GROWING NEED More ten million elderly Americans rely exclusively on their Social Security pension as their sole means of support. Approximately 90 percent of senior citizens receive some sort of income from Social Security and approximately half of those relied on Social Security for at least half of their monthly…
CERTAIN LIMITATIONS ON SPECIAL NEEDS TRUSTS Last year a case out of the Western District of Massachusetts Federal District Court dealt with the interplay of a special needs trust and eligibility for certain governmental benefits that the special needs trust was supposed to address. The case of DeCambre v. Brookline…
SPECIAL NEEDS LAWS HELP PROTECT THOSE WHO PROTECT US For those of us who come from families with many military members, we know the sacrifices and hard work that service members incur for their principles and belief that there are certain obligations in life that precede all else. Unfortunately, until…
NEED FOR UPDATED ESTATE PLANNING WHEN ONE SPOUSE GOES INTO NURSING HOME When one spouse goes into a nursing home, there is a good chance that he/she is using to pay for their care. That means that the community spouse will have to live survive on certain income thresholds determined by…
NEW RULES FOR SAME SEX COUPLES Social security survivor benefits may seem like a relatively straightforward issues to understand. Indeed, it can be for the majority of people, but with the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that states must recognize the right of all couples, including same sex couples,…
IN HOME PERSONAL ASSISTANTS If you already have New York Medicaid you may be eligible for managed long term care or in home care by a licensed Managed Long Term Care Agency (often simply referred to as MLTC). The animating thought is to ensure that older adults can remain in…
FOCUS ON COMFORT Hospice care is intended to ensure that those who are in the final stages of a terminal illness are cared for and comfortable. It is not to cure a current disease process. Instead it is to help provide a more holistic or all encompassing level of care.…
ANOTHER CELEBRITY CASE MAKING CHANGES In the last few months that Casey Kasem had on this earth, he was the center of a brouhaha between his daughter, Kerri Kasem, and her stepmother, Jean Kasem, Mr. Kasem’s second wife. More specifically, Kerri Kasem alleged that at the end of the Mr.…
LEADING COMPLAINT ABOUT NURSING HOME IS EVICTIONS On February 25, 2016 National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story about what is looking to become like a national epidemic: nursing home evictions. According to statistics between 8,000 and 9,000 nursing home residents complain each year about nursing home evictions. The problem…
CASE OF POTENTIALLY NATIONAL IMPORTANCE REPORTED IN NEW YORK TIMES On August 21, 2009 a tragic event occurred at a nursing home in the quaint coastal town of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Barrow was over 100 years old at the time of the tragedy, but told her son on her…