Author: Linda Ershow-Levenberg

If you’ve been an advocate for a person who enters the hospital for treatment and then is discharged to a nursing home several days later, you know that after a three-day hospital admission, Medicare Part A can pay for up to 100 days of skilled nursing and physical/occupational/other therapy in a subacute or rehabilitation facility, provided that the patient requires that level of...

Special Needs Trusts are established with the assets belonging to a disabled person, and if they are properly structured and properly administered, the assets won’t be countable as “resources” and the distributions won’t be countable as “income.” This is particularly important when the beneficiary depends on Medicaid, SSI, DDD and other means-tested...

Laws change. Sometimes, federal law stays the same and state laws implementing it change. State statutes may remain the same but the state regulations change. State regulations may stay the same, but the executive branch agency issues advisory memoranda which change the procedures. That’s what occurred back in 2001 when the State of New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and health...

Growing old doesn’t mean that people stop taking care of their family members and think only about themselves. Families expand. Children may enter second marriages. The grandchildren get married. A child  may run into financial trouble, lose their job  or become medically disabled. Loving families support each other and that often means that people will share their home with the next...

Justice in Aging  is a national nonprofit agency which advocates for seniors and pursues litigation involving unlawful practices that affect large classes of the population who are aged or have disabilities. I have previously written about nursing home practices in this space and am glad to tell you that the 2015 updated guidebook  20 Common Nursing Home Problems and How to Resolve Them...

If you are the advocate for a loved one in a nursing home, whether that’s your spouse, parent or other person, you might encounter this problem. Your loved one suffers from dementia, confusion, and limited ability to express themselves in a coherent manner. You visit them frequently and you find that the staff are beginning to complain to you that they are developing “behavioral...

New Jersey enacted a statute in 1998 that enables banks to release certain information to law enforcement concerning their customers’ accounts when they suspect that the customer may be the victim of illegal schemes such as scams, fraud or elder abuse.  It was deemed important to provide immunity from liability for such a release, in cases where the information was relevant to actual or...

As discussed in previous posts, the beneficiary designation on an asset presumptively controls its disposition if the account-owner dies. Beneficiary designations are typically used on IRAs, 401Ks, annuities and life insurance policies, but sometimes people choose to place beneficiary designations on their bank accounts, CDs or brokerage accounts. Disputes may arise when the decedent’s...

Effective July 1, the State of New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and health Services (DMAHS) has raised the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Allowance (MMMNA) for the spouse of a person who is on Medicaid. For residents of nursing homes, the general rule is that all of the resident’s income must be turned over to the facility as a cost-share, except for authorized deductions which...

A Special Needs Trust is a type of first-party trust that is often used to preserve a lump sum benefit for a low income disabled person under age 65, who needs the support of Medicaid and Supplemental Security income (SSI). Often one thinks of the these trusts in connection with someone who is on SSI because they are disabled and have not worked, such as a person with developmental...