alzheimers Tag

A Last Will and Testament is called “Last” because it’s the presumed final statement of the wishes of the person who has passed away. The terms need to be in writing and duly signed, witnessed, and notarized according to the law. (New developments to facilitate electronic signatures are a topic for a different day) These requirements are there in an effort to ensure that...

In New Jersey, a surviving spouse has the right to claim his or her “elective share” of the deceased spouse’s estate if the deceased left him/her an inadequate inheritance. The calculations are made using the step-by-step process of a set of state statutes, N.J.S.A. 3B:8-1. If the individual receives Medicaid benefits and is widowed, failure to claim the “elective...

Many of our clients are caregivers of elders with Dementia.  They feel shut in taking care of their loved ones, never sure if they can go out together without incident.  Well, here is one option:  Jewish Family Services of Central New Jersey presents the Memory Cafe, on February 9th, March 23 and April 27th from 12 pm to 2pm at 655 Westfield Ave., Elizabeth, where individuals with dementia and...

Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) in New Jersey pays for nursing home care for people with alzheimers disease, catastrophic disabilities and other serious difficulties with self care. The program requires any applicant with more than $2205 (three times the SSI amount–new for 2017) of gross income to make a Qualified Income Trust.  Our office assists applicants with this...

I have encountered the following crisis too many times. A frail elder is living at home, and since the home is safe and nice, is happily aging in place. Once the homeowner reaches the point of hiring a home health aide, they start using  up their savings. At that point, they  place a reverse mortgage on the home. This provides a significant amount of cash that can be drawn out month after...

Followers of this blog know that if a person applies for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care (or assisted living or home care), they have to provide five years’ of financial records and prove to the agency just what they spent every dollar on during the five year look-back period which immediately precedes the application. If the applicant can’t  prove that the dollars were spent...

The Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) of the New Jersey Supreme Court has issued UPL Opinion 53 Medicaid Advisors 5 16 16.  It concluded that non-attorney Medicaid application preparers, Medicaid advisors and assistors would be engaging in impermissible UPL when they give advice on “strategies to become eligible for Medicaid benefits, including advice on spending down...

“Dementia” is a descriptive diagnosis, but by itself is not a specific diagnosis of the cause of the condition. There is some underlying disease process that is causing death of brain cells, and the type of process explains just what is happening to the different parts of the brain and what the trajectory is likely to be. Alzheimer’s dementia, Lewy body dementia,...

Palliative care is a specialized team approach to helping a patient to cope with the debilitating symptoms of certain serious complicated illnesses such as parkinsons Disease, heart failure, kidney failure, or COPD. The patient is receiving curative treatment and emergency room care during acute episodes of illness, and can receive dietary support, pain management, grief counselling, massage...

The Medicaid program for long-term care was created by Congress decades ago and is administered by the States and their myriad separate counties. Did you know that there are at least 11 bodies of law that interpret this  byzantine program? From top to bottom we have the Federal Medicaid statutes (42 USC 1396); the Social Security statutes pertaining to the SSI program (42 USC 1382); SSI...