News
Medicaid and Veterans’ Benefits: Important Documents to Save
Throughout my years of document gathering for Medicaid and Veterans' benefits applications, most of my clients exclaim at some point, “why didn’t anyone ever tell me I needed to keep this stuff?” With the never-ending pile of junk mail gathering, it can be tough to separate the “keep” and “trash” piles when considering what you may someday need down the road for Medicaid and Veterans' benefits. Below, I have listed the most common items that people wish they had held onto: Social Security card Medicare card Passport (current or expired) Photo ID (current or expired) Birth certificate Marriage certificate Spouse’s [...]
Medicaid Crisis Planning: Paying for Long-Term Care
Medicaid crisis planning is a crucial step in preparing for the future and taming the unexpected. And as with the case of Marie, a client I was happy to assist, Medicaid crisis planning helped turn an unexpected situation into the best possible outcome for her and her husband. $300,500.00 was most of Marie’s life savings. When she remarried while in her late 60s, it did not matter that her new husband had scant funds. Marie was happily working, and her new husband, Charlie, could help with the bills using his significant pension. No more than 10 years after their marriage, [...]
Veterans: Honoring Those Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice
At Rothkoff Law Group, we honor our veterans in our hearts every day and acknowledge the true significance of holidays like Memorial Day. Like many Philadelphia natives, my dad’s parents retired to the Jersey shore. Although my grandfather passed away when I was just an infant, I had the opportunity to spend every summer with my grandmother in Sea Isle City. Memorial Day weekend always marked the unofficial start of the summer season. It is important to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day. Unlike Veteran’s Day that remembers all who have served our country, Memorial Day is to remember those [...]
Thank you, Marie: An Anecdote from an Elder Care Lawyer
As an elder care lawyer, I have had the privilege of meeting and assisting countless families and seniors over the years. And over those years, some stand out in the mind…like Marie. In February 2017, Marie left her home and transitioned to a personal care home. Her husband was in poor health and in a nursing home. She had no children and needed an elder care lawyer to help her navigate these changes. Given her situation, Marie’s close friend scheduled a meeting with myself, Kathleen Magee, our Director of Care Coordination, and Marie to discuss how our team of elder [...]
The Value of Home Modifications For Older Adults
The focus of our elder care law firm is to offer a multi-disciplinary approach to address the issues associated with the aging process. Traditional legal services such as drafting estate planning documents, trust planning, and guardianships are important legal tools that everyone should plan for. However, these purely legal tools do not prevent seniors from falling in their home and subsequently requiring a hospital stay and possible nursing home placement. As such, we provide both legal and non-legal care advocacy services to keep seniors at home where most older adults want to be. COVID -19 and its aftermath have made [...]
“Shared Living” – Older Parents Living with their Adult Children
“Shared Living” is a term that can refer to parents moving in with their adult children. This type of shared living has become more common in recent years for many reasons. Parents may move into their adult children’s homes because of financial or medical reasons, as well as to simply strengthen family bonds. The Covid-19 pandemic has also spurred an increase in shared living as families have been concerned about the high incidence of infections of Covid-19 in nursing homes and other senior living alternatives. Recently, a friend and his siblings worked together to assist their mother in her move [...]
Where is My Third Stimulus Check?: Possible Problems
As your friends and family receive their third stimulus checks, you may have grown increasingly worried about the status of your own economic impact payment. Due to some changes in check distribution this time around, your third economic impact payment may still be coming. Additionally, the IRS is no longer providing assistance via phone, as they did for the first stimulus payments, instead encouraging those eligible to check the status of their payment through the IRS's payment tracker tool, which you can access by clicking here. If your payment has been delayed, the most common reasons are outlined below. Where [...]
Update on Rothkoff Law Status
As we move into the second year of dealing with the effects of COVID-19, at the present time, most of our office team continues to be hard at work with the assistance of technology. We continue to be very productive working remotely, and are at the office when needed to meet with clients or perform tasks they cannot accomplish remotely. However, as more of our clients and staff are fully vaccinated over the coming weeks, we expect to start engaging in more in-person client appointments and have more staff return to the office. However, we will continue to give our [...]
Expanded Skilled Nursing Facility Medicare Coverage During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly devastating for nursing homes and their residents. Aside from the tragically disproportionate loss of life, care for surviving residents has been delayed or interrupted due to infection, facility lockdowns or other health system disruptions. As a result, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has waived two limitations on Medicare Part A skilled nursing facility (SNF) coverage during the coronavirus pandemic: The 3-day qualifying hospital stay requirement; and The 100-day benefit period. However, CMS treats the two SNF coverage expansions differently from each other with regard to its connection to COVID-19. Three Day [...]
Rothkoff Law 2021 Virtual Elder Care Symposium on October 21, 2021
We are excited to announce our virtual Symposium for 2021, to be held on October 21, 2021. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Jason Karlawish, author of the new book, The Problem of Alzheimer’s – How Science, Culture, And Politics Turned a Rare Disease Into A Crisis And What We Can Do About It. Due to the uncertainty of large in-person gatherings this fall, we have decided to have the Symposium remain in a virtual setting this year. However, we have a very exciting new virtual platform we will be utilizing which we believe will delight all attendees and sponsors. [...]
The Struggle for a National Agenda on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia
I am into my third decade of being an elder care law attorney. Early on in my career, I realized the shortcomings of a traditional elder law practice focused exclusively on financial issues. Our clients and families needed a multi-disciplinary approach to aging and chronic care issues, which focused on helping families navigate the health care system. This is the reason we now have five geriatric social workers in our elder care law firm. In 1989, Dr. Margaret Noel, a geriatrician, founded the Center for Older Adults at Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Her center saw older adults [...]
How the $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill Impacts Seniors, Health Care
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, commonly known as the COVID Relief Bill, became law on March 11, 2021. The law includes the widely publicized $1,400.00 stimulus checks and expanding vaccine distribution, in addition to increasing access to health insurance, funding for the long-term care community, and continued support for the Elder Justice and Older Americans Acts. For those on Medicaid, the the COVID Relief Bill stimulus check is not income or a resource for Medicaid purposes. The funds may be gifted penalty-free for the first 12 months. After 12 months, it is considered a resource impacting Medicaid eligibility. [...]
Unsupported Elders and Advocacy Services
Prior to starting my job as the Rothkoff Law Group Pennsylvania Client Services Director, where I work with many clients, including unsupported elders, I had plenty of experience in senior care, but I did not have any experience in the legal field. I was under the assumption that you meet with an elder care law attorney to have your will and powers of attorney prepared. I quickly realized that this could not be further from the truth. Outside of knowing my title, quite honestly, I was unaware of what my daily routine would be and what role I would play [...]
Expanded Skilled Nursing Facility Medicare Coverage During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly devastating for nursing homes and their residents. Aside from the tragically disproportionate loss of life, care for surviving residents has been delayed or interrupted due to infection, facility lockdowns, or other health system disruptions. As a result, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has waived two limitations on Medicare Part A skilled nursing facility (SNF) coverage during the coronavirus pandemic: The 3-day qualifying hospital stay requirement; and The 100-day benefit period. However, CMS treats the two SNF coverage expansions differently from each other with regard to its connection to COVID-19. Three Day [...]
Addressing the Needs of an Elderly Parent and Her Special Needs Adult Child
Mary’s mother and sister needed help. Lots of it. The sister, Violet, is developmentally disabled and needs 24-hour care. Janice, their mother, was Violet’s sole caregiver for over 50 years. Mary knew that Janice was becoming increasingly confused, but it seemed like she was still taking great care of Violet. Then, Janice and Violet went for a long walk that ended with them wandering into a local nursing home and Janice asking if they could move in. Alarmed, a manager at the facility called for help. Janice was admitted to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, and Janice was placed [...]