery, facilitated by a wise and ageless Indian who soon became his mentor and spiritual advisor.

Seeking spiritual guidance and self-discovery from within the Native American shamanistic culture is not a new concept, of course. Carlos Castaneda explored that paradigm brilliantly in the 1960s with his series of writings based on "The Teachings of Don Juan." But there is something about Burgener's approach that is more---how shall I put this---peaceful, than the frenetic, peyote-induced rituals described in Castaneda's writings.

The thing I liked the most about "Desert Journey" is how quickly Burgener's journey became my journey. Thanks to his talented and descriptive writing, I could feel the warm nuzzle of his horse on my arm, smell the crisp, clean desert air, savor the sight of the multi-hued canyon walls changing with the light, and hear the sharp "screech" of a hawk flying overhead. I also found myself reading and rereading many of the passages in the book trying to divine the deeper wisdom buried within. One of my favorite sayings was, "dreams are powerful tools for us to use to connect with other worlds." This is a new and refreshing idea to me as I had always thought dreams were tools for exploring our subconscious, a place I have no desire to visit!

The only part of "Desert Journey" that did not totally fulfill my expectations was the ending. I expected the story to rise to a crescendo and finish with some kind of profound proclamation summarizing what the journey had really been all about. Instead, the author loads his horse into the trailer and heads back to Illinois. But then again, that's what life is all about, isn't it? Every time we reach the summit we discover that we are only on a plateau, and there is more climbing to be done.

"Desert Journey" is written in the first person singular and I am assuming the narrator, "Jerry," is in fact the author. On the other hand, the book is listed as fiction and is described as a novel, so I could be wrong. I hope I'm not though, because there are a million questions I want to ask Jerry Burgener as one Illinois boy to another. Meanwhile, "Desert Journey" is an excellent book and I strongly recommend it. Be forewarned, however, that if you do read it you may be tempted to take your own spiritual journey. I know I am.

carNAVi Pro BT Review

GPS navigation devices aren't exactly new; in fact they have enjoyed a presence in the local market by way of gray and parallel imports. Of course, these devices were far from reliable- not because of their design, but because of the data available to them. More specifically, the maps weren't that accurate, as there was no official support from the respective manufacturers. It's a different story nowadays, as there are now GPS navigation gadgets that have extremely accurate maps and local support and you'd be hard pressed to get lost with these things in your car. carNAVi is the latest manufacturer to jump into the domestic GPS navigation scene, and if their top of the line Pro BT is any indication, they're set to give their competitors a run for their money.

The Pro BT is what you'd expect from a navigation device-it's not the thinnest or most elegant device out there, but it's not the flimsiest either. It has a 4.3-inch touch TFT LCD screen that's easy enough to use. There's a 3.5mm jack on the right side, along with a mini-USB port that serves as both data and charging port. All data, maps and media are stored in the SD card that goes in the unit, whose slot is located at the right side.

Powering the Pro BT is an SIR Atlas 3 GPS processor running at 400 MHz, with 64MB of memory. The operating system is a modified Windows CE. The GUI is pleasant enough and you're able to jump into the different menus and features with a simple touch of the screen.

Like other solutions in the market, you'll be able to set your destination in different ways, mainly through points of interests (PCI), address search and city search. You will have to tell the unit in what city the location you're looking for though, potentially slowing down searches when you're in a hurry. One thing that pleasantly surprised me is the large number of POIs in the system. Of course, a product like the Pro BT is only as good as the quality of its maps, and I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint. The maps are pretty accurate and up to date, and carNAVI assures me that they have maps of the whole country in some way or the other.

The Pro BT uses an internal GPS antenna and acquires a signal in less than two minutes. It has voice prompts which tells you when to take a turn, how far you are to your destination, etc. One thing I liked about the display is that the environment is rendered in 3D, so you'll be able to see if you'll be passing under a tunnel or going over it. The display also dims automatically depending on the time of the day and when you go into a tunnel.

The only minor nitpick I have with the Pro BT is that street names disappear on the screen momentarily when you turn which, while disconcerting, isn't really something to be worried about.

What's HOT

Picks up signal in less than 2 minutes

Easy to use and understand GUI

Updated maps of the country, plenty of POIs

3D rendered maps

What NOT

Street names momentarily disappear on the screen when you take a turn

Verdict

The carNAVi Pro BT is an excellent GPS navigation device, and is a godsend for navigationally challenged people who always seem to get lost.

Brands that Scored with World Cup

If there ever was a time for brands to jump on the sports brand wagon World Cup 2006 was it. Even though this year's games garnered record per-game viewership in the millions it is yet to be fully disclosed if viewership equates to an increase in brand awareness and/or sales.

Intuitive brand managers know that visibility and/or sponsorship during high-profile events may automatically equate to an increase in brand awareness but not necessarily sales. In some cases, depending on viewer perception, an increase in awareness could equal a decrease in sales. It bears noting then that companies who are more visible must work as hard as those who are not to ensure that visibility yields a positive return on investment.

Among the 20 brands displayed during one match: Trinidad versus Sweden, five brands were duly awarded for their attempts in connecting with the viewing audience through commercial ads and the potential for their efforts to either convert viewership to sales or increase brand awareness.

The "Best Brand Commercial" award was given to Budweiser. Budweiser received a ten for creativity and product placement in its fan-directed commercial. The company did an excellent job tying in football's fan-driven enthusiasm and love for the sport with product placement. The end result was a convincing marriage between football and Budweiser beer, brand awareness, and positive sales potential. The "Best Overall Brand Placement" award was given to Adidas who received a score of eight. The company is doing a good job becoming the brand of choice for football wear. This is a solid move as Nike is the dominating brand of choice and sponsor for most other sports especially American football.

Puma's commercial ranked third best receiving a score of six. The commercial was equally creative and fan-directed but focused on celebrity cameos and children to incite an emotional buy-in to their product. It was a meaningful yet typical approach that easily increased awareness although, not necessarily sales. The "Why am I not Surprised this Brand has Product Placement?" award goes to Coca-Cola. The soft drink company has a knack for edging its way into everything visual including top-viewing reality show, American Idol. Coke's presence at World Cup seemed to make it an international celebrity. Even though the bottling company's brand is high-profile, being seen at World Cup may not have an affect on sales beyond the game itself is why the brand received a score of four.

"The Good-Try Brand" award and a total score of two were given to T-Mobile. Although the German company's garnering of an international audience was creative it was less likely to equate to an increase in sales--an easy conclusion to make given that competitor, Cingular Wireless was voted best for least dropped calls. In the U.S. especially, T-Mobile is famous for dropped calls.

Getting product placement in a highly publicized event such as World Cup is a tactical move. For the 20 plus brands that got on board and the five brands that made an impression, you deserve a hearty, "Gooaall!"

For more on branding, visit: http://www.zibs.com/blog

5 Laptops For the Casual Gamer

If you like computer games, you might want to play those games on your laptop. The problem is, it can be hard to decide which laptops fit your needs. That's where this article comes in. It will show you which laptops you can purchase to play games at your leisure.

1. Overview The casual gaming laptop market is exploding. Many folks who used to play games on desktop PCs are now playing games on laptops. Manufacturers like Alienware, Dell and HP are creating laptops geared towards gamers and their ilk. Let's look at some of these laptops now.

1. The Velocity Micro NoteMagix C90 Ultra It certainly has a long name, but the The Velocity Micro NoteMagix C90 Ultra is a good powerhouse gaming laptop. While it cannot match the high-end gaming systems (like those from Alienware), it does well in rendering 3D graphics in games.

2. ASUS G1S If you like a laptop that can do both gaming and multimedia, the ASUS G1S is a perfect choice. Its specifications are good enough to do video editing and yet play the latest 3D games.

3. Acer Aspire 5920G Next up is the Acer Aspire 5920G. This laptop has a GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, which means it can easily handle the most demanding of 3D games. What's more, it has a HD DVD-ROM drive which allows you to view HD movies.

4. HP Pavilion dv9500t This popular laptop, the HP Pavilion dv9500t, is a Media Center machine. Essentially, you get a nice 17-inch screen, complete with a HD DVD-ROM drive. The graphics produced by the laptop are nothing short of stellar.

5. Alienware Area-51 m15x The Alienware Area-51 m15x is a behemoth of a laptop. It has out-of-this-world specifications and is easily one of the most expensive laptop class machines in the market. Its 3D gaming performance puts even the best desktop PCs to shame.

Conclusion I hope this article has given you some idea of what the top 5 casual gaming laptops are. While you would not want to shell out too much cash for a laptop, it might make sense if you want the ultimate in multimedia and gaming. If that is the case, any of these laptops would be right up your alley.

BMW and Las Vegas Luxury Car Rentals - The Only Way to Go

On Wall Street Journal Asia's 200 most-admired companies, BMW reaches the top. It was first in luxury automobile brand and came in second for quality. It has the best corporate reputation among all multinational companies that operates in Asia. BMW, according to Ashvin Chotai of Intelligence Automobile Asia, is the brand younger professionals, celebrities, and "new money" aspire to have in most Asian countries.

The brand, after all, has stuck to its core values, engineering excellence, and culture. It has not been diluted by mergers and acquisitions. BMW was also the top-ranked car company in the quality attribute. So you could just imagine how it would be like to drive a suave BMW on the neon-lit Fairmont Avenue or how it feels to cruise the Strip in one. Grand, isn't it. It's what the lifestyles of the money and the famous are made of. Now, in you don't have to blow your life's savings to drive one. Because in this day and age, what you cannot have, you can always rent. And while you're dreaming of maneuvering that 100K steering wheel, why not plan a day trip too? Many travelers get drawn by the lights and sounds of Las Vegas but few get to check out the wonders of Mother Nature that surround them. Now you have the chance to make this Las Vegas trip unique. Rugged mountains, red rock canyons, and deep desert valleys offer stunning scenery and endless outdoor recreational activities. And because the region is gifted with a favorable climate, BMW car rentals make this outdoor activity attractive all year round. So buckle up,the day trip has just begun. One of the sights worth checking out is Mt. Charleston.

It is located 35 miles from Las Vegas with its highest elevation at 11,918 feet. It has an average of 20 to 30 degrees cooler than Las Vegas, the place is ideal for hiking, horseback riding, and picnics. In addition to its year-round hotel accommodations and tours, there is also a full service camping facility that is available from May through September. Then there is Death Valley, which is located in California 135 miles from Las Vegas.

It offers a scenic wonder made evident as it is the lowest elevation in North America at 280 feet below sea level. In the summer months, the heat and conditions are so oppressive that it verifies why it is called Death Valley. So better bring loads of water with you if you plan on going. After that, you can still proceed to Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire State Park, and Bryce Canyon. Nature's great beauty marks, they are. And all are perfect for a day trip with a BMW car rental.