senior care plan Tag

“Aging in place” is what most people want. Remaining in the community is a high priority goal for most elders. The challenge is that there might be many needs to be met to achieve this goal. Parents and children need to talk to each other about aging-related issues so that the parents can gracefully and securely remain at home. Here...

A long-term client of mine called to tell me that he had just learned that he had a terminal illness – it was a medical problem that appeared suddenly appeared. He was about 70 and his wife about the same. Their children were self-supporting adults, out of the house. Both he and his wife were retired – he was collecting Social Security and a pension. He had always handled the...

What are the responsibilities of a Guardian of the person and property of an incapacitated individual? The Guardian is expected to fulfill a broad array of obligations, since the Guardian is responsible to arrange for and oversee the financial and personal well-being of the person under guardianship. Each individual is unique, with her or her own preferences, likes and dislikes, and cultural...

Are you watching out for a loved one or a client who resides in a nursing home? You will want to become familiar with some of the provisions in the State’s regulations for skilled nursing facilities. In this series of posts I will talk about some sections of the Code and its appendices that are useful for a patient’s advocate to know about. Let’s start with the provisions...

When a married person requires nursing home care, the spouse often seeks advice on how to preserve assets and minimize his/her exposure to the high cost of care. Often this will require consideration of how the Medicaid program (MLTSS or NJ FamilyCare) can help out. Assets may be transferred to the “community spouse,” and beneficiary designations may be changed. Some assets will be...

The owner of a financial account may choose from a variety of designations and forms of ownership for the account. It may be solely-owned; it may be jointly owned with right of survivorship but no independent access during lifetime; it may be “either-or,” it may be “pay on death to …,” it may be “in trust for …” Each of these carries very different legal...

Sale or transfer of a primary residence is often a major consideration in elder care planning. Property may be transferred from an infirm spouse to the “healthy spouse.” Property may be sold because the homeowner has to move into a nursing home or other care facility. Property may be transferred to the “caregiver child” in connection with a Medicaid application. A...

Consumers of health care in old age likely consider nursing home care to be part of the continuum of health care that a patient may require. Yet health insurance plans do not pay for nursing home care because it isn’t defined as “treatment.”  Instead, it is classified as long-term care rather than “health care,” because the care is maintaining the individual and...

When a person moves into a unit in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC),s/he is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars up front for the privilege of exclusively occupying a certain unit. There will also be  ongoing monthly service fees, and typically an extra fee if another person resides in the unit such as spouse or friend. The contract must contain explicit provisions explaining...

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...