NYC elder law

The Importance of Vetting Your Elder Law Attorney or Trustee

Published on: November 16, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Recently, in Ocean County, New Jersey, a well known elder law attorney was arrested and charged with stealing money from his clients. The attorney, considered an older adult himself, is charged with stealing over 1.2 million dollars over the course of five years from a number of elderly clients he served. A court order allowed officials to freeze the firm’s numerous bank accounts, seize billings records, and a number of other records implicating his crimes.

This attorney had a particular target on the elder population, however, he did not discriminate who he took money from when it came to clients. Notably, the attorney stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients suffering from dementia, clients who had elected him power of attorney (or so he had claimed) which allowed him to write checks from their accounts, depositing annuities proceeds into his account instead of the client, and misfiling legal fees. His behavior did not go unnoticed by some family members of clients, and when confronted, he claimed there were administrators errors and would issue repayments.

Important Questions to Ask Your Elder Law Attorney

Small Gains for Social Security Beneficiaries

Published on: November 11, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

2017 Projected Increases

Those individuals receiving social security benefits can expect another disappointing increase in their benefits in 2017. While this increase is another record low over the past five years, some view it as a win since social security beneficiaries failed to see any increase in their benefits in 2016, although costs of living continued to rise. The projected increase, coming at .3%, or $4 a month, was assessed by the federal government in response to adjusted costs of living.

How this Affects Elders

Physician Assisted Suicide and The Election

Published on: November 9, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Physician Assisted Suicide and The Election

Physician assisted suicide has continued to be a widely controversial, but popular topic across the country over the past decade. With the presidential election coming to a close very soon, the future of physician assisted suicide, or dying with dignity, may become a more widely spread practice, legal medical practice available to those terminally ill patients. Thus far, The Death with Dignity Act, or a similar version, has been passed in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California and Montana.

California recently passed the California End of Life Option Act in June of 2016, after years of deliberation, voting and criticism, Governor Jerry Brown ultimately signed the bill into effect in the fall of 2015. Many families are relieved that this may become an option for a terminally ill loved one. What is different about death under this Act, is that it is no longer viewed as suicide, and will legally allow loved ones to retain what their terminally ill family member has designated for them after their passing.

How to Properly Choose a Caregiver For your Loved One

Published on: November 5, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There comes a time when difficult conversations must be had with an elderly loved one in your life that requires a caregiver, but is not receptive to the idea. These conversations can initially be overwhelming for both the loved one and the elderly person, as they start to make a plan about how their lives will change, but as so many Americans continue to live longer with a number of chronic health problems, enlisting the help of a caregiver is a very realistic and responsible choice in order to ensure an elderly person is well taken care of. This also tends to be the best option for those families who are not geographically close enough to care for their loved one full time but see the need for change in the current situation.

In determining the needs of your loved one, continue the dialogue to assess what is most important to both of the parties, such as, full time versus part time care, what daily activities the individual partakes in and what kind of assistance is needed with those, if any, as well as whether overnight care or meal assistance is needed, among many other factors.

Once needs have been determined, it is important to build a pool of applicants to interview. Caregivers build a very personal and intimate relationship with those they care for, thus, it is critical that the individual not only approves of the caregiver, but shares something in common and can trust that person.

Financial Elder Abuse: Warning Signs and How to Stop It

Published on: October 25, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Elder abuse has been an increasing trend over the past few decades, within roughly one in ten Americans over 60 years of age experiencing elder abuse, whether it be financial, harassment, sexual, physical, or passive abuse through neglect or deprivation. Of the elders subjected to abuse, over 90% of those Americans are abused by someone they know, either a family member, friend, acquaintance, medical staff employee, or caretaker.

Predators seek out opportunities with the elderly in order to become involved in their lives and then later exploit them in their most vulnerable state. Often times, an individual will claim to be helping the elder individual, either by assisting in caretaking or house keeping, and then will later bill them for an exorbitant amount of money or get ahold of their checking account to pay themselves.

Warning Signs

Common Estate Planning Mistakes

Published on: August 15, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Planning how your assets are going to be distributed and for your health care needs is an important tool all adults, not just elders should utilize. However, over 60% of Americans have not made a basic will. There are many misconceptions about estate planning and the reasons for it, which has led many Americans to shy away from the process.

Common Mistakes & Misconceptions

Estate planning is for the elderly or the wealthy. Determining how you want your property distributed or what you would like to happen to you in the event you can no longer speak for yourself are tasks everyone needs to think about. Even the most simple finances can become complicated when there are multiple parties involved.

Three Florida Residents Responsible for $1 Billion Medicare/Medicaid Laundering Scheme

Published on: August 9, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In the largest single criminal healthcare fraud laundering scheme that dates back to 2009, three Floridians have been charged with defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of over $1 billion dollars. The owner of more than 30 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Miami and a few in Illinois worked with a hospital administrator and physician assistant to put thousands of people through their care systems that did not in fact qualify or to use them to bill unneeded services and medication. Using these laundered funds, the head mastermind behind the scandal took private jets, bought half a million dollar watches, hired private escort services and pay off a reported nearly $9 million dollars in credit card bills.

Once in the criminal’s facilities, the conspirators further kept the individuals in the nursing homes by heavily medicating them with narcotics to keep receiving Medicare and Medicaid. Additionally, the individuals in the homes received medically unnecessary services just to bill to insurance. This is the not first health care fraud scheme to affect the South Florida area; South Florida has been ridden with fraudulent scandals targeting government aid systems and has had government attention called to it several times. While this issue has been brought to the attention of officials in the Miami, leading them to create ‘strike forces’ in hopes of catching these criminals, it is evident that the problem is difficult to regulate.

Fraudulent schemes extended beyond the healthcare system to law enforcement, who were paid kickbacks in cash or disguised as charitable donations payments for services, and payment for lease services. There were many players associated with the scandal, not only law enforcement officers, but doctors and pharmacists were taking part in the billing scheme in order to receive more kickbacks from the nearly 14,000 elderly patients that went through the defendant’s care facilities. It is no surprise that the defendant withdrew almost $4 million dollars over the past few years, since many of these payouts were in cash. This charge is not the defendant’s first regarding healthcare fraud; in 2006, defendant settled a civil claim in which he was ordered to pay out $15.4 million dollars for conducting Medicare fraud. These current charges will show that the defendant failed to learn from his illegal conduct and continued to defraud these programs of funds for over half a decade.

Technology Aiding the Aging Population

Published on: August 3, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

As the older population continues aging, we are constantly trying to find new tools to help this population manage their lifestyle with more ease. Assistive technology is any service or tool that aids the aging population in performing their otherwise increasingly difficult or impossible daily activities. This technology ranges from a smartphone, to a walker to GPS tracker, many of which allow the individual to continue living independently or without care, while also allowing their loved ones to check on them.

Paying for Technology

As with any other medical assistance, insurance coverage is always a concern. Although there is no universal plan covering assistive technology for the aging population, some plans do cover a portion of the costs. Medicare Part B will cover up to 80% of the cost of technology that can be considered medical equipment. Also if you are eligible with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for assistance, they will pay for a portion of the cost and will also help train those who are using the device.

Elders Right to Live in the Community

Published on: June 16, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In 1999, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that, consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with mental disabilities have a right to live within their community as opposed to an institution, if professionals have determined that the patient’s ability to adapt and live in their community is appropriate, the patient can be reasonably accommodated and the move to community living offers a less restrictive setting. Following this ruling, President Clinton then directed all states to evaluate individuals in mental hospitals, as well as nursing homes and state institutions to determine whether they could too be acclimated back into their communities. Due not only to the major expenses facing Medicaid and maintaining nursing homes, this was thought to be a possible solution to overcrowding and retaining civil rights for those affected individuals.

However, in the decade and a half since the Supreme Court ruling and the President’s policy statement, the government has done little comparatively to remedy the problem. This has resulted in too many disabled and handicapped people remaining in institutions against their will and left without a method of recourse. While the federal government can control state spending for nursing homes and how Medicaid is spent, the community based care programs that so many disabled and handicapped people are seeking care from are optional.

Yet, Medicaid only pays for about 40% of all long term care services, thus, major bills are still piling up on patients, and in states such as South Dakota, the state with the highest percentage of individuals in nursing homes that have a low need or no need at all the services provided for the institution, they are forced to remain in the institution to receive any kind of care. With over 1.4 million individuals in nursing homes throughout the United States, some states are taking active steps to address the issue by allocating a portion of Medicaid funds to in-home care.

ELDER PROTECTION AND ABUSE PREVENTION ACT

Published on: April 22, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

FEDERAL DEFINITION OF ELDER ABUSE AND FEDERAL RESPONSE

In these United States it is often that many things are left up to the states for criminal and civil enforcement. While the federal government does have a statute for murder, it is generally only applied to events that occur on federal lands or of federal agents or employees or when the murderer is allegedly motivated by racial animus or something similar. As such, it is not surprising that there is no general federal legal definition of certain acts that are criminal in nature, such as robbery or extortion. On certain matters, which Congress declared of critical importance, the federal government created defitions that it expects states to follow in substantial regards. For example, foster care placement and adoption, is of such critical importance that Congress created a series of laws that defines a host of things, such as abuse and neglect, when foster care is needed, when the state is to move towards adoption and away from working with the parents.

It creates strong incentives for states to adopt these statutes by offering financial backing. In other words, it underwrites a certain program if the state adopts the law that is substantially in line with the federal government model. The same tactic is employed in the fight against elder abuse. Recently three Senators introduced the Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act (the Act), which, seeks, in part, to amend the definition of elder abuse found in the Older American’s Act. But this definition was not tied to block grants to states. The first time Congress authorized a block grant to the state for purposes of elder abuse was in 2010 with the Elder Justice Act. More importantly, Congress never appropriated money for the programs that it statutorily authorized and mandated with the Elder Justice Act.