Elder Law

If a Medicare beneficiary is discharged to a subacute skilled care facility after having been admitted to the hospital for three days or more, they can be eligible for up to 100 days of Medicare coverage (depending on medical need) for the treatment/skilled care received. Medicare covered 100% of the cost for the first twenty days and 80% of the cost for days 21-100. This period of time is...

State Senator Joseph F. Vitale (D – Middlesex) and Sen. Robert W. Singer (R-Ocean), who are strong advocates for New Jersey’s senior citizens, have co-sponsored a new bill  to address  problems that keep occurring in certain of New Jersey’s nursing homes. In our elder law practice, we have encountered situations in which financial officers of nursing home corporations...

Valentines’ Day is upon us and we’re surrounded by images of hearts and flowers. Even if a person doesn’t celebrate the day, it’s hard to miss the pink and red reminders that we should show our loved ones how much we care. One way to do this is to finally take care of those pesky legal matters that you keep shoving under the bed to wait for another day. In our practice...

Many of our clients served in the military between 1953 and 1987. Some of them spent time at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, became very sick,  and pursued claims at the Veterans Administration  for service-connected compensation over the years. We reported in October that now there is a new avenue for civil lawsuits to be brought to obtain possible compensation. On August 10, 2022, President...

Readers of this blog are well aware that the Medicaid programs have strict income and resource limits. Maintaining eligibility is often vital to the well-being of the individual. This is especially true if the person is in a nursing home facility, because there’s usually no other insurance available to pay for that expensive care. What happens when the Medicaid recipient learns that they...

Each year, certain of the income and resource standards are adjusted for the means-tested Medicaid and SSI programs. If you are considering an application for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) or for Medicaid, or you’re helping someone to apply, you need to be familiar with the numbers. This post discusses the numbers that are going up on January 1, 2023. What’s MLTSS?  The MLTSS...

In a precedent-setting decision approved for publication, the Appellate Division of Superior Court has reversed the denial of our client’s application for  Medicaid/MLTSS eligibility .  Read the case here:  C.L. vs DMAHS and Bergen Cnty A-4284-19 Appellate Decision 10-17-2022The case involved the purchase of a certain annuity contract in 2019...

On January 1, 2023 the Social Security Administration will be giving its recipients an 8.7% Cost of Living Increase (COLA). You probably know that if a person on New Jersey MLTSS-Medicaid receives gross fixed monthly income in excess of $2,523 (that’s the 2022 threshold), they must establish a Qualified Income Trust (QIT) to receive the excess income, in order to preserve their Medicaid...

The NJ Department of Human Services, Office of Licensing, has just issued an Information Bulletin which outlines the requirements for licensed community residences which participate in the State’s Medicaid Home & Community Based Waiver Programs. These “waiver programs” include a diverse array of settings such as  Boarding Homes, Group Homes, Assisted Living, apartment...

When an individual moves into a nursing home for long-term care, there are an array of admissions documents that get signed. These include everything from personal preferences information to insurance and financial disclosures, medical releases, selection of physicians etc. One of these documents contains the contract for payment for the services being rendered. Typically, the contract...