At the present time, most nursing homes require residents or their “responsible party” to sign a nursing home admission agreement which binds the resident to arbitration instead of giving them the right to sue the facility if the facility is either negligent or is in...
A Pennsylvania court recently ruled that a man who had adopted his same sex partner as his son in 2012, cannot annul his adoption so that he could marry his partner (adopted son). Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision which prohibited the ban by states...
Over the past several years, Congress encouraged donors over 70 ½ years of age to give funds from their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) to charities by not subjecting the donor to income taxation which is normally the case when an individual makes a withdrawal from...
In our October 2015 issue of the Texas Elder Law E-Letter, we mentioned the likely passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (the president did sign the bill on November 2) whereby Medicare Part B premiums would be much lower than the astronomical amounts...
The House of Representatives has a proposed bill (HR 1771) that would change long established rules for the use of single premium immediate annuities in planning for the protection of a well-spouse (commonly referred to as the “community spouse”) if his or her spouse needs...
Due to a recent interpretation of the term “annuity” by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Medicaid coverage (such as payment of nursing home care costs and drugs) for an applicant with an IRA just became easier. Retirement accounts, such as an IRA or...
The President has signed the “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” on November 2 , 2015 that otherwise could have resulted in as much as thirty percent of Medicare beneficiaries seeing a fifty two percent increase in their monthly Medicare Part B premiums (which cover doctor’s...
In situations where one spouse needs care (i.e., assistance with activities of daily living) at home, it just became easier to obtain Medicaid coverage where the government pays someone to give care at home. Until the law became effective as of October 1, 2015, the...
On October 13 Michael B. Cohen spoke at the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation on issues including Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), Medicare, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the Medicaid Buy-In and other Medicaid programs. We are currently scheduling speaking engagements for 2016. Please call our office if...
by Rick Foster There is a lot of confusion about Social Security today and the confusion is well deserved. For a married couple there are 81 different combinations on how and when to take benefits and when you add in some of the different strategies, the...
