Based on an independent survey led by the RAND Corporation (financed by the federal government), it is projected that 9.1 million Americans age 71 or older will have dementia by year 2040. Presently about 15% of Americans 71 or older (3.8 million) have dementia. The survey...
It is common for nursing homes to have admission contracts which require nursing home residents to be bound by arbitration clauses - which many think is more advantageous to the nursing home than the risk of a lawsuit against the facility. Thus, even if the...
Often disability occurs suddenly at a time when people have limited cash resources to pay for care costs. So, even if the person might be eligible for public benefits, it often takes many months or longer for eligibility to be granted. Caregivers often do not...
This weeks installment is a guest blog from Wade Chessman of Chessman Wealth Strategies. The American taxpayer relief act of 2012 extended qualified charitable distribution (QCD) provisions for 2012 2013. A qualified charitable distribution is an otherwise taxable distribution from an IRA owned by an individual who...
The American Taxpayer Relief Act permanently sets the estate tax exemption at $5 million for (adjusted due to inflation) an individual and $10 million for a couple which is the same amount that has been exempted for the past two years. However, Congress did change the...
Although irrevocable 529s (for college education) and UTMAs (accounts for minors) are not considered a resource for certain Texas Medicaid programs, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (which governs Medicaid eligibility in Texas) currently counts resources and income in prepaid tuition programs and higher...
The 2013 Protected Resource Amount dollar figures have recently been published. This is used to determine how much can be protected when one spouse is a nursing home and applies for Medicaid and the other spouse lives in the community. As many of you know, when...
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently issued a letter of clarification indicating that room and board paid to an independent living facility should not be considered as a deductible unreimbursed medical expense in most cases. One of the most important eligibility requirements in getting VA...
The Obama Administration has agreed to settle a nationwide class action lawsuit to end the standard practice to require Medicare beneficiaries to show a likelihood of improvement before Medicare would pay for therapy or skilled nursing services. As previously reported in the Texas Elder Law e-letter,...
In what could be a harbinger of things to come, House Bill 6300 (the Medicaid Long-Term Care Reform Act of 2012) has been recently proposed to make findings or substantial changes in connection with Medicaid long-term care financing (which helps pay for care costs in...
