Uncategorized Archives - GEM Healthcare Services

Senior Couple at Home Office Reviewing Financial Documents and Consulting Tax Advisor for Retirement Planning — *Senior Couple at Home Office Reviewing Financial Documents*

If you or one of your loved ones is among Ontario’s over-80 population – or approaching that age – you might be interested in the current push to implement an enhanced Seniors’ Tax Credit in our province. The timing couldn’t be more urgent, given that Ontario’s 80+ population is set to double between 2023 and 2040. Properly administered, a Seniors’ Tax Credit will enable seniors to live and receive care in their homes and communities longer, saving long term care (LTC) spaces and hospital beds for those who need them most.

The call for a more accessible Seniors’ Tax Credit is backed by a group of health care, senior living, and real estate organizations in Ontario who understand the vital role it can play in our entire health care and housing continuum. This coalition of organizations is leading the charge to persuade the provincial government to implement a tax benefit that will truly work for Ontario’s seniors. Quebec’s new program serves as a valid model; thanks to its seniors’ tax credit, that province has reduced its LTC waitlist to just over 3,700 as of October 2024, versus 47,000 in Ontario.

One of the key aims is the desire to get rid of the ‘grey market’, whereby unlicensed providers are delivering some seniors’ home care services, often under the table. The legitimate organizations providing services have a powerful, united voice and agree wholeheartedly with a recent C.D. Howe Institute research paper which outlines the need for provinces to implement smart policies to address our growing senior population and economic challenges faced by some seniors.

The 2022 Ontario budget did introduce a new refundable personal income tax credit called the Ontario Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit (OSCAH). However, the steps to qualify for OSCAH pose a challenge in that seniors must apply and be approved for a federal disability certificate in order to claim part-time attendant care in their homes as an eligible medical expense. As a result, the vast majority of home care recipients have difficulty claiming these expenses and receiving their credit.

We all know that Ontario’s healthcare system is already stretched to the limit, and more funding alone won’t solve the capacity challenges. To sustain our healthcare system as baby boomers age, leveraging seniors’ care capacity outside of the publicly funded LTC and hospital sectors must be part of the solution. Based on current numbers, an enhanced Seniors’ Tax Credit would allow for 2400 seniors to be diverted from the LTC waitlist to be cared for in the community.

As mentioned, a more accessible tax credit will help seniors afford the necessary services that will enable them to age in the communities of their choice. It would also incentivize senior-focused development and unlock more housing units for young Ontarians who want to start families. If you agree that the time for change in Ontario is now, we encourage you to contact your local Member of Provincial Parliament and add your voice to the chorus pushing for a more accessible Seniors’ Tax Credit. For more information, please visit the Seniors’ Tax Credit website or contact us at GEM Health Care Services.

A medical professional administering a vaccine, showcasing public health and disease

Uncategorized

Promoting workplace health: Why employers should facilitate flu shots this winter

admin October 22, 2024 8:55 amOctober 22, 2024

As the winter season looms, it is time for employers to consider accommodating the administration of flu shots at their workplace in order to protect people, says GEM Health Care’s Gaye Moffett.

“Get the flu shot!” she urges. “You want your staff to stay healthy, and I know now there’s a lot of work-from-home, but you want staff to stay healthy, right? And you don’t want them to infect others,” Moffett says.

Public health authorities have declared the end of October into November as the ideal time to update your flu shot, and GEM has been commissioned by several large organizations and corporations to administer workplace shots. These include accounting firms and investment firms, which face intense deadlines and long workdays spent attempting to meet deadlines. Employers want those workers to remain free of illness, Moffett says.

And the more people who receive a flu shot, the better, as it will encourage herd immunity. It will also protect vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and the very young. While the flu shot will not necessarily prevent everyone from getting sick, it will diminish symptoms and assuage some suffering.

Encourage herd immunity

Moffett would like to dispel the myth that getting the flu shot causes you to get the flu or flu symptoms.

“What may have happened to them is that they may have been exposed to the virus before they took the flu shot, which makes them vulnerable to the virus, so they come down with the flu,” she says.

“You don’t know when you kind of get it. And then you have the shot, and it takes about five to 10 days for it to work within your body to build your immunity, and then you’re protected.”

And if you had a flu shot last year, that does not negate you from getting an additional shot this season. That’s because immunity only extends for six months.

“Even if people got it last year, they still need to get it,” Moffett says.

Moffett says that every party that provides flu shots must be certified by the province, which GEM is. This means they meet a long list of criteria in order to be qualified to administer the shots, including proper refrigeration capabilities and trained healthcare workers. “ I have to prove that I’m a bona fide organization, that I have the insurance, and that I’ve got the capacity,” Moffett says.

GEM Health Care certainly has the capacity to help prevent the spread of flu this season, and workplaces are urged to take advantage of their expertise and the ease of in-office immunization that GEM provides.