Ideas for use of ABLE Accounts
When an individual with disabilities needs the primary support that’s available through means-tested benefits such as Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) or SSI or HUD housing, having excess resources creates a barrier to eligibility. First party Special Needs Trusts for sole benefit of the disabled individual are often the strategy of choice, as the disabled individual can...
Tips on Residents’ Rights in Nursing Homes: Individualized Plan of Care Required
Once a person has moved into a nursing home, they are situated in a health care facility and receiving patient care, but they are also living there, and are therefore referred to as a “resident” rather than as a “patient.” The critical laws governing Residents’ Rights are the federal Nursing Home Reform Act, 42 USCS ‘ 1395i-3(b) and 42 CFR ‘ 483.10,...
Tips on Residents’ Rights in Nursing Homes: Bed Holds
The Federal Nursing Home Reform Act and New Jersey Nursing Home Residents Bill of Rights along with their regulations create numerous enforceable rights and protections for nursing home residents. Among these are the obligations to keep the bed available for certain amounts of time if a resident is temporarily out of the facility.
There are times that a resident must be transferred to a...
Thoughtful Catholic approach to conversations about end of life care
I had the opportunity today to read a very thoughtful article about a meeting of Catholic physicians who are helping their very ill patients to wrestle with hard decisions about whether to utilize palliative care in place of active treatment with mechanical life support. The organization is the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) and the online newsletter article in the...
Tips on the nursing home admissions process
The need to place a beloved family member in a nursing home may be one of the most harrowing and heartbreaking decisions a person has to make. Not only is there a terrible sense of guilt and failure, but the sheer cost of a single month in a nursing home is staggering, and leaves the family with a bleak view of their future security. They feel vulnerable, because they are at the mercy of...
Hospital’s Failure to apply for charity care for psychiatric emergency patient leaves hospital holding the bag
DRAFT MUST REWRITE text from daily briefingHEALTH CARE LAW
New Jersey has a Charity Care program which pays for hospital care for uninsured individuals who meet the stringent income and asset requirements and also file an application. If an eligible individual enters the hospital as an emergency room admission, the hospital is required to prepare and submit the application and to take...
Section 8 housing rules for live-in caregivers
Did you know that if a person with physical or cognitive disabilities resides in section 8 funded HUD housing, the law requires the Public Housing Agency (PHA) to allow a necessary home health aide to reside with the tenant? The concept is that the PHA is required to make a reasonable accommodation for the tenant’s needs pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, to enable the...
Mass. Supreme Court rules that Stored Communications Act doesn’t bar Yahoo from release of decedent’s emails to his Estate’s Personal Representatives
People often wonder what happens to someone’s stored digital data such as emails, electronic banking, or facebook accounts if the person dies. This has been a vexing problem for surviving family members who wish to read or save that data as part of the family legacy. The federal Stored Communications Act (“SCA”), which is 18 USC 2701 et seq, prohibits disclosure of the...
Wyoming Supreme Court holds that Agent under Power of Attorney had authority to consent to arbitration in nursing home admission contract
It is not uncommon for nursing home admissions contracts to include provisions requiring the resident to consent to binding arbitration of any dispute. In this recent case in Wyoming, the question was the enforceability of an optional arbitration clause. The nursing home admission contract for Aletha Boyd was signed by her Agent under a General Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA) which...
Section 8 housing eligibility terminated due to Intentional falsification of income data
Tenants who reside in Section 8 housing must certify to their household income every year, because the rent is based on the income. A recent case addressed a termination of eligibility for Section 8 due to willful misrepresentation on the application, coupled with the defense that the misrepresentation was due to the tenant’s severe depression and thus required an accommodation under the...