Glossary

Adult Abuse – Elder abuse may include physical abuse, financial exploitation (someone taking advantage of a senior citizen’s financial situation), emotional abuse, sexual abuse, self-neglect and neglect.

Adult Day Care - A service designed to enable senior citizens who need some form of assistance to remain in their own home or the home of a family member, by providing a protective environment in a licensed center.  Services provided may include health monitoring, a nutritious meal, including special diets, exercise, individual & group activities, transportation and social interaction.

Advance Directive - A legal document that states the treatment or care a person wishes to receive or not receive if he or she becomes unable to make medical decisions.  A person may also name another person to make decisions for them if they lose the ability to make their own decisions.  See Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.

Assisted Living Facility - A facility that provides 24 hour care, services and protective oversight to residents who are provided with shelter and board, and who may need assistance with activities of daily living which include: eating, dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring, and walking.  The facility also provides oversight for storage, distribution, or administration of medications; and health care supervision under the direction of a licensed physician, and consistent with a social model of care.  A licensed Nursing Home Administrator is required.  This type of facility may accept residents who require minimal assistance in their safe evacuation from the facility.

Assistive Technology - Equipment, electronics, computers, gadgets, and household items that can make life and work easier for people with disabilities.

Care Plan Team - A multidisciplinary committee of health care workers who meet at regular intervals to implement, review, and personalize a plan of care for each resident in a nursing home or hospital.

Case Management/Care Management - Assistance with coordinating services to help older people remain in their own homes.
Co-Pay (Medicare) - Percentage of health expenses for which you are responsible after paying the deductible amount.

Congregate Meal Site  - A place where seniors can eat together.

Conservatorship - The court authorization allowing one person to make financial decisions for another who is not capable.  Conservator (manager) handles the person’s finances.  Court proceedings may be voluntary or involuntary.  Bookkeeping of conservator is checked by the court.  This ceases at the moment of death.

Division of Assets - A Family Support Division program that divides a married couple’s assets evenly when one of the persons enters a nursing home.  The reason for this is to allow the person remaining at home to have money to live on and the nursing home resident to spend down his/her share of the money to be eligible for Medicaid to take care of nursing home costs.

Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care - A document through which another person is named by you to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make them; often done in conjunction with an Advance Directive.

Guardianship - A court authorization (voluntary or involuntary) of a person or agency (Public Administrator) to make personal care decisions for someone who is not capable of making those decisions for themselves.   The Guardian and Conservator may be the same person.  

HIPP Program (Health Insurance Premium Payment) - The HIPP program is a Medicaid program that pays for “cost effective” health insurance premiums, co-payments, and deductibles.  Call Family Support Division for more information.

Homemaker Care/Non-Medical Care – Assists individuals with household chores such as: meal preparation, cleaning, laundry, ironing, grocery shopping, and errands.

Hospice - Special care for terminally ill patients and their families. Services can be provided in the home, residential care facility, assisted living facility, or nursing home.  A physician must decide the patient has 6 months or less to live and the individual must be receiving only comfort measures (excludes treatments to cure their disease).

Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) - A facility that provides 24 hour accommodation, board, personal care, basic health, and nursing care services under the daily supervision of a licensed nurse and direction of a licensed physician to three or more residents dependent for care and supervision.  Licensed Nursing Home Administrator is required.

Medicaid - A joint federal and state medical assistance program for low-income individuals who meet eligibility requirements.  Applications are available through the Family Support Division.

Medicare - A health insurance program through the Social Security Administration that is to help meet hospital and medical costs for people age 65 and over, certain individuals with disabilities under age 65, and individuals with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant).

Medicare Part A - Anyone on Medicare has Part A.  Part A covers some costs of a hospital stay, care in a skilled nursing facility for a limited time, care in your home from a home health agency after a hospital stay, and hospice.

Medicare Part B - A voluntary insurance that covers some doctor and outpatient services and medical supplies.  The monthly premium is around $93.50 and changes with the annual social security raise.  This premium can be automatically taken out of your monthly social security check.
        
Medicare Part D - Prescription drug coverage that may help lower prescription drug costs and help protect against higher costs in the future.  Monthly premium costs vary according to plan and one’s income/resources.

Occupational Therapy - Health rehabilitation that helps individuals re-gain and build skills for normal activities of daily living.

Ombudsman - A person who investigates and mediates nursing home residents’ problems and/or complaints regarding the nursing home in which they reside.  In Boone County, the ombudsman is located in the offices of the Central Missouri Area Agency on Aging.

Personal Care Services - Assistance with activities of daily living (such as grooming, bathing, dressing, toileting, and eating).

Advanced Personal Care Services - Personal care for persons who require medically related assistance. The medically related assistance can include things like:  ostomy care, catheter care, bowel program, application of ointments or lotions to unbroken skin, aseptic dressings, passive range of motion, assisting those who can’t bear any weight on their legs.

Basic Personal Care Services - Personal care for those who do not have special medical needs such as those mentioned above

QMB (Qualified Medicare Beneficiary) / SLMB (Specified Low-income Medicare Beneficiary) - A Family Support Division program that will pay all or part of your Medicare premiums.  You must meet income guidelines for eligibility.

Residential Care Facility I (RCF I) - A facility that provides 24 hour care to three or more residents who need or are provided with shelter, board, and protective oversight, which may include storage, distribution or administration of medications and care during short-term illness or recuperation.  Residents who live in a RCF are required to make a path to safety unassisted.  A licensed Nursing Home Administrator is not required.

Residential Care Facility II (RCF II) - A facility which provides 24 hour accommodation, board, and care to three or more residents who need or are provided with supervision of diets, assistance in personal care, storage, distribution or administration of medications, supervision of health care (under the direction of a licensed physician), and protective oversight (including care during short-term illness or recuperation).  Residents who live in a RCF are required to make a path to safety unassisted.  A licensed Nursing Home Administrator is required.

Respite Care - Help that provides temporary relief for a caregiver of a dependent adult.  Respite care can be provided in the home or outside the home (such as at an adult day care center).

Advanced Respite Care - Respite care for those with special medically related needs

Basic Respite Care - Respite care for those without special medically related needs (those who need only supervision and/or someone to simply be present with them)

Nurse Respite Care - Respite care for those with special needs that only a nurse (or trained family member) could meet

Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) - A facility that provides 24 hour accommodation, board and skilled nursing care, and treatment of services to at least three residents.  Skilled nursing care and treatment services are commonly performed by or under the supervision of a registered professional nurse.  For individuals requiring twenty-four hour care by licensed nursing personnel, services include: acts of observation, care and counsel of the aged, ill, injured or infirm, the administration of medications and treatments as prescribed by a licensed physician or dentist, and other nursing functions requiring substantial specialized judgement and skill.  Licensed Nursing Home Administrator is required.

Spend Down - The amount of money determined by Family Support Division that has to be spent before a person would be eligible for Medicaid assistance. 

SSI (Supplemental Security Income) - A Social Security Administration program that provides extra monthly income to the blind, disabled and elderly persons with very low income.  Individuals must meet income requirements.

Telephone Reassurance - Telephone contact (may be personal or automated) to check on someone’s well being and/or to remind them of taking medications, eating a meal, etc.