November 21, 2024 • 32 mins
Welcome to our second episode in our series entitled: "Aging Unfiltered". In this episode, we address the challenges of ageism in the workplace and its impact on job seekers of all ages. Age bias can affect hiring decisions, career advancement, and workplace culture in ways that are often damaging. Join us as we speak with Janine Vanderburg a passionate anti-ageism advocate and the CEO of Encore Roadmap, where she partners with businesses, media, and brands to foster age inclusion and tackle ageism head-on. We’ll uncover the stereotypes that influence hiring practices, share personal stories of overcoming these obstacles, and explore strategies for fostering more inclusive hiring practices. Tune in to learn how we can break down age-based barriers in the workforce and create opportunities for talent of all ages.
Resources
Cookbook – Leo Robledo - Central American Feasts II_ A Culinary Adventure
Cookbook – Leo Robledo - Breakfast Around the World
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gretchen (00:00):
Welcome to the Age Guide podcast, Perspectives on
the Aging Journey.
In today's episode of ourseries, Aging Unfiltered, we'll
dive into the issue of ageismagainst older adults in the
hiring process and withincompanies.
Ageism involves the stereotypesthat shape how we view
ourselves and others based onage.
(00:23):
By engaging in discussions witha more inclusive world for all
ages.
Today, I'm so excited towelcome Janine Vanderberg, a
passionate anti-ageism advocateand the CEO of Encore Roadmap,
(00:44):
where she partners withbusinesses, media, and brands to
foster age inclusion and tackleageism head on.
With over 35 years ofexperience in social sector
consulting, Janine has ledtransformative change
initiatives and co-foundedChanging the Narrative, a major
(01:05):
campaign to combat ageism.
Recognized as one of Colorado'stop 25 powerful women in
business, her efforts havereached 30,000 people across 50
states and nearly 50 countries,inspiring more inclusive
workplaces and media.
Join us as we discuss how wecan combat ageism, not only in
(01:30):
our personal lives, but also inthe workplace.
Welcome, Janine.
Janine (01:35):
Gretchen, thank you so much for having me to talk about
my favorite topic.
Gretchen (01:40):
I'm so excited to have you here.
So Janine, you have such a richbackground in advocating for
age inclusion.
To start, I'd love to hear alittle bit more about what drew
you to this work.
Was there a particularexperience or a realization that
really lit that spark for yourjourney into anti-ageism
(02:02):
advocacy?
So Gretchen, that's
Janine (02:04):
such a good question.
I've actually been thinking alot about that lately.
So I've been an activist all ofmy life.
Things that I've championed,early childhood education,
making sure that all childrenhave access to great public
education, a lot of thingsaround women's economic
security.
But literally, it was rightduring the Great Recession, That
(02:30):
I, because I was running myconsulting firm and a lot of
contacts in the nonprofitsector, and people would be
referring me, people who were,you know, in their 50s who had
done kind of, you know, amazingthings, but all of a sudden were
being pushed out, right,because of the Great Recession.
And I started thinking, like,what a waste of talent.
Like, here are all thesepeople.
(02:51):
And I actually won a contestthat was put on by Encore.org,
Cogenerate, to train a lot ofpeople.
older people, older people,they were in their 50s, who had
sales and marketing backgroundsin nonprofit fundraising.
Because what I knew from havingworked with nonprofits,
government foundations fordecades was everybody loves
(03:15):
doing the work.
And everybody hated asking formoney.
And I thought, well, here'sthis group of people who are
used to closing deals.
So I think that was when Ifirst started seeing how, as we
got older, we were being kind ofpushed out despite having all
of the strengths and talents.
And that, I think, hascontinued to drive me and
(03:37):
certainly even more so sincestarting changing the narrative
in 2018, where literallyeverybody Every single day, I
hear stories of people who areabsolutely amazing, who have so
much to give to communities,workplaces, society, and are not
being valued.
So I think my fundamentalbelief in all of us should be
(04:02):
able to live up to our strengthsand potential gets really
challenged by ageism.
And so I had to take it on.
Gretchen (04:10):
That is an interesting start.
And that's such a fantasticpoint that there's that
potential out there that we as asociety are just wasting if we
can't embrace everyone at everyage.
ageism in the workplace canreally undermine both individual
and organizational potential,right?
So based on your experiences,how do you see ageism impacting
(04:34):
people in the workplace andwhere are some of the most
common misperceptions aboutolder workers that you think are
particularly damaging tofostering that really inclusive
workplace?
Janine (04:45):
Yeah.
So, um, I wish I knew kind ofwhy it occurred, but I just
attribute it to societal ageism.
But how I see it showing up isthis, and it's literally at
every stage.
It certainly happens a lot inhiring, right?
So we know I'm on the board ofan organization called the
Center for Workforce InclusionLabs, and we're all about
(05:08):
workforce inclusion.
And so we did a study thissummer.
The survey results were justreleased last month, and almost
60% of older job applicantsbelieve that they are being
discriminated against in hiring.
And actually, when you look atwhat hiring managers say, these
(05:28):
older job seekers are fairlyaccurate.
An organization called ResumeBuilder releases these studies
about what hiring managers sayand A large percentage of them
say they automatically screenout people over age 60.
Now, is that illegal?
Yes, it is.
But here we have, and these arejust the hiring managers who
(05:51):
admit it, right?
That doesn't include hiring.
So we know that it happens inhiring.
And there are a lot of waysthat that can make itself known.
It can be things like even atthe solicitation process where
job postings go out.
And they say things like earlycareer professional.
Well, you know, sort of bydefinition, when you're in your
60s, you're not an early careerprofessional anymore.
(06:13):
Or they say things like digitalnatives.
Now, I consider myself prettytech savvy.
I do all the tech things.
I use all the new apps,whatever comes out.
I'm always an early adopter.
But by definition, I can't be adigital native, right?
Because when I was coming ofage, we still had like phones
hanging on the wall with theparty line, right?
(06:35):
Where we always do.
So, but I consider us digitallearners.
But when companies put thingsout like digital natives or
early career professionals,they're basically saying, we
don't want you here, right?
If someone nonetheless, acourageous person who says, I've
got a lot to give that company,applies, then you may deal with
(06:55):
those hiring managers whoautomatically screen people out
of a certain age.
Or now we know one of theissues that's really becoming
relevant and prominent is theuse of algorithms to
automatically screen people out.
It's a new area of advocacythat we need to work on.
(07:16):
So that can happen.
And then sometimes you may beinvited in for an interview.
And this happened to a friendof mine who, you know, because
of childcare, raising herfamily, actually completed her
college degree relatively latein life.
And so she had a graduationdate that made the interviewers
(07:41):
think that she was younger thanshe was.
And of course, when she showedup, they're like, oh, you're an
old person.
So it So we also know, and thisis one of the things we worked
really, really hard on inColorado, We know that it is
illegal for people todiscriminate based on age.
But one of the ways very oftenthat companies sort of get
(08:03):
around that is they've beendoing things like they will ask
you for your high schoolgraduation date on a job
application or on an onlineapplication system.
And so, of course, if you putin your high school graduation
date, they know how old you are.
And I actually, when someonefirst told me about that, I
said, well, that's ridiculous.
Who wants know your high schoolgraduation date after your
(08:26):
first job at McDonald's, maybe.
Like, how is that relevant?
You don't need that.
So one of the things we did inColorado is we got a law passed,
and we're one of five statesthat got a law passed that
actually bans employers fromasking for high school
graduation dates, collegegraduation dates on initial job
applications.
So I think that's an importantarea of advocacy.
(08:47):
So those are some of the waysthat it takes place in hiring.
And then we get to on the job.
We know that Older people arebeing pushed out.
And the Urban Institute did astudy that followed like 20,000
people who entered their 50swith stable employment.
And it showed over half werepushed out because of their age.
(09:07):
And of course, the downside isonly 10% ever recouped
financially in any way.
So it sets, you know, we know,for example, That funders and as
communities, we say, oh, we'reso concerned about the economic
security of older adults in ourcommunity.
Well, you know, if you pushsomeone out of a job in their
50s, that's going to have apretty negative impact on their
(09:30):
economic security.
And so it can be, you know,deliberately just being.
laid off.
Or it can be in a situationthat is made so untenable by the
kind of all of a sudden, you'renot invited to meetings, people
make hostile remarks, they, youknow, step up to your desk, and
they're like, Oh, so Gretchen,are you still here?
Retired
Gretchen (09:50):
yet?
Are you thinking aboutretiring?
When are you going to retire?
All those kind of questionsstart coming at you.
So it starts
Janine (09:57):
making you feel, you know, really unwelcome.
So there are no plays out.
And When I'm talking toemployers, I find that some of
the misconceptions that theyhave are totally not based in
reality.
So I spend a lot of my timemyth-busting, and that's why I
call it playing the ageismdragon.
Part of it is myth-busting.
So for example, there's thismyth that older people won't
(10:23):
stay around much.
We're going to retire.
Well, actually, when you lookat all of the data, On average,
older workers have four timesthe tenure of younger workers.
And this is not to disparageyounger people.
All of us, when we're younger,you know, we're looking for that
next opportunity.
We may be moved because ofthings like graduate school,
relationships, you know, all thethings.
But the reality is youngerpeople leave more often.
(10:46):
So that's kind of a total myththat we can, you know, bust.
People say things like, well,older people don't want to learn
new things.
And again, A or P style.
some phenomenal research here.
We know that's not true.
We know that there is a reasonwhy lifelong learning
institutes, which are popping upacross the United States,
(11:07):
things like age-friendlyuniversities, are so popular
because we actually do want tolearn new things.
And brain
Gretchen (11:15):
research too, right?
Brain research tells us thatthe brain continues to be able
to learn new things as we growolder.
And we have new ways oflearning those things that we
didn't have access to when wewere younger.
Janine (11:27):
Well, And one of the things, and so I love telling
stories when I do this, becausesometimes, you know, when you
just give data, people are like,yeah, yeah, yeah, 70s of older
adults want to learn new things.
So my new favorite story isthis guy named Leo, who was an
executive chef for Hilton forlike over three decades.
And then he, quote, retires,but he doesn't really retire.
(11:49):
He decides he wants to learnAI.
So he learns it on his own,YouTube and that kind of thing.
And he has started generatingcookbooks.
He's got this ambitious goal toproduce 18 cookbooks in 18
months of different, and hecalls it like flavors around the
world, right?
So they're very themed, flavorsof Italy, flavors of Portugal.
(12:09):
Now, and this to me is anexample of where experience with
AI can be such a powerfulformula.
If I generate it, AI recipes,I'm not much of a cook.
There would be horrible output,but the guy's been an executive
chef for a prominent hotelchain.
(12:29):
He can look and he can say,that works, that doesn't.
And not only that, and readsimages and the way he says, He
can generate images because heknows what the food is supposed
to look like.
So, you know, sometimes whenyou generate those images in AI.
So that to me is kind of apowerful example of, you know,
here's he's learning new things.
(12:49):
And on that, he's learning newthings
Gretchen (12:52):
in a really helpful way.
Janine (12:53):
And
Gretchen (12:53):
he's capitalizing on experience that no person who
was early career could possiblydo because he's had years and
years of experience.
Janine (13:01):
Exactly.
Exactly.
So to me, such a great example.
And I think one of the thingsthat all of us can do is look
for those experiences.
examples in our own community,and just elevate, tell those
stories.
And then, you know, there'salso the mythology of, oh, we
don't want to be managed by ayounger boss.
And again, CWI labs, when theydid their survey showed over
(13:25):
three quarters of us who areolder are perfectly fine being
managed by a younger boss.
So they're just all thesestereotypes and mythology.
And I think one of the thingsthat all of us need to do is
say, well, have you thoughtabout this?
Why are How are you making thatassumption?
So when people say thosethings, I like to give them
data.
I like to give them story.
But I also like to say, why doyou think that?
(13:46):
Tell me more.
And really challenge people tothink about, you know, why is it
that they have these beliefs?
And very often they're just outthere.
There's no validity behindthem.
Gretchen (13:57):
but it's kind of seeped into our culture and
everybody seems to just kind ofjump on that bandwagon without
even thinking it or they slipinto it even somebody who is
very pro-aging who works in theaging field even might have some
of these preconceived notionsabout hiring and overlooking
(14:18):
someone so I love that storyabout Leo because that's a
perfect example and you know Iwas going to ask you exactly
what you just answered like howcan we And it sounds like it's
really about speaking up when wehear these kinds of ageist
statements.
If somebody says something orcomments, it's really good to
(14:41):
push back a little bit and askthem why they think that and
then to maybe challenge theirassumptions.
That's something that all of uscan do.
And it's really important rightnow because this is affecting
not just the individual who isbeing discriminated against, but
it's really affecting our wholeeconomy if we're not respecting
and valuing the input of olderworkers.
(15:03):
We need them in our economy inorder to be successful, right?
Well, Gretchen, I'm
Janine (15:09):
so glad you brought that up because it always, it's one
of the things that stuns meabout all of this that I should
even have to be out and speakingabout it.
Not that I love talking, soit's not an issue.
But we've got what I call thisreally puzzling paradox.
We have all of these unfilledjobs.
And at the same time, employersaren't hiring older workers.
(15:29):
And so, you know, an AARPresearch had estimated that that
costs the U.S.
economy like $850 billion ayear in 2018.
And it was only going up fromthat.
So workplace age discriminationhas real cost.
And I also want to mentionsomething that I think very
often people don't think aboutis the impact that it also has
(15:52):
on families.
So I know, you know, back tothat great recession time, and I
was talking to this guy, I wasout of my consulting firm, I was
doing monthly meetups just toget people to connect with each
other and network to hopefullybe able to find jobs.
And, you know, this one guy,Sam, he was like, this is really
(16:13):
awful.
I don't know how to tell mydaughter that I'm not going to
be able to pay her collegetuition.
Right.
So it was like there was thatkind of impact.
One of the things thathappened, I was teaching a sixth
grade class on ageism.
I was trying to figure out, youknow, is it good to get people
at a younger age?
And it was and it wasfascinating.
(16:33):
And I remembered why I decidednot to become a middle school
teacher, how hard that work is.
Right.
But this little boy, Isaac,came up to me after and he said,
Now I know why my grandma is sosad and she cries all the time.
And I said, what, you know,what are you, what do you mean?
And he said, she cries all thetime.
(16:56):
She lost her job two years agoand nobody will hire her.
And she thinks she's nothelping us.
And I just, you know, I mean,my heart broke, my heart broke.
You just realize, yes, itaffects us economically.
And we know from the researchof Dr.
Becca Levy in the Yale Schoolof Public Health, it affects our
mental health, our physicalhealth, all of those things.
(17:17):
And it affects the economy, asyou pointed out, but it also
affects our families, right?
So that to me is why all of ushave a vested stake in doing
something about it and not justsaying, oh, this is someone
else's problem.
Gretchen (17:31):
Right.
Yeah, such a good point.
It's all of our problem.
And so you've talked about someways that, you know, we can
start to speak to this issue andto address it as it's
happening.
Are there also some specificinitiatives or policies that
you've seen that have beenimplemented?
particularly impactful infostering age inclusivity.
You talked about the law thatpassed in Colorado that bans
(17:56):
graduation dates from beingasked.
Are there other things likethat?
You bet.
Yeah.
Janine (18:01):
So I think that there are a number of things, and
these are things that I thinkall of us have to champion,
probably within our owncommunities and our own states,
because it seems to be reallyhard to get through Congress.
The So right now, there are twobills that are pending in
Congress.
And I do believe that all of uswho are pro-aging advocates and
(18:21):
who care about workplace agediscrimination should be letting
our own elected representativesknow that we care about this
issue.
And we do consider it an olderadult issue.
So for example, there is afederal law, the Age
Discrimination in EmploymentAct, and it prohibits
discrimination against peopleage 40 and over.
(18:42):
Here's the rub.
As a result of a Supreme Courtdecision some years ago, the
burden of proof to prove agediscrimination is much higher
than it is for other forms ofdiscrimination.
So you have to prove that ageis the only reason and there
weren't other factors.
You don't have to do that forother forms of discrimination.
(19:04):
The other problem now with thatparticular law is that two
circuit court of appeals haveruled that it does not apply at
the hiring level.
So what that means is incertain parts of the country and
not others, Hiring processesaren't covered at all.
So that's why.
(19:24):
But there are laws.
The Protecting Older JobApplicants Act would address the
hiring issue.
The Protecting Older WorkersAgainst Discrimination Act would
shift that burden of proof backto make it more equivalent with
other forms of discrimination.
But I'm not really optimisticbecause this has been introduced
on a bipartisan basis inCongress at least three times,
(19:49):
and then it just gets stalledand committed.
So, you know, it's incumbent.
I think we should bechampioning those laws, but we
also on a local level, on astate level, need to be arguing.
This might need to happen atthe state level.
Age discrimination law.
And that's why we did that inColorado with the graduation
date.
Now, the other.
So that's kind of one.
And it's about actually dealingwith workplace age
(20:11):
discrimination.
But there are other subtleforms of discrimination that we
don't think about.
So, for example, every statehas workforce development
dollars that come in.
into local job centers, right?
To train people, to do resumes,to help people learn new
skills.
Most of those, The WorkforceDevelopment Center staff,
(20:34):
because primarily they'vehistorically worked with women
receiving public assistance,ex-offenders or whatever, are
not used to this new crop ofpeople age 50 and over who are
showing up at their centers.
And we don't, for the mostpart, we don't have specialized
programs for them.
So to me, another area ofadvocacy is to advocate both on
(20:55):
a federal and state level andsay, We need more emphasis.
We need more program.
We need for you to beretraining and upskilling
because we do know, right?
And back to your point aboutbrain research, not only can we
learn, but we also know we wantto learn new things. Right?
And we need to do that for thefuture of work, right?
(21:17):
We know that the world ischanging every day.
There are all of these newthings happening.
We've got to be able to dothings.
But if the workforcedevelopment centers are only
focused on training youth andpeople, you know, just out of
school, we're missing.
That's another, to me, area ofadvocacy.
That's
Gretchen (21:34):
a good idea because there's a huge population of
these older adults who stillwant to work.
I mean, who really wants toretire at 50?
Nobody's really ready for that.
So if you're looking for a job-You would have to be
Janine (21:44):
Elon Musk.
I know.
I
Gretchen (21:45):
wish, but yeah, I mean, we want to keep working
and we're talking aboutlongevity too, right?
People are living longer and weas a society have not adjusted
to that reality yet.
So if we're living longer,retirement needs to look
different and retirement mightstart later, but it also might
mean that we're interested inpart-time work for longer, or we
(22:11):
might want more flexibility sothat, you know, we can take care
of our grandkids and still worka little bit.
So there's different ways thatpeople over 60 are going to want
to engage with the workforcetoo.
So some of the discussionprobably needs to be about
flexibility and policies thattake our longevity into account
so that we can keep working,whether that's full-time or
(22:32):
part-time or flexible, right?
Right.
Janine (22:36):
And Gretchen, when you think about it, think of how
useful Right.
Right.
Part time.
(23:00):
Think about all the groups thatthat benefits that might
benefit somebody who's been withyour company but decides to go
back to graduate school.
Yes, leave totally, and youdon't want to lose that person,
but think of how they canbenefit from part time schedule.
I'm going to say this as aworking mom.
who left her work and startedmy own.
(23:20):
The reason I started my ownconsulting company is I quickly
figured out, I think withinthree months after my older
daughter was born, well, workand, you know, being a mom,
we're not going to, we're notgoing to work.
I needed that flexibility.
And so what did I do?
I started my own company.
And actually for the first 20years, we hired mostly women who
(23:41):
are moms and are, I think thepassword to our security code
was 25 smart women, right?
But We were all, you know, wecould offer different flexible
schedules.
So flexibility works there.
And then it also works as we'reolder.
So to me, especially sinceevery single industry is
experiencing talent pipelinechallenges, think of the benefit
(24:04):
that you get of flexibility.
It's not just about olderpeople.
Right.
about an older population,people don't care.
But when we say this works forall of us, and the good news is
(24:27):
here, it's legit.
We're not just saying this.
It really is.
It's legit.
It works for all of us.
And it's just, it's smarterways for companies to operate.
Gretchen (24:38):
Yes, we could definitely change the world for
a lot of people if we started toget these policies and
practices in place.
That pro-aging, I like the wayyou put that.
Anytime you increase access,you're increasing access for
everyone.
It just makes it a lot easier.
So I totally agree with that.
It's kind of like universaldesign applied to the
Janine (24:59):
workplace, applied to the workplace policy.
Gretchen (25:03):
Yes.
So lots of things that we cando to make a difference and lots
of things.
What's next for you?
What's on your plate?
What are you working on?
Well, what I'm working on rightnow,
Janine (25:13):
I have had a book underway all year based on my
adventures of changing thenarrative and as well as my past
three decades of experience inworking in community and social
change.
And I'm calling it Slaying theAgeism Dragon.
And I'm trying to finish thebook.
So that's like the big thing.
exited, quote, speaking season,which is typically for me,
(25:37):
September, October, is when I doa lot of that.
I personally am going onvacation, but December is
focused on finishing the book.
So I want to release it in2025.
And then I really...
It is the other piece.
And so if any of you out therelove to speak and engage with
(25:57):
employers, I want to do atraining of trainers in the
first quarter of 2025.
I've developed this workshopthat I give to employers,
organizations, HR groups on thebusiness case for older workers
and intergenerational teams andhow to make it work.
And the bunch of people allover the United States and
(26:25):
beyond, but mostly myexperiences in the United States
because I understand U.S.
laws and how U.S.
policy works.
I want a whole bunch of peoplespeaking on it.
So I want to train up at least100 people.
And once I do that, I will feellike I've done what is
(26:45):
important to me of making thebest attempt that I can to using
my experience and insights thatI've gained over time to make
it.
Gretchen (26:56):
Absolutely.
So that's really exciting.
You'll have to let us know whenyour book comes out and maybe
we can get you on the podcast totalk a little bit more about
your book as well.
We'd love to have you backagain.
That would be great.
That would be great.
I'd love to do that.
Well, this has been a reallyengaging conversation.
Do you have any parting wordsfor us that you'd like to share?
Just
Janine (27:16):
thank you so much for inviting me and for the work you
do.
And I think for anyonelistening, if I had just some
overall.
overall advice in this wholespace and this is true whether
you're dealing with ageism thatyou yourself have as an older
adult against yourself or outthere in the world um you know
my advice is like challengeassumptions that are there
(27:39):
whether you're holding them orsomeone else is just the simple
question why do i believe thator why do you believe that i
think is really helpful and thenthis is um something else that
i gained from my work in socialchange it's so easy to get
weighed down by all the thingsthat are going wrong, right?
(27:59):
Because our lens, we startseeing that, we start seeing
that.
And I became really enthralledwith the concept that was
popularized by Chip and DanHeath when they wrote the book
Switch about looking for brightspots.
So one of the things that I tryto do a lot is look for the
bright spots, who's doing itright.
And so I'll conclude with abright spot story.
(28:20):
I was part of a group, a groupof leaders in ageism.
And this one woman basicallytalked about how she managed to
retain an older employee who wasready to leave.
She was just done.
She was tired of workingpart-time.
So back to your point aboutflexibility.
(28:41):
And she said, would it work ifI offered you kind of a per diem
role?
And the woman said, that wouldbe lovely.
I don't want to leave.
So the organization didn't wantto lose her institutional
knowledge.
Unknown (28:54):
Mm-hmm.
Janine (28:55):
But she didn't want to work part time anymore.
And this leader just saw wedon't want to lose her.
What can we do?
And so to me, the bright I liketo look at bright spots like
this of, you know, there arethings that people can do.
And then what we want to dowhen we see that bright spot is
just let more people know aboutit and spread the word.
So kind of like you do throughyour podcast.
(29:17):
So.
Thank
Gretchen (29:19):
you for bringing that around full circle.
I love it.
Thank you so much for beinghere with us.
Such good advice, challengingthose assumptions, rethinking,
reframing.
That's also valuable andlooking for the bright spots.
Love it.
That's what we need to do aswe're trying to navigate this
workplace, these workplaceissues, right?
(29:40):
Thank you so much, Janine.
You are doing amazing work.
I'm so excited to see whatcomes next out of all of you.
all of your work and your book.
So we will definitely be intouch.
And I just loved having you onthe show.
Thank you so much.
Sounds great.
Thank you so much, Gretchen.
Val (30:03):
Hello and welcome to your Medicare Minutes.
My name is Val Guzman and I'mthe benefit access specialist
here at Age Guide.
Some people say the lettersthey get from Medicaid are very
confusing.
Some letters say that benefitswill be lost if they don't
recertify, or that their planchanged even though they didn't
sign up for anything.
Some people just don't knowwhat to do.
(30:25):
Actually, ever since theCOVID-19 public health emergency
declaration ended in 2023,Medicaid is once again requiring
an annual recertificationprocess to confirm eligibility
for the program.
If you were new to Medicaidduring the COVID-19 pandemic,
these recertifications werepaused to protect your benefits,
(30:47):
so you've never had to completeone before.
Going forward, you'll have tofill out the recertification
paperwork or call Medicaid toconfirm your eligibility for
another year.
If you're found to not qualifyfor Medicaid anymore, Age Guide
can help you learn about yourhealth insurance options.
As for other issues that youmay have, it does happen that
(31:09):
Medicaid automatically enrollspeople into a health plan.
Medicaid will notify you ofthis change and SHIP counselors
can help you understand howthese plans work or let you know
if you can change your plan.
Feel free to visit ageguide.orgto get in touch with a SHIP
counselor or call us at1-800-528-2000.
Gretchen (31:33):
Thank you for listening to The Age Guide
Perspectives on the AgingJourney.
Age Guide coordinates andadministers many services for
older adults in NortheasternIllinois.
Our specially trainedprofessionals are available to
answer questions and connect youwith local service providers
and resources.
If you are interested in theseservices or want to learn more,
(31:55):
go to our website atageguide.org or call our offices
at 630-293-5990.
Please follow our podcast soyou can be notified in your
streaming account.
Thank you, and we will see younext time on the Age Guide
podcast.
Welcome to the Age Guide podcast, Perspectives on
the Aging Journey.
In today's episode of ourseries, Aging Unfiltered, we'll
dive into the issue of ageismagainst older adults in the
hiring process and withincompanies.
Ageism involves the stereotypesthat shape how we view
ourselves and others based onage.
(00:23):
By engaging in discussions witha more inclusive world for all
ages.
Today, I'm so excited towelcome Janine Vanderberg, a
passionate anti-ageism advocateand the CEO of Encore Roadmap,
(00:44):
where she partners withbusinesses, media, and brands to
foster age inclusion and tackleageism head on.
With over 35 years ofexperience in social sector
consulting, Janine has ledtransformative change
initiatives and co-foundedChanging the Narrative, a major
(01:05):
campaign to combat ageism.
Recognized as one of Colorado'stop 25 powerful women in
business, her efforts havereached 30,000 people across 50
states and nearly 50 countries,inspiring more inclusive
workplaces and media.
Join us as we discuss how wecan combat ageism, not only in
(01:30):
our personal lives, but also inthe workplace.
Welcome, Janine.
Janine (01:35):
Gretchen, thank you so much for having me to talk about
my favorite topic.
Gretchen (01:40):
I'm so excited to have you here.
So Janine, you have such a richbackground in advocating for
age inclusion.
To start, I'd love to hear alittle bit more about what drew
you to this work.
Was there a particularexperience or a realization that
really lit that spark for yourjourney into anti-ageism
(02:02):
advocacy?
So Gretchen, that's
Janine (02:04):
such a good question.
I've actually been thinking alot about that lately.
So I've been an activist all ofmy life.
Things that I've championed,early childhood education,
making sure that all childrenhave access to great public
education, a lot of thingsaround women's economic
security.
But literally, it was rightduring the Great Recession, That
(02:30):
I, because I was running myconsulting firm and a lot of
contacts in the nonprofitsector, and people would be
referring me, people who were,you know, in their 50s who had
done kind of, you know, amazingthings, but all of a sudden were
being pushed out, right,because of the Great Recession.
And I started thinking, like,what a waste of talent.
Like, here are all thesepeople.
(02:51):
And I actually won a contestthat was put on by Encore.org,
Cogenerate, to train a lot ofpeople.
older people, older people,they were in their 50s, who had
sales and marketing backgroundsin nonprofit fundraising.
Because what I knew from havingworked with nonprofits,
government foundations fordecades was everybody loves
(03:15):
doing the work.
And everybody hated asking formoney.
And I thought, well, here'sthis group of people who are
used to closing deals.
So I think that was when Ifirst started seeing how, as we
got older, we were being kind ofpushed out despite having all
of the strengths and talents.
And that, I think, hascontinued to drive me and
(03:37):
certainly even more so sincestarting changing the narrative
in 2018, where literallyeverybody Every single day, I
hear stories of people who areabsolutely amazing, who have so
much to give to communities,workplaces, society, and are not
being valued.
So I think my fundamentalbelief in all of us should be
(04:02):
able to live up to our strengthsand potential gets really
challenged by ageism.
And so I had to take it on.
Gretchen (04:10):
That is an interesting start.
And that's such a fantasticpoint that there's that
potential out there that we as asociety are just wasting if we
can't embrace everyone at everyage.
ageism in the workplace canreally undermine both individual
and organizational potential,right?
So based on your experiences,how do you see ageism impacting
(04:34):
people in the workplace andwhere are some of the most
common misperceptions aboutolder workers that you think are
particularly damaging tofostering that really inclusive
workplace?
Janine (04:45):
Yeah.
So, um, I wish I knew kind ofwhy it occurred, but I just
attribute it to societal ageism.
But how I see it showing up isthis, and it's literally at
every stage.
It certainly happens a lot inhiring, right?
So we know I'm on the board ofan organization called the
Center for Workforce InclusionLabs, and we're all about
(05:08):
workforce inclusion.
And so we did a study thissummer.
The survey results were justreleased last month, and almost
60% of older job applicantsbelieve that they are being
discriminated against in hiring.
And actually, when you look atwhat hiring managers say, these
(05:28):
older job seekers are fairlyaccurate.
An organization called ResumeBuilder releases these studies
about what hiring managers sayand A large percentage of them
say they automatically screenout people over age 60.
Now, is that illegal?
Yes, it is.
But here we have, and these arejust the hiring managers who
(05:51):
admit it, right?
That doesn't include hiring.
So we know that it happens inhiring.
And there are a lot of waysthat that can make itself known.
It can be things like even atthe solicitation process where
job postings go out.
And they say things like earlycareer professional.
Well, you know, sort of bydefinition, when you're in your
60s, you're not an early careerprofessional anymore.
(06:13):
Or they say things like digitalnatives.
Now, I consider myself prettytech savvy.
I do all the tech things.
I use all the new apps,whatever comes out.
I'm always an early adopter.
But by definition, I can't be adigital native, right?
Because when I was coming ofage, we still had like phones
hanging on the wall with theparty line, right?
(06:35):
Where we always do.
So, but I consider us digitallearners.
But when companies put thingsout like digital natives or
early career professionals,they're basically saying, we
don't want you here, right?
If someone nonetheless, acourageous person who says, I've
got a lot to give that company,applies, then you may deal with
(06:55):
those hiring managers whoautomatically screen people out
of a certain age.
Or now we know one of theissues that's really becoming
relevant and prominent is theuse of algorithms to
automatically screen people out.
It's a new area of advocacythat we need to work on.
(07:16):
So that can happen.
And then sometimes you may beinvited in for an interview.
And this happened to a friendof mine who, you know, because
of childcare, raising herfamily, actually completed her
college degree relatively latein life.
And so she had a graduationdate that made the interviewers
(07:41):
think that she was younger thanshe was.
And of course, when she showedup, they're like, oh, you're an
old person.
So it So we also know, and thisis one of the things we worked
really, really hard on inColorado, We know that it is
illegal for people todiscriminate based on age.
But one of the ways very oftenthat companies sort of get
(08:03):
around that is they've beendoing things like they will ask
you for your high schoolgraduation date on a job
application or on an onlineapplication system.
And so, of course, if you putin your high school graduation
date, they know how old you are.
And I actually, when someonefirst told me about that, I
said, well, that's ridiculous.
Who wants know your high schoolgraduation date after your
(08:26):
first job at McDonald's, maybe.
Like, how is that relevant?
You don't need that.
So one of the things we did inColorado is we got a law passed,
and we're one of five statesthat got a law passed that
actually bans employers fromasking for high school
graduation dates, collegegraduation dates on initial job
applications.
So I think that's an importantarea of advocacy.
(08:47):
So those are some of the waysthat it takes place in hiring.
And then we get to on the job.
We know that Older people arebeing pushed out.
And the Urban Institute did astudy that followed like 20,000
people who entered their 50swith stable employment.
And it showed over half werepushed out because of their age.
(09:07):
And of course, the downside isonly 10% ever recouped
financially in any way.
So it sets, you know, we know,for example, That funders and as
communities, we say, oh, we'reso concerned about the economic
security of older adults in ourcommunity.
Well, you know, if you pushsomeone out of a job in their
50s, that's going to have apretty negative impact on their
(09:30):
economic security.
And so it can be, you know,deliberately just being.
laid off.
Or it can be in a situationthat is made so untenable by the
kind of all of a sudden, you'renot invited to meetings, people
make hostile remarks, they, youknow, step up to your desk, and
they're like, Oh, so Gretchen,are you still here?
Retired
Gretchen (09:50):
yet?
Are you thinking aboutretiring?
When are you going to retire?
All those kind of questionsstart coming at you.
So it starts
Janine (09:57):
making you feel, you know, really unwelcome.
So there are no plays out.
And When I'm talking toemployers, I find that some of
the misconceptions that theyhave are totally not based in
reality.
So I spend a lot of my timemyth-busting, and that's why I
call it playing the ageismdragon.
Part of it is myth-busting.
So for example, there's thismyth that older people won't
(10:23):
stay around much.
We're going to retire.
Well, actually, when you lookat all of the data, On average,
older workers have four timesthe tenure of younger workers.
And this is not to disparageyounger people.
All of us, when we're younger,you know, we're looking for that
next opportunity.
We may be moved because ofthings like graduate school,
relationships, you know, all thethings.
But the reality is youngerpeople leave more often.
(10:46):
So that's kind of a total myththat we can, you know, bust.
People say things like, well,older people don't want to learn
new things.
And again, A or P style.
some phenomenal research here.
We know that's not true.
We know that there is a reasonwhy lifelong learning
institutes, which are popping upacross the United States,
(11:07):
things like age-friendlyuniversities, are so popular
because we actually do want tolearn new things.
And brain
Gretchen (11:15):
research too, right?
Brain research tells us thatthe brain continues to be able
to learn new things as we growolder.
And we have new ways oflearning those things that we
didn't have access to when wewere younger.
Janine (11:27):
Well, And one of the things, and so I love telling
stories when I do this, becausesometimes, you know, when you
just give data, people are like,yeah, yeah, yeah, 70s of older
adults want to learn new things.
So my new favorite story isthis guy named Leo, who was an
executive chef for Hilton forlike over three decades.
And then he, quote, retires,but he doesn't really retire.
(11:49):
He decides he wants to learnAI.
So he learns it on his own,YouTube and that kind of thing.
And he has started generatingcookbooks.
He's got this ambitious goal toproduce 18 cookbooks in 18
months of different, and hecalls it like flavors around the
world, right?
So they're very themed, flavorsof Italy, flavors of Portugal.
(12:09):
Now, and this to me is anexample of where experience with
AI can be such a powerfulformula.
If I generate it, AI recipes,I'm not much of a cook.
There would be horrible output,but the guy's been an executive
chef for a prominent hotelchain.
(12:29):
He can look and he can say,that works, that doesn't.
And not only that, and readsimages and the way he says, He
can generate images because heknows what the food is supposed
to look like.
So, you know, sometimes whenyou generate those images in AI.
So that to me is kind of apowerful example of, you know,
here's he's learning new things.
(12:49):
And on that, he's learning newthings
Gretchen (12:52):
in a really helpful way.
Janine (12:53):
And
Gretchen (12:53):
he's capitalizing on experience that no person who
was early career could possiblydo because he's had years and
years of experience.
Janine (13:01):
Exactly.
Exactly.
So to me, such a great example.
And I think one of the thingsthat all of us can do is look
for those experiences.
examples in our own community,and just elevate, tell those
stories.
And then, you know, there'salso the mythology of, oh, we
don't want to be managed by ayounger boss.
And again, CWI labs, when theydid their survey showed over
(13:25):
three quarters of us who areolder are perfectly fine being
managed by a younger boss.
So they're just all thesestereotypes and mythology.
And I think one of the thingsthat all of us need to do is
say, well, have you thoughtabout this?
Why are How are you making thatassumption?
So when people say thosethings, I like to give them
data.
I like to give them story.
But I also like to say, why doyou think that?
(13:46):
Tell me more.
And really challenge people tothink about, you know, why is it
that they have these beliefs?
And very often they're just outthere.
There's no validity behindthem.
Gretchen (13:57):
but it's kind of seeped into our culture and
everybody seems to just kind ofjump on that bandwagon without
even thinking it or they slipinto it even somebody who is
very pro-aging who works in theaging field even might have some
of these preconceived notionsabout hiring and overlooking
(14:18):
someone so I love that storyabout Leo because that's a
perfect example and you know Iwas going to ask you exactly
what you just answered like howcan we And it sounds like it's
really about speaking up when wehear these kinds of ageist
statements.
If somebody says something orcomments, it's really good to
(14:41):
push back a little bit and askthem why they think that and
then to maybe challenge theirassumptions.
That's something that all of uscan do.
And it's really important rightnow because this is affecting
not just the individual who isbeing discriminated against, but
it's really affecting our wholeeconomy if we're not respecting
and valuing the input of olderworkers.
(15:03):
We need them in our economy inorder to be successful, right?
Well, Gretchen, I'm
Janine (15:09):
so glad you brought that up because it always, it's one
of the things that stuns meabout all of this that I should
even have to be out and speakingabout it.
Not that I love talking, soit's not an issue.
But we've got what I call thisreally puzzling paradox.
We have all of these unfilledjobs.
And at the same time, employersaren't hiring older workers.
(15:29):
And so, you know, an AARPresearch had estimated that that
costs the U.S.
economy like $850 billion ayear in 2018.
And it was only going up fromthat.
So workplace age discriminationhas real cost.
And I also want to mentionsomething that I think very
often people don't think aboutis the impact that it also has
(15:52):
on families.
So I know, you know, back tothat great recession time, and I
was talking to this guy, I wasout of my consulting firm, I was
doing monthly meetups just toget people to connect with each
other and network to hopefullybe able to find jobs.
And, you know, this one guy,Sam, he was like, this is really
(16:13):
awful.
I don't know how to tell mydaughter that I'm not going to
be able to pay her collegetuition.
Right.
So it was like there was thatkind of impact.
One of the things thathappened, I was teaching a sixth
grade class on ageism.
I was trying to figure out, youknow, is it good to get people
at a younger age?
And it was and it wasfascinating.
(16:33):
And I remembered why I decidednot to become a middle school
teacher, how hard that work is.
Right.
But this little boy, Isaac,came up to me after and he said,
Now I know why my grandma is sosad and she cries all the time.
And I said, what, you know,what are you, what do you mean?
And he said, she cries all thetime.
(16:56):
She lost her job two years agoand nobody will hire her.
And she thinks she's nothelping us.
And I just, you know, I mean,my heart broke, my heart broke.
You just realize, yes, itaffects us economically.
And we know from the researchof Dr.
Becca Levy in the Yale Schoolof Public Health, it affects our
mental health, our physicalhealth, all of those things.
(17:17):
And it affects the economy, asyou pointed out, but it also
affects our families, right?
So that to me is why all of ushave a vested stake in doing
something about it and not justsaying, oh, this is someone
else's problem.
Gretchen (17:31):
Right.
Yeah, such a good point.
It's all of our problem.
And so you've talked about someways that, you know, we can
start to speak to this issue andto address it as it's
happening.
Are there also some specificinitiatives or policies that
you've seen that have beenimplemented?
particularly impactful infostering age inclusivity.
You talked about the law thatpassed in Colorado that bans
(17:56):
graduation dates from beingasked.
Are there other things likethat?
You bet.
Yeah.
Janine (18:01):
So I think that there are a number of things, and
these are things that I thinkall of us have to champion,
probably within our owncommunities and our own states,
because it seems to be reallyhard to get through Congress.
The So right now, there are twobills that are pending in
Congress.
And I do believe that all of uswho are pro-aging advocates and
(18:21):
who care about workplace agediscrimination should be letting
our own elected representativesknow that we care about this
issue.
And we do consider it an olderadult issue.
So for example, there is afederal law, the Age
Discrimination in EmploymentAct, and it prohibits
discrimination against peopleage 40 and over.
(18:42):
Here's the rub.
As a result of a Supreme Courtdecision some years ago, the
burden of proof to prove agediscrimination is much higher
than it is for other forms ofdiscrimination.
So you have to prove that ageis the only reason and there
weren't other factors.
You don't have to do that forother forms of discrimination.
(19:04):
The other problem now with thatparticular law is that two
circuit court of appeals haveruled that it does not apply at
the hiring level.
So what that means is incertain parts of the country and
not others, Hiring processesaren't covered at all.
So that's why.
(19:24):
But there are laws.
The Protecting Older JobApplicants Act would address the
hiring issue.
The Protecting Older WorkersAgainst Discrimination Act would
shift that burden of proof backto make it more equivalent with
other forms of discrimination.
But I'm not really optimisticbecause this has been introduced
on a bipartisan basis inCongress at least three times,
(19:49):
and then it just gets stalledand committed.
So, you know, it's incumbent.
I think we should bechampioning those laws, but we
also on a local level, on astate level, need to be arguing.
This might need to happen atthe state level.
Age discrimination law.
And that's why we did that inColorado with the graduation
date.
Now, the other.
So that's kind of one.
And it's about actually dealingwith workplace age
(20:11):
discrimination.
But there are other subtleforms of discrimination that we
don't think about.
So, for example, every statehas workforce development
dollars that come in.
into local job centers, right?
To train people, to do resumes,to help people learn new
skills.
Most of those, The WorkforceDevelopment Center staff,
(20:34):
because primarily they'vehistorically worked with women
receiving public assistance,ex-offenders or whatever, are
not used to this new crop ofpeople age 50 and over who are
showing up at their centers.
And we don't, for the mostpart, we don't have specialized
programs for them.
So to me, another area ofadvocacy is to advocate both on
(20:55):
a federal and state level andsay, We need more emphasis.
We need more program.
We need for you to beretraining and upskilling
because we do know, right?
And back to your point aboutbrain research, not only can we
learn, but we also know we wantto learn new things. Right?
And we need to do that for thefuture of work, right?
(21:17):
We know that the world ischanging every day.
There are all of these newthings happening.
We've got to be able to dothings.
But if the workforcedevelopment centers are only
focused on training youth andpeople, you know, just out of
school, we're missing.
That's another, to me, area ofadvocacy.
That's
Gretchen (21:34):
a good idea because there's a huge population of
these older adults who stillwant to work.
I mean, who really wants toretire at 50?
Nobody's really ready for that.
So if you're looking for a job-You would have to be
Janine (21:44):
Elon Musk.
I know.
I
Gretchen (21:45):
wish, but yeah, I mean, we want to keep working
and we're talking aboutlongevity too, right?
People are living longer and weas a society have not adjusted
to that reality yet.
So if we're living longer,retirement needs to look
different and retirement mightstart later, but it also might
mean that we're interested inpart-time work for longer, or we
(22:11):
might want more flexibility sothat, you know, we can take care
of our grandkids and still worka little bit.
So there's different ways thatpeople over 60 are going to want
to engage with the workforcetoo.
So some of the discussionprobably needs to be about
flexibility and policies thattake our longevity into account
so that we can keep working,whether that's full-time or
(22:32):
part-time or flexible, right?
Right.
Janine (22:36):
And Gretchen, when you think about it, think of how
useful Right.
Right.
Part time.
(23:00):
Think about all the groups thatthat benefits that might
benefit somebody who's been withyour company but decides to go
back to graduate school.
Yes, leave totally, and youdon't want to lose that person,
but think of how they canbenefit from part time schedule.
I'm going to say this as aworking mom.
who left her work and startedmy own.
(23:20):
The reason I started my ownconsulting company is I quickly
figured out, I think withinthree months after my older
daughter was born, well, workand, you know, being a mom,
we're not going to, we're notgoing to work.
I needed that flexibility.
And so what did I do?
I started my own company.
And actually for the first 20years, we hired mostly women who
(23:41):
are moms and are, I think thepassword to our security code
was 25 smart women, right?
But We were all, you know, wecould offer different flexible
schedules.
So flexibility works there.
And then it also works as we'reolder.
So to me, especially sinceevery single industry is
experiencing talent pipelinechallenges, think of the benefit
(24:04):
that you get of flexibility.
It's not just about olderpeople.
Right.
about an older population,people don't care.
But when we say this works forall of us, and the good news is
(24:27):
here, it's legit.
We're not just saying this.
It really is.
It's legit.
It works for all of us.
And it's just, it's smarterways for companies to operate.
Gretchen (24:38):
Yes, we could definitely change the world for
a lot of people if we started toget these policies and
practices in place.
That pro-aging, I like the wayyou put that.
Anytime you increase access,you're increasing access for
everyone.
It just makes it a lot easier.
So I totally agree with that.
It's kind of like universaldesign applied to the
Janine (24:59):
workplace, applied to the workplace policy.
Gretchen (25:03):
Yes.
So lots of things that we cando to make a difference and lots
of things.
What's next for you?
What's on your plate?
What are you working on?
Well, what I'm working on rightnow,
Janine (25:13):
I have had a book underway all year based on my
adventures of changing thenarrative and as well as my past
three decades of experience inworking in community and social
change.
And I'm calling it Slaying theAgeism Dragon.
And I'm trying to finish thebook.
So that's like the big thing.
exited, quote, speaking season,which is typically for me,
(25:37):
September, October, is when I doa lot of that.
I personally am going onvacation, but December is
focused on finishing the book.
So I want to release it in2025.
And then I really...
It is the other piece.
And so if any of you out therelove to speak and engage with
(25:57):
employers, I want to do atraining of trainers in the
first quarter of 2025.
I've developed this workshopthat I give to employers,
organizations, HR groups on thebusiness case for older workers
and intergenerational teams andhow to make it work.
And the bunch of people allover the United States and
(26:25):
beyond, but mostly myexperiences in the United States
because I understand U.S.
laws and how U.S.
policy works.
I want a whole bunch of peoplespeaking on it.
So I want to train up at least100 people.
And once I do that, I will feellike I've done what is
(26:45):
important to me of making thebest attempt that I can to using
my experience and insights thatI've gained over time to make
it.
Gretchen (26:56):
Absolutely.
So that's really exciting.
You'll have to let us know whenyour book comes out and maybe
we can get you on the podcast totalk a little bit more about
your book as well.
We'd love to have you backagain.
That would be great.
That would be great.
I'd love to do that.
Well, this has been a reallyengaging conversation.
Do you have any parting wordsfor us that you'd like to share?
Just
Janine (27:16):
thank you so much for inviting me and for the work you
do.
And I think for anyonelistening, if I had just some
overall.
overall advice in this wholespace and this is true whether
you're dealing with ageism thatyou yourself have as an older
adult against yourself or outthere in the world um you know
my advice is like challengeassumptions that are there
(27:39):
whether you're holding them orsomeone else is just the simple
question why do i believe thator why do you believe that i
think is really helpful and thenthis is um something else that
i gained from my work in socialchange it's so easy to get
weighed down by all the thingsthat are going wrong, right?
(27:59):
Because our lens, we startseeing that, we start seeing
that.
And I became really enthralledwith the concept that was
popularized by Chip and DanHeath when they wrote the book
Switch about looking for brightspots.
So one of the things that I tryto do a lot is look for the
bright spots, who's doing itright.
And so I'll conclude with abright spot story.
(28:20):
I was part of a group, a groupof leaders in ageism.
And this one woman basicallytalked about how she managed to
retain an older employee who wasready to leave.
She was just done.
She was tired of workingpart-time.
So back to your point aboutflexibility.
(28:41):
And she said, would it work ifI offered you kind of a per diem
role?
And the woman said, that wouldbe lovely.
I don't want to leave.
So the organization didn't wantto lose her institutional
knowledge.
Unknown (28:54):
Mm-hmm.
Janine (28:55):
But she didn't want to work part time anymore.
And this leader just saw wedon't want to lose her.
What can we do?
And so to me, the bright I liketo look at bright spots like
this of, you know, there arethings that people can do.
And then what we want to dowhen we see that bright spot is
just let more people know aboutit and spread the word.
So kind of like you do throughyour podcast.
(29:17):
So.
Thank
Gretchen (29:19):
you for bringing that around full circle.
I love it.
Thank you so much for beinghere with us.
Such good advice, challengingthose assumptions, rethinking,
reframing.
That's also valuable andlooking for the bright spots.
Love it.
That's what we need to do aswe're trying to navigate this
workplace, these workplaceissues, right?
(29:40):
Thank you so much, Janine.
You are doing amazing work.
I'm so excited to see whatcomes next out of all of you.
all of your work and your book.
So we will definitely be intouch.
And I just loved having you onthe show.
Thank you so much.
Sounds great.
Thank you so much, Gretchen.
Val (30:03):
Hello and welcome to your Medicare Minutes.
My name is Val Guzman and I'mthe benefit access specialist
here at Age Guide.
Some people say the lettersthey get from Medicaid are very
confusing.
Some letters say that benefitswill be lost if they don't
recertify, or that their planchanged even though they didn't
sign up for anything.
Some people just don't knowwhat to do.
(30:25):
Actually, ever since theCOVID-19 public health emergency
declaration ended in 2023,Medicaid is once again requiring
an annual recertificationprocess to confirm eligibility
for the program.
If you were new to Medicaidduring the COVID-19 pandemic,
these recertifications werepaused to protect your benefits,
(30:47):
so you've never had to completeone before.
Going forward, you'll have tofill out the recertification
paperwork or call Medicaid toconfirm your eligibility for
another year.
If you're found to not qualifyfor Medicaid anymore, Age Guide
can help you learn about yourhealth insurance options.
As for other issues that youmay have, it does happen that
(31:09):
Medicaid automatically enrollspeople into a health plan.
Medicaid will notify you ofthis change and SHIP counselors
can help you understand howthese plans work or let you know
if you can change your plan.
Feel free to visit ageguide.orgto get in touch with a SHIP
counselor or call us at1-800-528-2000.
Gretchen (31:33):
Thank you for listening to The Age Guide
Perspectives on the AgingJourney.
Age Guide coordinates andadministers many services for
older adults in NortheasternIllinois.
Our specially trainedprofessionals are available to
answer questions and connect youwith local service providers
and resources.
If you are interested in theseservices or want to learn more,
(31:55):
go to our website atageguide.org or call our offices
at 630-293-5990.
Please follow our podcast soyou can be notified in your
streaming account.
Thank you, and we will see younext time on the Age Guide
podcast.
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