Debbie Perlman Blog

Here's how to increase your Social Security payout. Boost your benefit. Your Social Security payment amount is determined by how much you earn while working and when you elect to start receiving payments. Married individuals are additionally eligible for spousal and survivor's payments. But there are many strategies you can use to increase how much you will receive in retirement. Here's how to get the highest Social Security payment you qualify for. Work 35 or more years. Your Social Security payments are calculated using your 35 highest-earning years in the workforce. If you don't work for at least 35 years, zeros are factored into the calculation and reduce your payments. Even a low-earning year is better than having a zero averaged in. Earn a higher salary. The more you earn and pay into Social Security up to the taxable maximum of $132,900 in 2019, the higher your retirement payments will be. Earnings above the taxable maximum are not subj

Look past cookie-cutter approaches when saving for retirement to build a nest egg that's right for you.   Your retirement plan needs to be aligned with what you need and want. “As a whole, retirement plans can never be one size fits all, because everybody is very different,” says Ephie Coumanakos, co-founder and managing partner at Concord Financial Group in Wilmington, Delaware. Finding the right retirement plan involves: Thinking about your values and goals. Identifying your risk tolerance. Considering your age. Projecting your retirement lifestyle. Adjusting your plan as needed. Follow these strategies to create a customized retirement plan that's best for you. Understand What's Important to You The ideal retirement can vary greatly depending on your priorities and goals. Think through what's meaningful for you and how you might want to spend funds. "Sit down with your spouse or loved ones and discuss what you would like t

Officials point to rising employment, but the uninsured rate is climbing as families run afoul of new paperwork and as fear rises among immigrants. HOUSTON — The baby’s lips were turning blue from lack of oxygen in the blood when his mother, Kristin Johnson, rushed him to an emergency room here last month. Only after he was admitted to intensive care with a respiratory virus did Ms. Johnson learn that he had been dropped from Medicaid coverage. The 9-month-old, Elijah, had joined a growing number of children around the country with no health insurance, a trend that new Census Bureau data suggests is most pronounced in Texas and a handful of other states. Two of Elijah’s older siblings lost Medicaid coverage two years ago for reasons Ms. Johnson never understood, and she got so stymied trying to prove their eligibility that she gave up. “I’ve been on this emotional roller coaster,” Ms. Johnson, 34, said of Elijah’s loss of coverage, an error that hap

The conversation about wearables in health care is no longer limited to activity trackers. Consumers and health care professionals now make use of all kinds of wearables. Insurers and employers have taken note of how wearables can enhance wellness efforts. For example, last year the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association announced plans to include the Fitbit in its Blue365 health and wellness program. The percentage of health care consumers who use wearables has nearly quadrupled, up from just 9% in 2014 to 33% in 2018, an Accenture survey found. And supply and demand are still growing. Consider the following stats about wearables in health care: The Stanford Medicine 2018 Health Trends Report found that of the health care patents filed by tech companies between 2015 and 2017, 23% were for wearable devices. More than 80% of consumers are willing to wear technology that measures health data, according to the Accenture survey. The United States is the largest player in a

Nearly one million individuals with disabilities received vocational rehabilitation services in 2016 — and over half of them subsequently found employment, according to the Rehabilitation Services Administration. Putting people to work, including those with short-term disabilities, is one goal. Another is to help employers gain access to qualified workers. Although employers may incur limited costs when providing vocational rehab and workplace accommodations, doing so often pays dividends in the long-run, enabling you to hire and retain employees who help your business thrive. What Is Vocational Rehab?  Vocational rehabilitation services are designed to help people with physical or mental disabilities prepare for, obtain, keep or regain a job. This includes individuals who have suffered on-the-job injuries and are trying to return to date-of-injury positions or to secure new jobs with comparable compensation. Vocational rehab includes a variety of services, fr

While health care costs take many different shapes, your employees probably associate them most closely with the premiums they pay for their insurance. That said, they may not know everything they should about this piece of the puzzle. Who sets the price? Where does the money go? Are health insurance premiums tax deductible? Here’s a look at some common questions your employees — and you — might have about your premiums. What Are Insurance Premiums? A premium is what you pay to keep an insurance policy active. In exchange for this fee, the insurance company agrees to cover some or all of your medical bills. Monthly premiums are the most common type, but you can also make larger payments less frequently, for instance once a quarter or once a year. The insurance company collects premiums from its customers to cover their future health care bills. Where, exactly, does the money go? The vast majority — roughly 82 cents of each dollar — goes toward medical expenses

A study finds evidence for how to reduce some of it, but also a large blind spot on how to remove the rest.  Even a divided America can agree on this goal: a health system that is cheaper but doesn’t sacrifice quality. In other words, just get rid of the waste.  A new study, published Monday in JAMA, finds that roughly 20 percent to 25 percent of American health care spending is wasteful. It’s a startling number but not a new finding. What is surprising is how little we know about how to prevent it.  William Shrank, a physician who is chief medical officer of the health insurer Humana and the lead author of the study, said, “One contribution of our study is that we show that we have good evidence on how to eliminate some kinds of waste, but not all of it.”  Following the best available evidence, as reviewed in the study, would eliminate only one-quarter of the waste — reducing health spending by about 5 percent. Teresa Rogstad of Humana and N

Every fall, the 60 million Americans who use the health plan can compare options and save money. Here’s what to consider. If you’re enrolled in Medicare but worry about the cost of health care, your chance to do something about it is right around the corner. Most people enroll in Medicare when they become eligible at age 65. But every fall, they have the opportunity to change their coverage during an enrollment season that runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7. This is the time of year when you can switch between original fee-for-service Medicare and Medicare Advantage, the all-in-one managed care alternative to the traditional program. You also can re-evaluate your prescription drug coverage — whether that is a stand-alone Part D plan, or wrapped into an Advantage plan. It’s a good idea to do a checkup on your coverage, even if you are happy with your current choices. Prescription drug plans often revise their lists of covered drugs, the rules under which they