Dear Savvy Senior, Is it possible to collect Social Security benefits from my ex-spouse? We were married for 12 years but have been divorced for almost 20 years now. Never Remarried

Dear Never,
Yes, depending on your specific circumstances, you may very well be eligible for divorced spouses Social Security benefits. Here’s what you should know.
Who’s Eligible? A divorced spouse can collect a Social Security retirement benefit on the earnings record of their ex-husband (or ex-wife) if you are at least age 62, were married for at least 10 years, are unmarried, and are not eligible for a higher benefit based on your own earnings record.
In order to collect, your former spouse must also be at least 62 and eligible for Social Security benefits. But he doesn’t have to be receiving them in order for you to collect divorced spouse’s benefits, as long as you’ve been divorced for at least two years.
Even if your ex is remarried, it won’t affect your right to divorcee benefits, nor will it affect your ex’s retirement benefits or his current spouse’s benefits.
Benefit Amount. A divorced spouse can receive up to 50 percent of their ex’s full Social Security benefit, or less if they take benefits before their full retirement age, which is 66 for people born in 1945-1954 but is gradually increased to age 67 for people born in 1960 or later. To find out your full retirement age and see how much your benefits will be reduced by taking them early see SSA.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html.
Keep in mind though, that if you qualify for benefits based on your own work history, you’ll receive the larger of the two benefits. You cannot receive benefits on both your record, and your ex’s work record too.
To find out how much your retirement benefits will be, see your Social Security statement at SSA.gov/myaccount. And to get an estimate of your ex’s benefits, call Social Security at 800-772-1213. You’ll need to show your marriage certificate and divorce decree to prove your marriage lasted at least 10 years along with his Social Security number to get it.
Other Factors to Know. You also need to be aware that working can affect your divorced spouse’s benefits. If you start taking benefits while working, and are under full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced $1 for every $2 you earn above the annual limit, which is $21,240 in 2023. In the year you reach full retirement age, however, the annual limit increases to $56,520 and the reduction lowers to $1 for every $3 above that limit. See SSA.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf for more details.
Another factor that can reduce your divorced spouse’s benefits is receiving a pension from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes (like a government). This is a rule know as Government Pension Offset (see SSA.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/gpo-calc.html) which can reduce your benefits by two-thirds of the amount of your pension.
Divorced Survivor’s Benefits. You also need to know that when your ex-spouse dies (and if you were married for 10 or more years), you become eligible for divorced survivor benefits, which is worth up to 100 percent of what your ex-spouse was due.
Survivor benefits are available to divorced spouses as early as age 60 (50 if you’re disabled). But if you remarry before 60, you become ineligible unless the marriage ends. Remarrying after age 60 will not affect your eligibility.
Also note that if you are receiving divorced spouses benefits when your ex-spouse dies, you will automatically be switched over to the higher paying survivor benefit.
For more information visit:
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/applying7.html and click on “Benefits for Your Divorced Spouse.”

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

Large Revenue Gap Remains

Care Providers Oklahoma President and CEO Steven Buck today thanked the Legislature for including in their budget agreement a $47.8 million increase in funding for Oklahoma’s skilled nursing facilities and for Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/IIDs). The funding replaces a roughly equal amount of federal dollars made available through the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency that will no longer be available starting July 1, 2023, and avoids a steep funding cliff for skilled nursing in Oklahoma.
However, Buck also warned that nursing homes and ICFs still provide a large amount of uncompensated care that threaten the financial viability of many homes and may lead to closures. According to OHCA projections, the cost of treating a typical Medicaid resident in a skilled nursing facility is $246 per day. With the $47.7 million in additional state funding, nursing facilities will now be compensated approximately $225 per day per Medicaid resident, a $21 per day deficit.
“The Legislature has averted an outright catastrophe by replacing federal dollars that have been revoked due to the end of the COVID-19 emergency declaration,” said Buck. “That action will likely be enough to avoid widespread closures within the industry and provide some sense of stability for most residents and staff. We are grateful to our lawmakers for taking action on that front.”
“However,” continued Buck, “the majority of skilled nursing residents pay for their care using Medicaid. Each of those residents costs their facilities $21 a day in uncompensated care. In the long run, we cannot continue to expect reliable, high-quality services unless we can at least match the cost of care for our residents. Furthermore, facilities will not be able to hire and retain qualified workers at the $13 to $15 an hour rate that our current funding levels support.”
“The work our lawmakers did in 2023 prevented a disaster,” finished Buck. “But they can expect that we will be asking them to do more in 2024 so that we can adequately care for our residents, staff our facilities with qualified workers, and avoid more closures which disrupt the lives of vulnerable Oklahomans.”

Jim Gebhart was selected to lead Mercy’s operations in Oklahoma, including its clinics, nine acute care and two rehabilitation hospitals across the Sooner state. Gebhart currently serves as community president of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and will continue in this role.
As community president of operations for Oklahoma, Gebhart will focus on developing and implementing strategies to create the best experience for consumers and patients across the state who seek care at Mercy regardless of where they live.
“We want to focus on all of our Mercy Oklahoma hospitals and clinics working together to make a consistent experience for patients whether they live in Tishomingo, Watonga, Ada, Admore or Oklahoma City,” said Gebhart. “We learned a lot over the last three years working more closely than ever during the pandemic. During that time, we realized there are so many challenges to overcome in health care – and many continue today. It’s better for our patients and our co-workers when we work together as a region to share resources, expertise and innovations.”
A native of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, Gebhart has led Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City since 2009, overseeing the building and expansion of Mercy’s campus off I-35 in Edmond, the Coletta Building in Oklahoma City that houses oncology services and the addition of Mercy’s hospital in south Oklahoma City in 2020. He is currently overseeing the building of the Love Family Women’s Center and leads Mercy’s relationship with Oklahoma Heart Hospital, which provides cardiology services for patients on both Mercy hospital campuses in Oklahoma City.
Gebhart is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, where he earned a bachelor’s in business administration. He also holds a master’s from the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management in health care administration.
For more information about Mercy Oklahoma, visit: https://careers.mercy.net/

Controlling a sometimes-deadly respiratory virus is a step closer to reality following U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the first preventive vaccine for older adults, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientists say.
The FDA this month approved a vaccine to prevent respiratory syncytial virus, better known as RSV, in people aged 60 and older. The vaccine is made by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow the FDA’s approval, clearing the way for RSV vaccines for older adults to be available in the U.S. this fall. Drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna are also in the late stages of developing RSV vaccines, including one for pregnant women.
“This is a major step, and even more progress against this virus appears to be on the horizon,” said OMRF physician-scientist Hal Scofield, M.D. “RSV annually kills thousands of seniors in the U.S. and has recently played a big part in stressing global health care systems, so this first vaccine approval is welcome news.”
RSV typically produces a cold-like illness, but it can cause lower respiratory infections like bronchiolitis and pneumonia. At greatest risk of RSV complications are older adults with chronic lung or heart disease, those with weakened immune systems, and young children. Scofield said the virus is “woefully underdiagnosed” in adults.
The CDC estimates that RSV leads to more than 60,000 hospitalizations and over 6,000 deaths among adults 65 years and older annually. According to GSK, in a clinical trial of 25,000 adults, its vaccine was more than 94% effective in preventing severe RSV.
GSK’s shot involves technology dating to the 1980s. Called a recombinant subunit vaccine, it is used in numerous immunizations, including those for hepatitis B and whooping cough.
OMRF scientist Susan Kovats, Ph.D., studies RSV. She is working to understand why the virus impacts children more frequently, with more than 2 million outpatient visits for children under age 5 annually, but generally hits older adults harder. The work is setting the stage for better treatments and will aid in vaccine design.
“There seems to be a correlation between virus load and age,” she said. “The preliminary data in our models of older adults shows that the older you are, the harder it is to eliminate the virus.”
Scofield and Kovats said the approval of the first vaccine for RSV is good news, as long as those eligible take advantage.
“Time will tell how widespread uptake of the vaccine will be,” said Scofield, “But for older adults most at risk of a bad outcome from RSV, I hope that getting vaccinated when it becomes will be an easy decision.”

The Oklahoma Mobility Institute (OMI), a connected organization to the Oklahoma Transit Association (OkTA), has been awarded a $10,000 local coalition grant from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
“OMI is a relatively new organization, and we are honored to receive this funding from APTA to further our mission of helping to facilitate an unparalleled transportation ecosystem with advanced mobility connectivity through shared resources and interorganizational partnerships,” said OkTA Executive Director Andrea Ball.
The grant funding will be used along with seed money from OKTA to support a Mobility Summit Listening Session for the State of Oklahoma to learn what services and support are required by transit providers. It will help OMI to develop tactics to achieve its goals over the next three to five years to advance transportation equity, inclusion, and mobility access for all Oklahomans.
“OMI’s goals include reducing no-show rates for appointments to medical and social services, ensuring weekly food access options for each community, providing grant support and application assistance to public transportation providers, and promoting mobility coordination and coordinated use of federal transportation funding,” Ball said.
The funding will also fund an OMI website that will provide online access to mobility resources in Oklahoma.
“The future website address is www.okmobility.org, and we expect it to be completed this summer,” Ball added.
APTA provides grants to help the fight for public transportation. Generally, grants awarded to coalitions range from $5,000 to $10,000.

Scammers are always finding new ways to steal your money and personal information by exploiting your fears. The most effective way to defeat scammers is to know how to identify scams and to ignore suspicious calls and emails.
One common tactic scammers use is posing as federal agents or other law enforcement. They may claim your Social Security number (SSN) is linked to a crime. They may even threaten to arrest you if you do not comply with their instructions. Here are three things you should do:
* Hang up right away or do not reply to the email.
* Never give personal information or payment of any kind.
* Report the scam at https://oig.ssa.gov/ to immediately notify the law enforcement team in our Office of the Inspector General.
You should continue to remain vigilant if you receive a phone call from someone who claims there’s a problem with your SSN or your benefits. If you owe money to us, we will mail you a letter explaining your rights, payment options, and information about appealing.
There are a few ways you can identify a scam call or email. Remember that we will never:
* Threaten you with benefit suspension, arrest, or other legal action unless you pay a fine or fee.
* Promise a benefit increase or other assistance in exchange for payment.
* Require payment by retail gift card, cash, wire transfer, internet currency, or prepaid debit card.
* Demand secrecy from you in handling a Social Security-related problem.
* Send official letters or reports containing personally identifiable information via email.
If you do not have ongoing business with our agency, it is unlikely we will contact you. Again, if you get a suspicious call claiming to be from us or law enforcement about Social Security, you should hang up and report it right away to our Office of the Inspector General at https://oig.ssa.gov/.

Story and photos by Darl DeVault, contributing editor

Karen Brown Tims, 70, an Arcadia businesswoman, was crowned Ms. Oklahoma Senior America 2023 at the 15th annual pageant on April 15 at the spacious Mustang Performing Arts Center with Miss Oklahoma 2022, Megan Gold, as mistress of ceremonies. Ms. Oklahoma Senior America 2022 Roxanne Parks crowned her after the judges’ selection.
This annual pageant honors ladies 60 and up who personify the “Age of Elegance” by competing to reign as 2023 Ms. Oklahoma Senior America.
With 15 contestants competing in Interview, Talent, Evening Gown and a presentation of their philosophy of life, hailing from Arcadia, Jones, Newcastle, Bethany, Oklahoma City, Sand Springs, Yukon, Nichols Hills, Mead, Del City and Edmond, Oklahoma was well represented.
“Life is not over past 60. Continue to strive and accomplish, Tims said in an interview. “Our purpose is great even yet! The young people need to hear what we have learned and our guidance is imperative. This pageant and ALL the people involved inspired me and made me oh so happy! I would shout out to all women who are interested in joining us in the fun and growing with courage and confidence. It is never too late!”
Contestants were Barbara Bryant-Waggoner, Jones, Trish Carr, Newcastle, Sharron Clifton, Bethany with Wonna Cornelson, Lynn Jones, Carla Joy, Doreen Miles Williams, Edie Thomas, all of Oklahoma City and Karen Brown Tims, Arcadia. The others were Debbie Hay, Sand Springs, Ellen Henson, Yukon, Pam Holzberger, Nichols Hills, Judy Jackson, Mead, Eileen Milles, Del City and Venessa Saunders, Edmond.
The judges’ selections that round out the court for the 2023 Ms. Oklahoma Senior Pageant are Barbara Bryant-Waggoner first runner up, Ellen Henson as second runner up, Lynn Jones third runner up and Sharron Clifton as fourth runner up.
The contestants displayed a hobby or talent within 2 minutes and 45 seconds, modeled a long evening gown, gave their philosophy of life within 35 seconds, and were interviewed by judges for 5 minutes.
Tims garnered the most applause for her spoken word talent presentation conveying the zest of the “Age of Elegance.” Here is her “Bending Time” presentation about how all the ladies competing were so happy verbatim:
Think with me for a moment, please, and with a show of hands, who, like me, has often wondered how to slow down time? My life seems to be flying by.
The truth is, we cannot change time; however, we can change our perception of time, and we all know our perception is our reality!
Remember when we were children and how slowly time seemed to go by? Seeming that summer and Christmas would never get here?
As children, we were spontaneous, and all our experiences were new. Remember going out for recess and how fun it was and how that time went by quickly? How often would we beg, “Oh, please, just five more minutes” while doing something really fun?
My research tells me that as adults, we have become less mindful of our experiences, causing time to fly by! So…Start noticing the wonder and amazement of everything!
Let’s make our day last longer by going to new places, meeting new people, trying new activities, and being spontaneous.
My research further tells me; time seems to slow down when we make drastic changes!
Break old habits! Change what you have for breakfast. Eat dinner in the dining room on China and not in front of the TV on paper.
Above all, be unpredictable; it will make your friends and, better yet, your children wonder what you are up to.
I entered this pageant!
And to prove my point, this is a two-minute timer, and in my perception, I have been speaking with you for 10 or 15 minutes. Woo Hoo! I just bent time in my life.
I leave you with this, as a mother and grandmother, I give you all permission to take more recesses, and YES, you may have five more minutes.
Tims is a busy entrepreneur running her three businesses, two of which she added since she was 60. She owns Bankers Insurance Group, CB Farms and a residential rental property firm. Her business exploits are scheduled to be featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur and Fortune magazines in the next few months as a part of a Women Business Leaders in Oklahoma article. She balances that with spending treasured time with her two granddaughters.
Her love of horses extends to cowboy mounted shooting, cutting horse contests and trail riding. She volunteers at a nonprofit horse therapy program that teaches troubled children to ride. She enjoys skeet shooting and bird hunting on her farms.
Her volunteer work includes the Oklahoma City Rescue Mission, National Cowboy Western Heritage Museum, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Oklahoma Foster Care Review Board, House of Healing, Healthy Living Center and her church.
Tims will be sponsored by the Ms. Senior Oklahoma Foundation to compete in October at the National Ms. Senior America Pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Foundation will pay her airfare, room and registration fee.
The national pageant is a nonprofit organization that honors senior women’s achievements and encourages them to use their full potential to share a positive outlook on life with others. Organizers say it is more than a “beauty pageant,” Senior America is a re-affirmation of life and self-worth, laughter and tears, inner beauty and outward charm.
This philosophy is based on the belief that seniors are the foundation of America and our most valuable treasure. Organizers say the younger generation has the opportunity to build a better society through seniors sharing of knowledge, experience and resources.
The Ms. Senior Oklahoma Foundation has been staging the pageant since 2008, now under the direction of State Administrator Carol Kallenberger and Directors Deborah Wedel and Dove Schmidt.
Kallenberger from Guthrie dedicates much of her time to this annual event. She says these elegant ladies reflect the grace, charm and fortitude that shines brightly throughout our state. “It was truly an amazing event with all the contestants displaying every aspect of the “Age of Elegance,” Kallenberger said. “I sincerely believe that a crown is not always made of rhinestones. It is made of discipline, determination, and courage. Thanks to everyone who helped make our 2023 Ms. Oklahoma Senior America Pageant a great success.”
For more information about Ms. Senior America, please visit
http://senioramerica.org.