You want to apply for Medicaid – a complicated process – but you’ve heard that hiring an attorney specializing in Medicaid planning is expensive.
So why not use one of those new services that say they’ll do the same thing for less?
But do they really do the same thing?
The State of Florida doesn’t think so. Continue reading
If you’re like most people, you may believe that once you’re in a nursing home, you’re there for good. Thanks to a federally funded program, Connecticut residents who have been institutionalized in a nursing home now have the option of transitioning back to the community. The program is called Money Follows the Person.
If you are a resident of a nursing home, the facility is required to ask you: “Do you want to talk with someone about the possibility of leaving this facility and returning to live and receive services in the community?”
If you answer yes, you can be referred to Money Follows the Person. You must be in a nursing home for 90 days to be eligible, but you can start the process any time before discharge. Anyone can refer you – the facility, a family member, your attorney or you. Continue reading
This is the final installment of our 3-part series on becoming your parent’s healthcare advocate. In the first part, Being a Healthcare Advocate: How to Get Started, we learned how to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition. In part two, Being a Healthcare Advocate: 9 Important Tips, we tackled how to manage documentation and record keeping. In this final piece, we address best practices for working effectively with healthcare professionals.
The first time you attend a doctor’s appointment as your parent’s healthcare advocate, you might feel a little awkward. That’s natural. You’re kind of like a third wheel, stepping into what was previously a very private and intimate conversation.
To prepare for this, it’s helpful to establish preferences and expectations with your parent up front. Does your parent want to take the lead and just have you present as an extra set of eyes and ears, or will you be taking a more active role in communicating with the doctor. Talk with your parent in advance so you are both on the same page with your game plan.
By Linda Raineault
Have you heard the sales pitch?
There are annuities available that contain provisions known as “nursing home income doublers” that can help you pay for the cost of a nursing home stay.
These provisions are found in annuity contracts that guarantee the purchaser an income stream for life by way of an income rider that is attached to the base contract.
The sales pitch sounds fantastic!
Many contracts are sold based on a premium bonus feature and guaranteed high annual interest rates that sound fabulous in today’s low interest rate environment.
Additionally, the owner can elect to start taking the guaranteed income stream for life at any time after the contract is purchased. Continue reading
This is the second installment in our three-part series on becoming your parent’s healthcare advocate. In the first part, Being Your Parent’s Healthcare Advocate: How to Get Started, we learned how to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition. In part two, we tackle how to manage documentation and record keeping. In part 3, we explore how to Best Engage with Healthcare Professionals.
As you embark on your journey as a healthcare advocate for a loved one, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got as much information at your fingertips as possible.
Emergency can strike at any time, and you want to be prepared; but even simple routine care can require a high level of organization and knowledge. It’s best if you give yourself time (by starting early) to pull all the information together. Don’t wait until something happens.
Imagine yourself in this situation: As a favor, you agree to help your spouse’s parent get settled into a nursing home.
If you’re like most people, you’d be emotionally stressed and feeling a bit guilty. Not exactly the best mindset for absorbing complex information nor for making legally-binding decisions.
But that’s exactly what some nursing home admission coordinators encourage people to do when they ask them to sign an admissions agreement while they’re at the nursing home for the first time.
This often ends up being a painful mistake. If you don’t completely understand Continue reading
You did well financially, and when the time came to move to assisted living you never considered the possibility that you might run out of money.
But you didn’t expect to live this long! And now that you need more help, it’s even more expensive to live.
What do you do?
The State of Connecticut created the Private Assisted Living Pilot Program – available for up to 125 qualifying individuals in Connecticut who have spent down their assets as a result of living in private assisted living facilities. Continue reading
Connecticut’s protections against elder abuse have recently become stronger than ever. As an elder advocate, this makes me proud.
In our profession, we hear stories all the time like this one, told to me recently by a client of our firm:
My mother’s caregiver was only too happy to make trips to the local supermarket to pick up groceries anytime Mom was out of something. No milk? No problem. Running low on fruit? I’ll run right out and get some. Continue reading
By Carmine Perri
“Can they do that?”
“I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
“Can we do something about it?”
For some time now, I have been receiving calls from residents in long-term care facilities, and their family members, asking these types of questions. Ultimately, interested parties want to know if there are any legal requirements imposed upon these facilities.
Oftentimes, I swivel my chair to one of the bookcases in my office and look at the two bottom rows, both of which are fully stacked with treatise, legal publications, and other relevant documents that exclusively address resident rights and responsibility party liability.
Although I certainly welcome your calls, I wanted to share with you one place that you could begin your research to determine whether you or a family member is being properly treated in a facility. Continue reading
Independent Living. Assisted Living. Nursing Home. What do these terms mean? How are they different from each other? And which one is right for you? Take a look here to learn what each one is all about.
Independent Living
Maybe you’re starting to think that a little more help would make life easier. You’re still living in the two-story house you raised your kids in. Maybe your spouse is gone, or maybe not, living is just getting to be too much.
Your daughter wonders aloud if you’d be happier in a retirement community where everything is Continue reading
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