Few decisions in life are more wrenching than the decision to seek nursing home or assisted living care for a parent, spouse or other loved one. In particular, assisted living facilities require thoughtful questions and follow-up to ensure that a loved one receives the care that was promised. The following questions may help you choose the most appropriate assisted living facility for your situation.

What services are offered? When interviewing prospective care facilities, make sure to list all the services the facility says it offers. Next, have as much of what they promise put into any contract as possible. Remember, assisted care facilities generally are not equipped to handle the more acute care cases. In many states, these facilities aren’t allowed.

Who regulates the facility and what training is required of employees? You may be surprised to learn that compared to nursing homes, which are federally regulated, assisted living facilities are loosely regulated. Learn how employees deal with potential situations, whether it involves incontinence, dispensing drugs or dealing with residents who wander. Don’t stop there. Seek references and investigate any facility in which you are interested through your local or state health administration agencies.

How much will that cost you? Again, make sure any costs are detailed in your contract, including the length of time in which the initial rate is charged. If the facility cannot guarantee that costs will remain level over time, try to pinpoint exactly how much rate increases may run and how often. Just as important, don’t overlook miscellaneous expenses that may be charged. These may be obvious expenses, such as a cane or walker for a resident who has a hard time walking. Less obvious are things such as prescription drugs, which the facility can mark up when filling or refilling orders.

When are qualified medical professionals called in to lend help? This question is a matter of life and death. Which physicians and hospitals work with the facility? What conditions prompt an emergency call?

Working with the Facility

When you find the right assisted living facility, do your part to ensure the best care possible. Provide as complete a personal and medical picture as possible. For instance, is your parent prone to falls and broken bones? Is incontinence as issue of which staff needs to be aware? What is your parent’s complete medical history? Is your parent mobile or relatively immobile?

Finally, investigate how long term care insurance might help ease the financial strain – before it’s too late. Assisted living facilities are not exclusive only to the oldest Americans. Some younger people need this valuable help, too. Talk to your insurance professional and a qualified attorney today to learn more about parental care options and the financial instruments that can relieve some of the financial burden.


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The prevalence and cost of identity theft appears to be growing. This insidious crime can have far-ranging and long-lasting consequences for its victims. Being aware of ways in which your identity can be stolen, and taking steps to prevent this event from happening, can save you time, money and grief.

A 2002 General Accounting Office report noted that precise figures concerning the incidence of identity theft are difficult to obtain due to the many forms this crime takes and the absence of any one single database or reporting hotline that tracks its occurrence. Furthermore, advancing technologies can result in new, evolving manifestations of the crime. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a national nonprofit organization, “rarely a week goes by without a report of a new or different way to steal and use identities.”

That said, the GAO report states that key data sources all seem to show that the incidence of identity theft is on the rise:

• Consumer reporting agencies have seen an increase in the number of seven-year fraud alerts. These alerts act as a warning that someone may be trying to use a consumer’s personal information in order to fraudulently obtain credit. According to the GAO, one of these agencies reported a 36% increase in the number of seven-year alerts over a two-year period ending in 2000, while another reported a 53% increase over the 12-month period ending in mid-2000.

• The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse, established in late 1999, averaged 445 calls per week during its first month of operation. By March 2001, the number of weekly calls averaged more than 2,000, and by December 2001, they averaged 3,000.

• The Social Security Administration/Office of the Inspector General estimated a five-time increase in the number of allegations of Social Security number misuse from 1998 to 2001, with 81% of these allegations related directly to identity theft.

According to the FTC’s Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse, the most common types of identity theft involve using or opening a credit card account fraudulently; opening telephone/cell phone or utility accounts fraudulently; passing bad checks or opening a new bank account; getting loans in another person’s name; and working in another person’s name.

The fact that identity theft has become a marquee issue concurrent with rapidly advancing computer technologies can make it seem like identity theft is primarily a technology-based crime. However, many common forms of identity theft don’t rely on technology at all. An identity thief can steal your wallet or rifle through your trash or recycling to find credit card or bank account statements. Or the thief can look over your shoulder while you’re taking cash out of an automatic teller machine or inputting a long-distance calling card number. Certainly, this crime does have countless technology-based means, including email solicitations that require “verification” of your personal data in order to claim a prize award; fake Web sites that resemble the sites of legitimate organizations and that require a credit card number to make a purchase or donation; and software and other devices that can scan, record or pirate your personal information without your knowledge.

Here are a few of the many steps you can take to prevent identity theft from happening to you:

• Safeguard your Social Security number. Do not write or imprint it on your checks or carry it in your wallet. When asked for it, question the reasons, and see whether another form of identification can be used instead.

• Protect your mail, trash and recycling. Mail slots in doors and boxes that require a key are safer than a mailbox that any passerby can open. Shred documents that contain any personal information or that are for a credit extension or insurance offer. If you don’t want pre-approved offers at all, you can be removed from the pre-approved offers lists provided by the major credit reporting companies through this Web site, https://www.optoutprescreen.com.

• Don’t respond to email or telephone inquiries for personal information if you have not initiated the call.

• Password protect access to your work computer if you use it for any purposes that require you to input any personal information. Do the same with home computers, if anyone besides you and trusted family members might have access to them.

• Be shrewd in creating passwords and personal identification numbers (PINs)—don’t use name/number combinations that a thief (or a thief that knows you) might be able to figure out.

• Review credit card and bank account statements for activity you did not initiate. Review your credit report regularly with major credit reporting agencies (www.equifax.com; www.experian.com; www.transunion.com).

• Keep your computer updated with current versions of anti-virus and anti-spyware software and firewall protection.

The importance of the temporary worker has increased in the last ten years due to gaps in staffing caused by downsizing, mergers and acquisitions. A temporary worker can be hired to fill in for an employee on leave or they can be used to augment a company’s permanent staff during seasonal fluctuations. Regardless of the reason for their employment, any business owner who hires temporaries should understand that they are entitled to certain considerations even though they will only be with you for a short time.

That entitlement rests on the answer to an important question of whether or not the temporary is an “employee” or an “independent contractor”. This is especially relevant when it comes to the area of discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that temporaries are covered employees under the federal and state anti-discrimination laws if the right to control the means and manner of their work performance rests with the hiring company, rather than with the temporaries themselves.

It’s important to note that even though the staffing agency pays the temporary based on the number of hours reported by the business owner; it is the hiring company that oversees the temporary’s work. Moreover, the temporary uses the hiring company’s supplies and equipment and works on-site. In this instance, the liability for providing a discrimination free environment is not transferred to the staffing agency, as most companies would believe. The EEOC says the liability is shared by both the staffing agency and the hiring firm.

The issue of safety in the workplace is another area of vulnerability when it comes to hiring temporary
workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has taken the stance that companies employing temporary workers are primarily responsible for compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act with regard to those workers’ safety. The rationale for this position is again based on the fact that the hiring company controls the means and manner of their work.

Employing temporary workers also has ramifications for the hiring company when it comes to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This law requires employers with 50 or more employees to allow any eligible employee to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid family and medical leave in any 12 month period, while still maintaining the employee's health insurance benefits and usually, to restore the employee to the same or equivalent position upon his/her return. While the hiring firm does not grant FMLA leave to temporaries, they do have to count temporary workers as part of their contingent when determining if they meet the 50 or more criterion. They must also allow a temporary employee returning from FMLA leave to continue working at their site, even if that means letting another temporary worker go who was hired to replace the worker on leave.

The National Labor Relations Board considers hiring companies and staffing agencies to be joint employers for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when both make determinations that affect the terms and conditions of the temporary worker’s employment. An important consequence of this joint employer determination for the hiring company is that it may be held liable for the staffing agency’s unfair labor practices toward the temporary worker it has hired.

And finally, hiring companies must include most temporary employees in their employee headcounts to see if their benefit plans qualify for a favorable tax treatment under the Internal Revenue Code. However, several courts have ruled that there is no provision in either the Internal Revenue Code or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that hinders hiring companies from excluding temporary workers from their benefit programs.