Medicaid estate recovery liens often take people by surprise
On March 24th, PBS news hour had a segment called “The Medicaid Bill that doesn’t go away when you die.” www.pbs.org. The program described the impact of estate recovery liens which are pursued by State Medicaid Programs. Estate recovery is required by federal law in 42 USC 1396p. The New Jersey lien statute is at N.J.S.A. 30:4D-7.2(a)(2). The lien is imposed after death...
Special Needs Trust can’t be created by beneficiary’s agent under power of attorney
Federal law allows a person who receives or is applying for Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which are means-tested programs, to transfer their excess resources into a Special Needs Trust that was “established for the sole benefit of the disabled individual by a parent, grandparent, legal guardian or the disabled individual or a court.” 42 U.S.C. 1396p(d)(4)(A)...
VA Updates VA Form 10-10EZ and VA Form 10-10EZR
A few days ago, we blogged about the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) eliminating net worth in determinations of eligibility and assignment of priority group. I commented that the VA Form 10-10EZ would need to be updated to reflect this change.
I was a day late and a dollar short, the Department of Veterans Affairs has updated both the VA Form 10-10EZ and VA 10-10EZR (Health Benefits...
VA Mandates use of Certain Forms to File Claim, Effective March 24, 2015
Effective March 24, 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is mandating that certain forms be used to effectuate the filing of a claim before the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). The VA’s website has been updated to reflect this at VA Claim Filing.
The five forms veterans should be aware of are: (1) VA Form 21-526EZ (Claim for Compensation); (2) VA Form 21-527EZ (Claim for...
“I am spending so much time caring for him that I can’t take care of myself.”
A few days ago, I overheard a conversation between two women who I think are in their 80’s. Evidently, the husband of one of them has been ill for about a year. It sounded like among other things, he may have diabetes mellitus that has progressively caused deterioration including retinopathy (impaired and blurry vision) (“he can barely see” and “I have to give him his...
The V.A. permits family caregivers to be paid, but watch out if applying for NJ Medicaid
The Veterans Administration provides a Pension and Aid and Attendance benefit for wartime veterans or their widows/widowers who have low assets and whose income is below the MAPR after deducting their uncompensated monthly health care expenses. Throughout the country, vast numbers of elders are being cared for by family members. Often those family members have given up their fulltime work...
VA Eliminates Net Worth for Eligibility for Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced last week that the Veterans Health Administration has eliminated the use of net worth during both the determination of eligibility and assignment of VHA priority group. The VHA will now only consider gross household income and deductible medical expenses for veteran otherwise not assigned a higher VHA priority group due to service-connected...
A Trust Protector watches out for a Beneficiary’s best interests
When assets are placed into a Trust for benefit of someone (called the “beneficiary”), the terms of the Trust provide the guidance for what the Trustee can do or not do. The Trust’s terms may be broad and vague, or they may be quite explicit. More often than not, the Beneficiary is dependent upon the exercise of discretion by the Trustee, and cannot compel a distribution....
Banks are pummeling their customers with aggravating procedures
Many of our clients are aged and many of our clients are fiduciaries for other people in roles such as Agent under Power of Attorney, Estate Administrator or Executor. NJ Rev Stat § 46:2B-19 (2013) In a typical week our clients have to ask banks to provide documents and services that are required to enable the client to file an application for public benefits, pay expenses for an estate,...
What are HIPPA forms and why do you need them?
What is known as “HIPPA” was enacted by Congress as the Health Insurance Protection and Portability Act of 1996. 42 USC 1320d-6. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1320d-6 It is designed to protect the confidentialiy of a patient’s medical information. The extensive federal regulations are found at 42 USC part 160....