Nursing Home Evictions Increasing

Elder Law advocates claim that nursing homes are increasingly turning to improper evictions to rid themselves of patients they view as undesirable or difficult.

Under federal law nursing homes can only evict residents under limited circumstances. However, elder law advocates claim that increasingly nursing homes are not limiting themselves to those circumstances. Instead, the nursing homes are evicting residents who are difficult to care for because of dementia, residents who have family members that complain about the care and residents who are otherwise difficult.

According to the Seattle Times in "Nursing homes turn to eviction to drop difficult patients" evidence from federal data appears to back the advocates' claims.

In fact, complaints to the Long Term Care Ombudsman Project are up 57% since 2000.

This is a big problem for nursing home residents and their families because most of the time there are few other options for the evicted residents other than staying in a hospital.

While residents have the right to appeal the evictions it is costly to do so. Sometimes, even when the resident wins the appeal, government agencies still do not require the nursing home to take the resident back.

To make matters worse, nursing homes found to have acted improperly are rarely, if ever, punished or fined.

Nursing homes themselves disagree with the advocates.

The American Care Association claims that the evictions are proper, but does agree that a national policy discussion is necessary to come to terms with the increasing number of nursing home residents who are difficult to care for.

If you have questions about paying for nursing home care in Orange County, please visit our website at www.OCElderLaw.com, or call 714-525-4600 for more information.

Reference: Seattle Times (May 8, 2016) "Nursing homes turn to eviction to drop difficult patients"

Attorney Indicted for Social Security Disability Fraud

A notorious attorney who called himself "Mr. Social Security" has been indicted for fraud. This is good news for families of children with special needs and for seniors.

Kentucky attorney Eric Conn built one of the largest Social Security Disability law practices in the country and marketed himself as "Mr. Social Security." After a thorough investigation by the FBI, however, it appears Conn's practice was built on fraud.

He worked with a team of doctors to falsify his clients' medical records. If one of his client's was denied benefits, he is charged with then bribing an administrative law judge to approve the claim. The FBI investigation has resulted in an indictment.

Conn will face charges for defrauding the government of $600 million as Special Needs Answers reports in "'Mr. Social Security' Indicted for Defrauding Government Out of $600M in Disability Benefits."

This is extremely good news for people with special needs and their families.

The Social Security Disability trust fund is in dire straits and would have run out in 2016 had Congress not acted to save it in late 2015 by reallocating some funds from the Social Security Retirement Trust. Eliminating a large scale fraud helps preserve funds for those who need them.

Reallocating money from the retirement trust fund, which is only slightly better off in the long term, is not optimal. Seniors will benefit from the resulting preservation.

To speak further with an Elder Law Attorney in Orange County about your special needs planning, please call 714-525-4600 to schedule a confidential consultation, or visit our website at www.OCElderLaw.com for more information.

Reference: Special Needs Answers (April 28, 2016) "'Mr. Social Security' Indicted for Defrauding Government Out of $600M in Disability Benefits."

Understanding Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a frightening thing to think about getting for anyone. Understanding what we know about the disease can help lessen that fear, but one of the most important things to understand about Alzheimer's is what we still do not know about it.

Everyone knows what the end stage of Alzheimer's disease is like. Thinking about getting it can give anyone the chills. What are not as well known are the early stages of the disease and the current state of scientific knowledge.

Recently, the New York Times attempted to explain that in "What Is Alzheimer's Disease?"

Anyone who has ever lost her car keys and wondered if she was getting Alzheimer's can rest easy. Minor lapses of memory are common and often increase with age. They are not necessarily a sign Alzheimer's is present.

Alzheimer's is diagnosed by assessing memory loss that regularly impedes basic life functions. Beyond that, however, the current scientific knowledge about the disease is somewhat lacking. It is uncertain what causes the disease in the majority of cases.

A genetic marker that has been shown to increase the likelihood of Alzheimer's is only present in a minority of patients. Medications are available to treat Alzheimer's, but they only slow its rate of progress for a little while. There is currently no cure.

Even though there is still a lot to learn about Alzheimer's disease there is something that everyone can do about it. Everyone should get a health care power of attorney and a durable general power of attorney so that if they are unfortunate enough to get Alzheimer's a trusted person can have legal authority to handle their affairs.

For consideration on how Alzheimer’s Disease may affect your future, please call one of our Estate Planning Attorneys in Orange County at 714-525-4600, or visit our website at www.OCElderLaw.com for more information.

Reference: New York Times (April 30, 2016) "What Is Alzheimer's Disease?"

Prince Did Not Have a Will

After the death of Prince speculation began immediately about his estate plans and who would inherit his fortune. What no one expected is that he did not even have a will as asserted in court filings by his sister.

If celebrity deaths such as Whitney Houston, Robin Williams and Michael Jackson have taught us anything, it is that even with estate planning estates can get very messy. This is especially true when a lot of money is involved. People who learned that lesson should have been inspired to get the best estate planning advice they could to minimize conflicts over their estates.

Unfortunately, not everyone learned the lesson.

Recently deceased musician Prince is one such person. As USA Today reports, he did not have a will in "Prince died without a will, sister says."

The musician's sister has filed a petition with the court asserting that he did not have a will and she is asking that a special administrator be named to oversee the estate and Prince's business interests. Prince's closest living relatives are his sister, several half-siblings and his nieces and nephews.

He was not married and did not have any children.

Exactly how Prince's estate will be divided up under Minnesota law is unclear. One thing is certain, however. Prince left behind what is guaranteed to be a long and very messy case for the probate court to clean up.

Not having an estate plan could cause unknown people to claim kinship. It could also cause people to claim to be creditors and business associates. This is an estate that will not be closed anytime soon.

To speak with a local estate planning attorney in Orange County, call our office at 714-525-4600, or visit our website at www.OCElderLaw.com for more information.

Reference: USA Today (April 26, 2016) "Prince died without a will, sister says."

How to Pay for Long-Term Care

America's aging population is drawing attention to a large health care gap in the country: long-term care. Covering this gap could prove difficult and costly, but there are some ways that it can be done.

Americans in most demographic groups are living longer than ever before. Unfortunately, on average they are not living any healthier than previous generations of elderly people. That means that people will need ever increasing lengths of nursing home stays or long-term home health services.

The big problem with this is that most people do not have a good way to pay for that care. They either have to deplete their own assets and then fall on Medicaid to cover the rest of the costs or they have to have private long-term care insurance, which can be costly and is sometimes difficult to obtain.

This creates a gap in the country's health care coverage that needs to be addressed. In "Should Medicare Add A Long-Term Care Benefit?" Forbes columnist Howard Gleckman discusses a couple of different proposals to help fill this gap.

One proposal would add a long-term home health benefit to Medicare. Patients could receive up to $400 a week of in-home services with a co-payment required the amount of which would be based on their income.

As this plan would require an increase in payroll taxes and many politicians think Medicare is too expensive already, it could be difficult to get political support for this option. The other proposal would create a new public universal long-term care insurance program.

Other proposals exist as well, but as of now no proposal has a broad consensus behind it in Congress.

If you have questions about paying for long term care in California, and would like to speak with an experienced Estate Planning Attorney, please call 714-525-4600, or visit our website at www.OCElderLaw.com for more information.

Reference: Forbes (April 15, 2016) "Should Medicare Add A Long-Term Care Benefit?"

What to Know When You Inherit an IRA

People who inherit IRAs are often confused about the different rules and options concerning those inheritances. There are a few things that they should know.

Any estate planning attorney in Orange County can tell you that the rules concerning IRAs are different for people who inherit the accounts than they are for people who initiate the accounts. This is often a source of confusion for those who inherit, especially when it comes to required minimum distributions.

Recently, the American Legion published some information about what inheritors need to know in "Five things to know about inheriting an IRA."

The list includes:

·       People who create their own Roth IRAs are not required to take minimum distributions. However, those who inherit them are required to do so.

·       

All of the money in an IRA does not need to be taken out at once. Those who inherit can elect to take required minimum distributions based on their own life expectancy. This option must be initiated by December 31 of the year following the death of the original account holder.

·        People who choose not to take out required minimum distributions must withdraw the full amount of the IRA within five years of the account owner's death. This option is available when the account originator passed away before reaching the age of 70½.

·        Spouses can choose to treat the IRA as their own or as an inherited IRA. The rules must then be followed for whichever option the surviving spouse elects.

·        Transferring an inherited IRA can only be done by moving it directly from one custodian to another. The funds cannot be withdrawn by the inheritor and later moved into a new IRA.

Contact an estate planning attorney in Orange County to learn more about these rather complex rules.

Reference: American Legion (March 16, 2016) "Five things to know about inheriting an IRA."