Estate and Elder Law

Recent Posts

Greene v. County of Sonoma et al.: Sonoma County Separates Elderly Gay Couple
Posted on 30 Apr 2010 by LexisNexis Estate and Elder Law Community Staff

Recently, Clay M. Greene, a 78-year-old gay man from Sebastopol, CA., filed a lawsuit against Sonoma County, accusing the County of, among other claims, elder abuse, elder financial abuse, and violation of the Patient's Bill of Rights. Mr. Greene... Read More

Tags: gay , elder abuse , elder care , Nursing Homes

Emergency Rooms for the Elderly
Posted on 21 Mar 2011 by Sandra L. Smith

A recent Associated Press article describes a new trend in care for seniors; several hospitals are opening emergency rooms for the elderly. "Older people are not just wrinkly adults. They have totally different needs," says David John, M.D.... Read More

Tags: emergency care for elderly , elder care , Elder care initiatives

Caring for the Caregiver
Posted on 27 Apr 2010 by Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss

The caregiver cares for the ill and needy, but who cares for the caregiver? Family Fortress Estate Planning Blog has an interesting post this week about " Help For Caregivers: 10 Steps Toward Taking Care of Yourself ". A staggering statistic... Read More

Tags: elder care

Compassionate Allowance Initiative
Posted on 13 Apr 2010 by Ramsey Bahrawy

Did you know that today as many as 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's Disease? A disease which destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior, severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life... Read More

Tags: Elder Law , SSI , Social Security Act , SSDI , Alzheimer's , elder care

America's Best Nursing Homes 2011
Posted on 6 Mar 2011 by Sandra L. Smith

U.S. News & World Report recently provided rankings of America's Best Nursing Homes. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) collects data on nursing homes and rates them in its Nursing Home Compare program, with over 15,000... Read More

Tags: Elder Law , nursing home care , elder care

Compassionate Allowance Initiative
Posted on 13 Apr 2010 by Ramsey Bahrawy

Did you know that today as many as 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's Disease? A disease which destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior, severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life... Read More

Tags: Elder Law , SSI , Social Security Act , SSDI , Alzheimer's , elder care

  • Blog Post: Wall Street Journal is Wrong that Seniors want to "Game" Medicaid

    Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss
    Over the weekend the Wall Street journal ran an article on elder law planning entitled " Inoculating Estates From Health Costs ". While I'm always happy to see an article about elder care planning in the news because it's such a critically important and mis-understood problem...
    on 6 Apr 2010

  • Blog Post: Compassionate Allowance Initiative

    Ramsey Bahrawy
    Did you know that today as many as 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's Disease? A disease which destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior, severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life? Alzheimer's gets worse over time, and it is fatal...
    on 13 Apr 2010

  • Blog Post: Caring for the Caregiver

    Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss
    The caregiver cares for the ill and needy, but who cares for the caregiver? Family Fortress Estate Planning Blog has an interesting post this week about " Help For Caregivers: 10 Steps Toward Taking Care of Yourself ". A staggering statistic: The number of people serving as caregivers...
    on 27 Apr 2010

  • Blog Post: Greene v. County of Sonoma et al.: Sonoma County Separates Elderly Gay Couple

    LexisNexis Estate and Elder Law Community Staff
    Recently, Clay M. Greene, a 78-year-old gay man from Sebastopol, CA., filed a lawsuit against Sonoma County, accusing the County of, among other claims, elder abuse, elder financial abuse, and violation of the Patient's Bill of Rights. Mr. Greene filed the lawsuit after the County allegedly isolated...
    on 30 Apr 2010

  • Blog Post: Are Convicts Treated Better than our Elderly?

    Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss
    I already tweeted this great post from South Carolina Nursing Home Blog, but it has been sticking with me. All seniors have done is work hard their whole lives, age, and not have planned to need to spend $10,000 a month on the care they need to stay alive - and for that they get institutionalized in...
    on 14 Jun 2010

  • Blog Post: Survey of Long Term Care Costs for 2010

    Sandra L. Smith
    Nearly two-thirds of Americans 65 years of age and over will eventually require some form of long-term care. This care can be nursing home care, assisted living care, or in-home care. Whatever the setting, the care is extremely expensive and can deplete a family's hard-earned savings. In April, Genworth...
    on 18 Jun 2010

  • Blog Post: Keys to Living a Longer, Happier Life

    Sandra L. Smith
    What is the secret to living a longer, healthier, happier life? A recent article in the AARP Bulletin reviews the answers to this question as provided by Robert Butler, M.D., one of the country's foremost experts on aging. The 83 year-old Butler is the founding director of the National Institute...
    on 27 Jun 2010

  • Blog Post: Are Americans Overtreated to Death by the Medical Establishment?

    Deirdre R. Wheatley-Liss
    A truly valuable article from the AP today " Americans are treated, and overtreated, to death ". The article stares down a hard question - When do we stop focusing on a cure and start caring about how we die? The statistics are disturbing: Americans increasingly are treated to death...
    on 1 Jul 2010

  • Blog Post: Life Care Planning

    Sandra L. Smith
    As we age, the questions and options we face grow more complex and confusing. Managing medical issues, finances, where we will live and how to maintain quality of life requires thoughtful planning. Too often, seniors or their families turn to an elder law firm at a time of crisis, when incapacity, illness...
    on 17 Jul 2010

  • Blog Post: Questions for Aging Parents

    Sandra L. Smith
    A recent Real Simple magazine article examines how adult children and their parents can have an open discussion about their concerns, and together face the challenges of aging. This discussion is often not an easy one to have; a 2001 AARP study revealed that three-quarters of adult children think about...
    on 15 Aug 2010

  • Blog Post: Dementia Cases and Costs

    Sandra L. Smith
    Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) recently published the World Alzheimer Report 2010, The Global Impact of Dementia. ADI is the international federation of Alzheimer associations throughout the world. The report includes information regarding the global cost of dementia and projections on the...
    on 1 Oct 2010

  • Blog Post: Caregiving from Afar

    Sandra L. Smith
    A recent article in Money magazine discusses the challenges faced by adult children whose aging parents live far from them. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), approximately 7 million Americans care for a senior relative long-distance. They face guilt and anxiety from not being able...
    on 29 Oct 2010

  • Blog Post: Compensating Family Caregivers

    Sandra L. Smith
    During the holiday season, many adult children return home to visit their parents and find that their parents need assistance in order to remain at home. A recent article in Financial Advisor Magazine discussed compensating family members for providing care to parents. In late 2009 the National Alliance...
    on 3 Dec 2010

  • Blog Post: America's Best Nursing Homes 2011

    Sandra L. Smith
    U.S. News & World Report recently provided rankings of America's Best Nursing Homes. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) collects data on nursing homes and rates them in its Nursing Home Compare program, with over 15,000 nursing homes ranked. CMS's information is...
    on 6 Mar 2011

  • Blog Post: Emergency Rooms for the Elderly

    Sandra L. Smith
    A recent Associated Press article describes a new trend in care for seniors; several hospitals are opening emergency rooms for the elderly. "Older people are not just wrinkly adults. They have totally different needs," says David John, M.D., who runs the geriatric medicine division of the American...
    on 21 Mar 2011

  • Blog Post: Caregiving Crisis Is a Women's Issue

    karplaw
    Elder advocate Jane Gross is perplexed. In a recent New York Times blog, Gross expresses surprise that Americans are not pressing harder for a policy overhaul that would provide appropriate care for our elderly population. Gross wonders "why there is so little outrage among family...
    on 3 Jan 2012

  • Blog Post: States That Could Make Children Pay for Dad's Care

    David Goldman
    Unpdaid long-term care bills are increasing and becoming more of a problem in many states. All 50 States have statutes that obligate adults to care for children or other family members; if your parent lives in one of 29 states, you could be held responsible for your parents unpaid long-term care bills...
    on 20 Jul 2012

  • Blog Post: In Pennsylvania, if Your Elderly Parents Can’t Pay for Their Long-Term Care, Then You Might Be on the Hook for It

    Travis Burchart
    Colonial Poor Law Imposing Liability on Today's Adult Children Last April, Julian Gray and Frank Petrich, both elder law attorneys, authored a Pittsburgh-Post Gazette article on a Pennsylvania law that can potentially saddle children with the unpaid costs of their parents' long-term care...
    on 13 Nov 2012

  • Blog Post: It Has Come to This – We Now Need Shelters to Protect Our Grandparents

    Travis Burchart
    Hey, trusted loved one, stop abusing your elderly mother, father, aunt or uncle! Of course, your abuse doesn't depend on you being a loved one, and the victim doesn't have to be a relative - just a senior who trusts you to treat him or her compassionately. And it might not be physical abuse...
    on 28 Jan 2013