For Qualified Income Trusts, Not All Bank Accounts Are Created Equal
Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) in New Jersey pays for nursing home care for people with alzheimers disease, catastrophic disabilities and other serious difficulties with self care. The program requires any applicant with more than $2205 (three times the SSI amount–new for 2017) of gross income to make a Qualified Income Trust. Our office assists applicants with this...
Going from ACA Medicaid to “Regular” Medicaid Can Be a High Wire Act Without Legal Assistance
New Jersey has a lot of roads to eligibility for Medicaid, and that’s a good thing. All of those roads are called NJ FamilyCare, and that’s a confusing thing.
Medicaid in New Jersey is provided by five Managed Care Organizations (MCO) now through NJ FamilyCare. You must choose one to get services, including long-term services and supports (LTSS), which will be coordinated by the...
The Secret Life of Pet Trusts is a Heartwarming Tail!
A few weeks ago, I took my kids to see The Secret Life of Pets. It was cute, fun and the kids loved it. Of course, when I take my kids to the movies, my elder law brain has to go with me. So, spoiler alert, there was a pet in the movie who had an older owner who had died. This put the pet in a vulnerable position. Wacky hi-jinks ensue, and all is well at the end. But my brain goes to, wow,...
New Jersey Supreme Court Committee Issues Opinion on Unlicensed Practice of Law in Medicaid
The Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) of the New Jersey Supreme Court has issued UPL Opinion 53 Medicaid Advisors 5 16 16. It concluded that non-attorney Medicaid application preparers, Medicaid advisors and assistors would be engaging in impermissible UPL when they give advice on “strategies to become eligible for Medicaid benefits, including advice on spending down...
True Link a Possible Solution for Many Fiduciary Problems
FRE-L attorneys frequently act as fiduciaries for people in need. That could mean being someone’s Guardian, Conservator, Trustee or Durable Power of Attorney. Some of the people we help have more functional ability than others. You want to foster independence whenever possible but it can be very hard–as fiduciaries, we have to account to Medicaid, Social Security, the courts...
Courts Get Serious about “Clear and Convincing Evidence” Standard for Civil Commitments
In the recent case of In the Matter of the Civil Commitment of D.E., a person who was committed to inpatient mental health care challenged her commitment and won because the hospital had not produced “clear and convincing evidence” of her being a danger to herself or others, despite a less than ideal discharge plan. The appellate division took on the case despite the fact that she...
Yeah But Can We Preserve the Millennium Falcon for Chewbacca’s Benefit?
Elder Law has really broken out into mainstream popular culture this year! There was the first season of Better Call Saul, where the attorney who would be Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad gets into elder law and sues an assisted living facility in New Mexico. And now, on the heels of the new Star Wars Trilogy coming out, we have a galactic elder law fact pattern with a script spec called Old...
Medicare Transportation a Thorny Issue for Our Clients
Many of our clients are transitioning from a status of needing a lot of Medicare coverage to a lot of Medicaid coverage in addition to Medicare. We all expect Medicare to cover acute medical care needs, skilled care and rehabilitation, while Medicaid could cover the cost of custodial care. But one important issue is transportation. If you are on Medicaid, transportation to needed medical...
HCBS Transition Meeting Gives State Food For Thought
On Thursday, February 19th, I attended the last public meeting for the HCBS Transition plan, which was held from 10 am to 12 pm in New Brunswick. I had wanted to testify as Chair of the Elder and Disability Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association about how I thought this plan would affect seniors and the physically disabled. I was #77 on the list–I never got a chance. The vast...
MLTSS and You (and maybe your lawyer too)
Now that we know that expanded Medicaid is kicking off in a big way this month, with expanded eligibility and full integration of all the waiver populations and nursing home residents in the new Managed Long Term Services and Supports program, we need to start thinking about how this will affect clients’ particular interactions with Medicaid, the managed care organization (MCO) and...