Planning for Eldercare Today? You Need a Team of Advocates

Taking care of an elderly loved one—or yourself, for that matter, as you age—can be a complicated challenge. Analyzing the medical options of the healthcare maze, on top of elder law and estate planning, can be confusing and frustrating—even frightening. What’s clear is that to successfully navigate this stretch in life’s journey, families need a team—a team of advocates to guide them. In today’s episode, two top experts, Dr. Georganne Vartorella, the president and founder of Patient Advocacy MD in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, and Ronald Fatoullah, the president and founder of Ronald Fatoullah & Associates in New York, talk about how they advocate for families, each with a unique set of skills, knowledge and experience in their respective fields. Georganne will describe how she and her team work to bring together families, social workers and doctors to communicate effectively about diagnosis, treatments and alternatives for care. What guidance or support they might need? What are the pitfalls of the system? How can we think in advance about available options depending on status and healthcare needs? And how can we remove risks and roadblocks to keep everyone working together for aligned goals? For his part, Ron will talk about how he works with array of experts to help guide families through sometimes difficult conversations to meet the needs of their elderly loved ones, whether they need immediate assistance to face a sudden long-term care crisis; understand the nuances of new laws affecting seniors; or are looking to create an estate plan for future generations. Both Georganne and Ron are steadfastly committed to educating, advocating and empowering people to chart their own path to health, well-being and financial stability. Their goal is not only to improve the lives of their patients and clients, but the lives of all seniors—to be their voice when people may not be able to advocate for themselves.