THE BASICS – FEDERAL LAW In 1965 federal law enabled the federal government to license nursing homes, under two categories; skilled nursing homes and intermediate care facilities that required less medical care and more personal care. In 1980 Congress enacted the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act which covered…
MANY ISSUES TO ADDRESS – PRIVACY AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS The issue of video cameras in nursing homes has exploded over the last several years. With the large scale saturation of such user friendly technologies as Skype, Facetime and similar video technologies it should not come as a surprise that…
NEW YORK LAW ON ELDER ABUSE New York, much like every other state in the country, has a system in place to deal with elder abuse. It is both preventative and remedial in nature. Many people are more familiar with analogous child abuse protection laws. Unlike child abuse protection laws,…
LAWS THROUGHOUT THE STATES More than half the states have filial support laws on their books. Most states that still have filial support laws as part of its statutory code rarely enforce them. The last time that Georgia successfully enforced its filial support law was 1936. Filial support laws are…
LEGAL RIGHTS The highly charged trial of former Iowa legislature Henry V. Rayhons is now over. Five months ago, jurors voted to acquit the Defendant of third degree sexual assault. One of the voting jurors was a local reporter who wrote a revealing and no doubt personally difficult article. The…
2015 REPORT ON LONG TERM COMMUNITY CARE FACILITY SAFETY AND INTEGRITY On April 21, 2015, the Long Term Care Community Coalition issued a 30 page comprehensive report to document and report on the state of the long term care community. It was a report card of sorts, where the report…
CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES There are currently 1,900 continuing care retirement communities throughout the country, with approximately one half of a million residents. As you may already know, continuing care retirement communities are communities that offer seniors or older adults – depending on the community – independent living options with…
In many ways, growing older is not easy. Neither is choosing the right long-term care solution. The range of options vary from complete in home care to skilled nursing facilities. The resources you have to pay for your care, will in part guide the choices you have for long-term care,…
Last month we discussed the controversial decision by some adult children to send their aging parents out of the country for elder care. Specifically, a European trend was identified where children send parents with advanced cognitive ailments–like dementia and Alzheimer’s–to live in Asian countries while care is better and more…
Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, develop for many reasons and are a sign of nursing home abuse. A bedsore forms in an area of the body where there is too little fat between the skin and the bone to cushion against forces of pressure. The common causes of bedsores…