Elder Law News

Yesterday afternoon, Governor Christie signed A2955, called the CARE Act. http://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A2955/2014 The bill requires hospitals to ask patients to identify their intended post-discharge caregiver, and obligates the hospitals to provide information and instruction to the caregiver no later than 24 hours prior to discharge concerning the components of the discharge care plan and the...

Has your loved one been receiving home care services under any of the New Jersey Medicaid Home and Community-based programs such as Global Options? The State’s Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver replaced that program with MLTSS – Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports — and each recipient  is assigned to a Managed Care Organization (MCO) which performs a care plan assessment and...

Under federal and state Medicaid law, German reparations payments for Holocaust survivors are exempted from being counted as either “income” or a “resource.” Ideally, the Medicaid applicant has escrowed the reparations in a separately identifiable account, but this is by no means a requirement. By being exempt, these payments (1) are not counted when determining if a...

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 Allied invasion of the coast of Normandy to accomplish an Allied push through France against Germany. I was privileged last week to have an opportunity to visit the Caen Memorial in France and to take a guided tour of the D-Day landing sites. At the memorial, we watched a live-footage film that was made of soldiers sitting ready on...

There comes a time in everyone’s life that they are slowing down in one way or another. Even the baby boomers are starting to face this. You may be working less — driving less — going out at night less often due to visual problems — avoiding large stores and shopping malls and shifting to smaller venues that are easier to navigate — and reducing the amount of...

I recently read a book I wish I had written myself. It’s called How to Care for Aging Parents (3rd Edition) by Virginia Morris, and was published by Workman Press in its most recent update in 2014. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is stepping up to the plate to assist a parent in later life when physical frailty or dementia are the primary causes for concern. The child often...

Today is “Purple Thursday” within Domestic Violence Awareness month. It’s been about 40 years since the taboo subject of conjugal crime and battering were brought out of the shadows and onto the table for public discussion. A small group of women (including myself) worked in a small network of shelters around the state and did our best to assist victims to get protective...

When an application for Medicaid benefits is filed with a County Board of Social Services in New Jersey, it may be many months before the applicant hears back from the caseworker who is processing the application. If the applicant is in a nursing home or is suffering with Alzheimers Disease or other dementias it is crucial that they have a representative such as a family member, agent under...

You know by now that the New Jersey Department of Human Services has been developing a new Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) program under its 2013 Comprehensive Medicaid Waiver. It’s still a work-in-progress. This program affects all elderly and disabled Medicaid applicants and Medicaid recipients who need  long-term care Medicaid services outside of nursing homes. Three...

I previously posted about the upcoming changes to the New Jersey Medicaid programs that pay for nursing home care and home and community-based services (HCBS) for people whose gross monthly income exceeds $2,163. This amount was formerly called the “income cap,” and people in that group could only receive Medicaid benefits in nursing homes. That was under the “Medically...