Tax Deductions for Assisted Living Costs

Since it is tax season, many caregivers of our clients who are residents of an assisted living facility inquire about tax deductions for assisted living costs. The IRS provides rules for deducting certain qualified long-term care costs as medical expenses. Normally, the costs of nursing home care should be deductible, but the status of Assisted Living Facility (ALF) costs has not been as clear. For ALF residents, qualified long-term care costs are “necessary rehabilitative services, maintenance or personal care services that are (1) required by a chronically ill individual, and (2) provided pursuant to a plan of care by a [...]

2024-02-28T13:22:42-05:00February 29, 2024|

Involuntary Nursing Home Discharge: “We Have No Long-Term Care Beds”

I recently met with a family regarding their ailing father and a potential involuntary nursing home discharge. Their father fell in his home and was subsequently hospitalized. He then transitioned from the hospital to a local nursing home for rehabilitation covered by Medicare. The amount Medicare pays a nursing home for a resident undergoing short-term rehabilitation is significantly higher than what the nursing home would receive via Medicaid. However, Medicare will only pay for a maximum of 100 days if the resident needs skilled care. The 100 days is by no means guaranteed. With this client, the nursing home discharge [...]

2024-03-08T11:18:32-05:00January 25, 2024|

Home For The Holidays: Leaving The Nursing Home During A Medicare-Covered Stay

A week prior to Thanksgiving, I met with a client whose husband was in a local nursing home for a rehabilitation stay following a fall that resulted in hospitalization. The wife communicated that her husband wanted to come home for the day to spend Thanksgiving Day with his family and would be devastated if he was unable to do so for health reasons. The nursing home originally informed our client that her husband leaving the nursing home during a Medicare-covered stay would result in a loss of coverage if he went home for the day because it would be evidence [...]

2024-03-08T11:18:47-05:00December 1, 2023|

Update on CMS Care Compare Website

For nursing home residents and their families, making a decision about what facility to choose can be a daunting and frustrating process. How do you know whether the nursing home you are considering for your loved one provides quality care? One resource is the federal government website which provides quality measures for every nursing home in the U.S. For more than ten years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been posting information on facility staffing measures on the Medicare.gov website under Care Compare. The information supplied regarding nursing home quality measures has been of questionable quality. However, [...]

2024-03-08T11:19:29-05:00July 21, 2023|

Medicaid Coverage for Assisted Living: PA Legislation Proposal

In December 2022, Pennsylvania state Senators Michelle Brooks and Judy Ward proposed legislation that would expand Medicaid coverage for assisted living facilities. The proposal is designed to provide support for older adults who require assistance with daily living but do not require the high level of care provided by nursing homes. Under the proposed legislation, eligible seniors would be able to access Medicaid coverage for assisted living services, including room and board, personal care, and medication management. This would be a game-changer for many seniors who are currently struggling to pay for these services out-of-pocket or relying on family members [...]

2024-03-08T11:19:44-05:00April 28, 2023|

New Bill Addresses Financial Exploitation in Long-Term Care for NJ Residents

Last week, a new bill was introduced in the New Jersey legislature to address continued problems in certain New Jersey nursing homes. The bill, co-sponsored by Senator Joseph F. Vitale (D—Middlesex) and Sen. Robert W. Singer (R—Ocean), will attempt to address issues related to financial exploitation in long-term care. The bill prohibits the personnel of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities—owners, operators, managers, employees—“or other person who benefits financially from a long-term care facility” from managing “the affairs of a [nursing home resident] except pursuant to an order of the Superior Court appointing that person guardian of the principal.” [...]

2024-03-08T11:20:04-05:00February 24, 2023|

Can Nursing Home Residents Leave for the Holidays?

As we are now in the holiday season, one question many families are asking is, "can nursing home residents leave for the holidays?" If a resident decides to leave the nursing home for the holidays, CMS recommends certain actions when the resident returns. Consider the following scenario. A client was in a local nursing home for a rehabilitation stay following a fall resulting in hospitalization. His spouse communicated that her husband wanted to come home for the day to spend Thanksgiving with his family and would be devastated if he was unable to do so for health reasons. The nursing [...]

2024-03-08T11:20:31-05:00November 25, 2022|

CMS to Make More Medicare Nursing Home Ownership Data Publicly Available

Additional Medicare nursing home ownership data is being made publicly available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This effort may help improve nursing home transparency, safety and quality, and accountability by providing more information about the ownership of all Medicare-certified nursing homes. This data will, for the first time, give state licensing officials, state and federal law enforcement, researchers, and the public an enhanced ability to identify common owners of nursing homes across nursing home locations. This information can be linked to other data sources to identify [...]

2024-03-08T11:21:40-05:00October 21, 2022|

My Visit with Grandpa: A Reminder of Why We Do What We Do

I have been a geriatric social worker for eight years and a care coordinator with Rothkoff Law Group for over three. I knew I wanted to work with the geriatric population when I was completing an internship at a long-term care facility in South Jersey during my senior year of college. I fell in love with the elderly population and knew that I wanted to help seniors have a good quality of life and be treated with dignity and respect. I also wanted to give them the chance to talk about their lives and feel heard. Working with the elderly [...]

2024-03-08T11:22:41-05:00September 30, 2022|

CMS Updated Nursing Home Regulation Guidance

On June 29, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released much-awaited Phase 3 guidance along with updated Phase 2 guidance on nursing home regulation. The guidance was issued as the result of 2016 revisions to the Medicare Requirements for Participation for Nursing Homes. Due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS is only now releasing the last set of guidance for nursing home regulation, which was originally scheduled to be released in 2019. The Phase 3 guidance offers significant updates to the requirements state oversight agencies must follow when surveying and assessing a nursing home's compliance [...]

2024-03-08T11:27:18-05:00July 22, 2022|
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