Tips to protect your Apple Health coverage

If you’re enrolled in Apple Health, watch your mailbox closely. Why? Because for the first time in more than three years, Washingtonians and all Americans on Medicaid must show they still qualify for the program.

Before March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic erupted, Medicaid recipients had to fill out forms every year to demonstrate they still qualified. But that requirement was suspended as part of coronavirus relief that went into effect as unemployment soared and millions of Americans lost their jobs.

Pre-pandemic rules are now back in place, and federal officials estimate that more than 2.5 million older adults nationwide will lose their Medicaid benefits, including roughly 30,000 here in Washington when the recertification process is complete.

Apple Health, the state’s senior community.

“The job chooses you in a lot of ways,” she said. “This is where I wanted to land. This is home.”

New Meals director

Carla Martinez is the new Meals on Wheels director after initially being hired to oversee fundraising for the program. When her predecessor, Cara Hernandez, left for a job at Chaplaincy Health Care, Martinez agreed to step into the role.

Martinez has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Gonzaga University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Washington University. She spent 15 years as a health care administrator and 18 years as a public affairs manager at Energy Northwest. Most recently, she worked at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties as a donor relations director.

She’s come full circle, as her first job was working in a senior dining facility.

“I have a passion for seniors,” she said.

It’s a theme that runs through the agency, Baynes said. “It’s not about us but the people we serve,” he said.

Serving seniors

The agency serves seniors in a variety of ways. It operates two different programs: Home Care Services, providing in-home assistance to seniors in eight counties; and Mid-

Medicaid program, currently has over 2 million enrollees, including 300,000 people over the age of 50. People in their 50s and 60s are more likely than those who are younger to manage the care of a chronic health condition. Loss of their health care coverage could be devastating, which is why the recertification process is so important. However, there are steps that Washingtonians on Apple Health can take to make the process easier. As unsettling as this may be, especially for Medicaid recipients who haven’t been through this before, there are steps you can take that will help:

Columbia Meals on Wheels, which offers home-delivered meals and well-checks for homebound clients, and a dining center program that serves hot meals for seniors.

The nonprofit’s workforce includes 30 people on the Meals on Wheels side of the operation, and 48 nonunion and 740 union staff on the home care side.

There also are 15 staffers in human resources/finance/administration.

Meals on Wheels also relies on the help of about 500 volunteers.

SLR’s total budget in 2023 is $34 million, with $2.8 million earmarked for Meals on Wheels operations.

During the pandemic, Meals on Wheels closed its dining centers and instead delivered frozen meals and later offered drive-thru hot meals.

Its eight dining centers eventually reopened, but it’s taking a while to return to prepandemic attendance, Baynes said.

In 2019, 57,576 meals were served at group dining sites. In 2022, 49,002 meals were served.

The centers serve seniors hot meals five days a week in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Benton City, Prosser and Connell.

“The food is absolutely phenomenal,” Hickey said.

The Meals on Wheels program serves 600 to 700 meals per day to seniors age 60 and older with about three-quarters delivered to individual homes, and a quarter served in a

• Update your contact information. With Apple Health, you have 30 days from when your contact details have changed to update information like our home address, phone number and email address. You can call the Washington Healthplanfinder Customer Support Center at 1-855-923-4633.

• Keep an eye on your mail. All states must send letters to Medicaid recipients letting them know how to renew their coverage or if the state believes they no longer qualify.

• Complete any included forms and return them right away. Pay close attention to the instructions. Because every state runs its own Medicaid program, there is no one-size-fits-all way this process will work. The rules for Washington could differ from those for your family and friends in neighboring states. States have until June 2024 to complete this group setting.

In May, the agency served up 21,562 total meals. Of those, 5,249 were meals at a dining site and 16,313 were delivered. The numbers are up more than 20% over the previous May.

The agency served 256,000 meals total last year.

Baynes noted there are more seniors to feed in the community.

“We know there are more in need and want to meet that need,” he said.

Martinez said Meals on Wheels offers more than a hot meal, too. It provides a well check for homebound seniors. Sometimes Meals on Wheels volunteers are seniors’ only link to the rest of the world.

With the nation’s mental health crisis, this is more important than ever, Hickey said. “Those connections grow so important. It’s really a big thing,” she said.

Martinez said checking in on seniors who may not feel valued or as if they have a purpose is critical. “I know we offer that connection,” she said.

There are no financial qualifiers for service, and all meals are provided on an optional, confidential, donation-only basis. Seniors are asked to donate only what is comfortable within their own budgets. No senior is denied service, and there is no waiting list. Call 509-735-1911.

The meals program has an $800,000 funding gap. It is in the process of hiring a philanthropy process, so watch for that letter.

If you are told that you are losing coverage, you do have options: program manager to oversee fundraising because “fundraising is a big challenge,” Baynes said.

• You can reapply to see if you still qualify.

• You can get coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, and you may qualify for subsidies to help lower your costs. Go to wahealthplanfinder.org or call 1-800-562-3022 for more information about Marketplace coverage.

• Your employer may offer health care coverage.

AARP Washington is committed to helping older people keep their Medicaid coverage. We will continue to monitor Washington’s process and actions to help minimize the number of Washingtonians who lose health coverage and help those folks connect with other low-cost options.

 Christina Clem is a communications analyst at AARP Washington.

Oktoberfeast

To help plug the shortfall, planning is underway for an Oct. 7 fundraiser, Oktoberfeast, which features a 5K fun run along the Columbia River, food, beer (and root beer) and live music. The family-friendly event welcomes kids and dogs. Participants can run on their own or on a team.

The registration bundle includes entry to the race, lunch, a drink, a collectible beer mug, and a collectible T-shirt. Bringing your pup? Be sure to add on the dog bandana option so you and your pooch can match on and off the course.

Following the run, enjoy a Bavarian-style lunch prepared by the Meals on Wheels kitchen team (last year’s menu featured Bratwurst sandwiches, German potato salad, German red cabbage, sauerkraut and black forest cake. Vegetarian sausage and regular hot dogs are available, too.). There also will be a Kid Zone, a dog corner with snacks for the pups, a beer garden featuring local craft beer, tuba-tastic tunes by The Tubadors and more.

Proceeds benefit the Meals on Wheels program.

To sign up, go to: runsignup. com/Race/WA/Richland/Oktoberfeast2023.

Recently, she found a baby book – one that had been carefully filled out.

It turned out the baby book belonged to a woman who died in 2021, and it ended up in a Goodwill pile by mistake. Wagner was able to track down the woman’s sister and return it.

“She wanted to pay me, and I said, ‘Absolutely not. This belongs to you,’” Wagner said. “When she started crying, I almost started crying, too. She was so happy to get it back. It’s a good feeling.”

Wagner sometimes enlists help from her brother in tracking down family members; he found the grandson of the 1940s college girl who documented her life in the diary.

Unfortunately, not all of Wagner’s thrift store finds end up back with family.

Sometimes she identifies and reaches out to a relative but doesn’t hear back. In those cases, she holds onto whatever it was she was trying to return, rather than tossing it.

To her, those artifacts of other people’s lives are still special.

“They’re treasures,” said Wagner, who lives in Pasco with her husband, Kenneth.

They have two children and four grandchildren.

Wagner’s kindness in returning Mynn’s photo made an impression on my family.

“I thought it was exceptionally, incredibly nice,” said my mom, Judy Schilling. “I was touched that someone who didn’t know us went to so much trouble for us.”

My mom is the keeper of our family’s history. She’s the one who wrote Mynn’s name on the back of the picture; in fact, she’s labeled all our family photos so my older brother, Al Schilling III, and I will be able to identify the faces in our family tree stretching back generations.

Unlike me, my mom and brother both spent time with Mynn, though not when she was at her best. She died in 1978, five years after a serious illness left her in need of 24hour care and unable to speak.

My dad, Al Schilling Jr. – who goes by Bert – remembers when she was full of life.

She was energetic and magnetic –the ultimate hostess, he said. And she had a gift for remembering people’s names, which helped my grandfather, Al Schilling Sr., immensely.

He was in the hospitality business, working his way from bellboy to manager of hotels such as The Historic Davenport in Spokane and the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle. He hosted movie stars, astronauts and presidents, and he helped run Spokane’s Lilac Festival and Seattle’s Seafair.

Mynn was by his side through it all, whispering names in his ear and supporting him as best she could.

She used her gifts to enrich my dad’s life, too.

She was a great cook, and she’s responsible for Bert’s lifelong love of crepes and for a ramen-like soup we call “skinny noodles” – which she created just for him after he tried a similar dish at a restaurant.

She also filled their home with music, especially showtunes. To this day, my dad adores “The Sound of Music,” “Phantom of the Opera” and the like, and he plays the piano beautifully.

Like many parents, she pushed him to work hard and succeed.

She also showed him a deep, enduring love, which he’s passed onto his own kids.

“I miss her,” my dad said. “She was central to my life.”

My dad doesn’t talk about his mom much, at least not in day-to-day conversation. But the photo of her as a teenager, and Wagner’s kindness in getting it back to us, brought up memories.

I heard stories I’d never known. I looked at the old photo in a new way.

In it, I still see a girl I never met in a light-colored dress and jeweled necklace, holding flowers. But I also see my own dark hair, my niece Ty Schilling’s sparkling eyes and hints of my brother.

I see my dad, who’s now lived far longer without his mom than with her.

I’m glad to hear him speak her name aloud.

I’m glad she’s back with us, where she belongs.

 Sara Schilling works as a reporter for the Senior Times and Tri-Cities Area Journal of