Healthy aging. The Senate Special committee is chaired by Susan Collins of maine. The morning. Thgood morning. The committee wio order. For the next 12 years, 10,000 americans will turn 65 each day. Last month i officially joined that club. By the median age, maine is the oldest stage in the nation. They save 65 or older accounted for 19. 4 of the population of the state in 2016. That is an increase from 2010. No matter where in the country you live, when americans think of turning 65, we think of medicare and Social Security as well as we should. Theres also an opportunity to plan for a brandnew chapter as more start living longer. More than one out of four who lived tlive to age 65 can expeco live into their 90s. Americans to 85 or older are the fastestgrowing segment of the population. For many the long jeopardy means an additional three decades following what was once considered the time to retire. We need to plan to aid successfully and achieve the new chapter of continued growth in our lives. At the same time we must make those all important decisions regarding medicare and Social Security. As i know from my own visits to the sociavisit tothe social secd bangor maine where people are extraordinarily helpful, there are important decisions to make, and programs ca the programs cay complex to navigate. So its best to start considering options before the 65th birthday comes around. The enrollment window for medicare is limited and there are penalties for late enrollment. The clock to sign up begins at three months before the 65th birthday and extends for three months afterwards. Signing up late particularly for Medicare Part d. Can lead to a hefty penalty that lasts for life. It can be confusing to navigate these hurdles and to choose the right package of care needs. Its automatically enrolled in medicare and increasingly americans who are healthy or choosing to work longer as well as the Senate Aging Committee shows in the annual report that issued last year when we look at americas aging workforce. For many americans, working longer means delaying Social Security and then being able to collect much higher monthly benefits later. How does one know which decision is best. What is the optimal time to claim to ensure Financial Stability in the long run. When should you begin considering Medicare Options to maximize care and reduce cost those are some of the questions we will be examining today. We will also explore another issue while we have formulas to guide us through the best medicare and Social Security discussions. To maximize health and wellbeing while the genetics determine about 20 of the longevity the lifestyle determines the other 80 . Reading engaging books and doing something meaningful everyday and taking proactive steps to improve wellness contribute to the healthy aging. Most people know that fiscal, social and cognitive engagement is good for you. Few people realize that it remains critical at every life stage but especially in the older adult hood even for those who face multiple conditions and frailty proactive actions can reverse the course. That can be difficult in states like mine which are very rural. She slipped and broke her right leg. Once enacted woman found herself unable to walk following surgery, rehab and physical therapy she was able to get around with a walker but stayed home for days at a time. She felt down in the dumps. She traded her walker for a cane and c soon afterwards she shed e cane. Today sandy as a coach for the program. Sandys story shows that even after a fall we have the capacity to get back up at age 12 in helping the senior re gain his or her life. Today more and more americans have the chance to live to 100. Turning 65 once meant that its tough to retire andme a slowdow. Today it is an opportunity to prepare for a lifetime ahead of. A lifetime of Financial Security is the right decisions made. What do we need to do to get there and what choices should we make, how should we disseminate useful information to the senior population. I now return to senator casey for his opening statement. I also want to thank her for the good work shes done and in what has been a long week here in the senate. Every day, 10,000 americans turnedri age 65 in the United States of america, 10,000 people every single day. Its a Staggering Number and today we will hear people turning age 65 face their own Staggering Number of physicians at that time in their life. Theyio must be thinking about a range of issues claiming Social Security and also signing up for medicare and about how to get what they need to stay healthy. Thats what i hear from my constituents in pennsylvania specifically for the through the constituents of this team and we hear about it day after day. Our office regularly works with pennsylvanians who missed their window to sign up for medicare for example. For a cancer diagnosis that had no way to pay for care simply because they didnt know the right time to sign up. They didnt know they needed to sign up for medicare. Could have happened to any of us. Now they are praying daily for paying highecopaying higher pre. Almost 26,000 are paying a lifetime late enrollment penalty for Medicare Part d. Nationwide needs almost 700,000 americans on the hook for the lifetime county, the average amounts to almost 30 increase in their persons monthly medicare premium. Thats outrageous and unacceptable especially considering heard. Thats why i introduced the enrollment identification eligibility simplification act. Good news we have anro we should be able to pass the law because they help the people we serve the people that deserve that kind of law. Its the same problem senator collins and i can Work Together on toothpicks. Thank you madam chair. The last few days and weve probably seen way more than you would have liked, but im delighted that youve joined the committee and i think that you will find it to be a Great Committee and you are sitting next to our committees most diligent member and if you follow her lead, im sure that youll have a great experience. First with this today is the acting Deputy Commissioner for communications at the Social Security administration. Mr. Borland will discuss the spectrum of tools and Resources Available to help americans choose the right Retirement Benefits right for their individual needs and circumstancess. Next, we will hear from anna marie, the chief strategy officerr and Senior Vice President of the National Council a on aging. She launched the governors aging 2020 initiative and created the division of aging and adult services. A boardcertified physician in geriatric and family medicine, he studies the physiology of aging and how to promote wellbeing through disease management and prevention and i will now turn to the Ranking Member to introduce the witness from pennsylvania. I want to start by congratulating ms. Hill and told that now your seventh grandchild. Congratulations. She has worked weekly to help counsel in their families providing them with information to make the most of their medicare benefits. She will tell how she can do this work and why its important to help people to better understand medicare will also tell us about the common questions and the missteps when they lack this key information. Also her daughter with us at the hearing august thank you for being here and supporting your grandmother. Member collins, Ranking Member casey, i am the acting Deputy Commissioner for the communications of the Social Security administration thank you for inviting me to discuss how we provide information to help workers and their family members decide when to claim Social SecurityRetirement Benefits and enroll in medicare. We are mindful of the responsibilities to provide information to help make informed choices. We believe they need to be thinking of other decisions before they arrived at the field office. Its very important as they will affect the payment amount for the rest of their lives. For this reason even before individuals apply for Social Security benefits or enrolling in medicare we provide objective investigations they may use for retirement and we use this in a variety of ways including the website publications, outreach and Social Security statement. The shows information on lifetime earnings as well as estimates and future benefits and workers and their families may receive based on the earnings. Individuals age 60 and older that are not receiving Social Security benefits and do not have a Social Security account. We mailedou around 13. 5 million statements and in addition to the basic benefit information the statement includes informations and how he workers claiming decision affects survivor benefits, how to avoid medicare late enrollment penalties and information on average lifee expectancies. Another valuable resource is the website. Each month nearly 15 Million People visit us online to get the information they need to make informed decisions aboutio their benefits. The website includes the retirement estimator which is a powerful, popular and accurate tool that uses an individuals actual earning information from the records that allows him or her to receive an estimate of benefits 6 and it has a full retirement age at age 70 or any age in between. According to independent surveys of Customer Satisfaction the retirement estimatorhe is one of the highest rated websites. Og we recognize not everyone chooses to use the internet. Our committed employees assist in the field offices, by telephone and the national 800 number in response to online applications and through the mail. We also have over 100 specialists who along with our Field Office Managers participated in more than 6,000 outreach events of last fiscal year with an estimated audience of more than 3. 7 Million People. These range from small gettogethers in Public Libraries and a senio, senior c, churches and veterans organizations to large gatherings like county fairs, state fairs, senior expos and employer meetings. Whether the attendance is in the tens of thousands, the employees are there to help americans better understand their benefits. We also play a key role in signing people up for medicare over the centers for medicare and Medicaid Services administer the program Social Security is responsible for enrollment. We provide these enrollment options for those who become eligible whether or not they are already receiving Social Security benefits. Nu we continue to strengthen our partnership to improve our communications with those nearing the eligibility age and we have updated the statement insert for older individuals to strengthen the message about when to apply for medicare and more prominent. As stewards of the program our job is to help workers make wellinformed decisions that are best for their individual circumstances. K i thank you for the invitation to be here today and i look forward to answering any questions that youou may have. Im the Senior Vice President for external affairs and we are the nations oldest aging advocacy organization. Life after 65 has changed dramatically since this started in 1950 where the retirement once spent a few years of leisure and a secure pension, todays Older Americans have both a gift and th challenge of planning for a bonus 20 to 30 years of life, yet few are prepared. The traditional retirement plans have mostly disappeared, and americans individual savings and retirement have not caught up and longer life also brings new health challenges. Women face unique hurdles and begin retirement with a challenge that has followed many throughout their lives, the pay gap. Ap lower pay means less money saved. Women who choose to leave the workforce to the day. Or a caregiver have fewer Social Security benefit benefits buildd women of color face an even deeper disparity. Over 70 of Hispanic Women and over 64 of older African Women are economically vulnerable. We know there are proven costeffective ways to help americans navigate life after 65. With the help of thousands of purpospartners from our programs address to the essential pillars of life test 65. Health and economic security. Health is essential to independence, but older adults are disproportionately affected by chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. The good news is chronic conditions can be preventedco ad managed. Oneex example is the chronic disease selfmanagement Program Available both in the community and online. It improves health and money. In hopes to bring the program to thousands of younger adults. Falls are another Significant Health concern and the facts are alarming. Every 19 minutes, and older adult dies from a fall. These false costs medicare 31 billion a year but they are preventable. Its a matter of balance as you mentioned and c can reduce false by as much as 55 . We needed to National Initiatives to combat the falls and every september we sponsored the falls prevention awareness to spotlight the issue. Thank you senator collins and senator casey for the response in the resolution. We really appreciate it. Social isolation and loneliness are a problem for millions house while. Adults without adequate social interaction had a mortality risk as comparable to smoking 15 cigarettesbl a day. In a community, Senior Centers are a beacon for older adults seeking social connections. They are a gateway to the Nations Network connecting seniors to support as well as fun and friendships. They run the National Institute of Senior Centers to promote excellence and best practices. When it comes to health, we believe prevention should be a National Priority investing in programs like these improved seniors qualityoflife and saves money. Economic security is just as critical. Today, half of older adults living alone struggled to meet theistruggle to meettheir month. I want to share just two ways we are working to change this statistic. First benefit access. Less than half of all seniors are enrolled in the benefits programs. We support local benefits counselors and offers benefits checkups, a free online benefit screening tool that has helped nearly 6. 5 millionon people. Second isse improving medicare. Anyone who turns 65 can tell you how overwhelming it can be torw understand and n. Roll and making poor decisions can hurt you through higher cost, coverage gaps and even l lifetie penalties. And we support the bipartisan act introduced by senator casey which aims to simplify enrollment. Thank you for your leadership. Continued funding for low income benefits outreach and enrollment and forth on a the state Health Insurance program are critical. They provide local counseling to medicare beneficiaries, their families and caregivers. Americans want help navigating life after 65. Thats why he and co white and d our own innovative approach called aging Mastery Program which we finally called amp that brings together the best coverage into the Engaging Program toay give seniors a pathway0 to age well with more than 10,000 seniors have graduated so far. So, in conclusion, aging wealth means making informed deliberate choices and at ncoa we offer tools and solutions to help seniors do just that. We look forward to working witho the committee to develop even more resources to help people navigate life after 65. Thank you. Madam chair, ranking it distinguished members, thank you for invitingnv and giving me ths opportunity to discuss the challenges regarding the aging population in the United States. I am a Board Certified educator and im representing myself as a physician who has treated and managed and continues to treat thousands of senior americans. As said at the beginning, today the number of americans age 65 and older is approximately 49 million. Currently we are about 7,000 have about 20,000 to staff up for the need we have right now. This aging population has faced multiple challenges. The lack of experts in the field of geriatric medicines unfortunately the healthcare and Education System hasnt been defined to train senior care providers who can manage seniors. As we age the physiology changes and therefore it is crucial to be managed by Healthcare Providers who have been educated and trained in this field. In the u. S. , 80 of seniors have at least one chronic condition. 40 of the seniors take at least fiv