Medicaid Planning Strategies

With the help of elder law attorneys, those needing long-term care often artificially impoverish themselves in order to qualify for Medicaid coverage, thereby preserving their savings either for their healthy spouse or their children. Is this practice ethical? ...

The nursing home ombudsman program is generally failing to do its job of protecting residents from abuse and neglect, according to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, part of the paper's weeklong investigative series on preventable deaths in nursing...

Medicare officials have issued guidelines allowing homebound beneficiaries to leave their homes for special occasions--such as family reunions, graduations or funerals--without losing their home health care benefits. More . . .

A Seattle woman asks a New York Times advice columnist whether it is ethical to divorce a husband who suffers from Alzheimer's so that she can retain her assets while he qualifies for Medicaid. More . . .

Around the country, a handful of new approaches are being tried to do away with the hospital model for nursing homes and replace it with care that gives meaning to residents' lives, according to an article in the Washington Post.

The Court of Appeals of Iowa has ruled that a trust that terminates if it causes a Medicaid applicant to be denied benefits should still be counted among the applicant's assets. More . . .

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision allowing states to use what is known as the "income-first" rule. Because of this decision, depending on the state, a community spouse of a Medicaid recipient could quickly be thrown into poverty...

Medicaid 101

A California court says that a nursing home was largely responsible for the injuries of a resident who accidentally set himself on fire while smoking. Lawson v. Skyline Healthcare Center (Cal. Ct. App., 2 App. Dist., B142164, Oct. 3, 2001).

On Thursday, June 14, the Bush administration announced that it would rename the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).