Elder Law News

Under a new Medicare Prescription Payment Plan starting in 2025, all Medicare prescription drug plans, including Medicare Advantage plans, will offer enrollees the option to spread out their prescription drug out-of-pocket costs over 12 months.

Someone who is incapacitated cannot make personal decisions or understand legal documents. An incapacitated person requires a surrogate decision-maker, such as an agent under a health care power of attorney or a guardian.

Preparing and organizing your financial information for when you are no longer capable will bring peace of mind to you today. At the same time, it may relieve your loved ones’ burden in the future.

Many Medicare recipients struggle to make ends meet. Special savings programs administered by each state can help cover certain Medicare costs, such as premiums and deductibles.

While new knowledge becomes available each year about promising potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, recent research is also focusing on the prevention of the disease or mitigation of its symptoms.

Age should never be a barrier to enjoying travel. 

Many family circumstances can increase the risk of probate litigation. High-risk factors that often bring about probate litigation can include sibling rivalry, second marriages without a prenuptial agreement, and dysfunctional family dynamics.

My wife’s mother has been judged to be in need of long-term memory care. She has been approved for it, to be paid by Medicaid, but doesn’t want to go. She would prefer to stay in her apartment (which she can no longer afford) and have us pay the difference, or else move in with us.

We can’t take care of her. We are both over 70. She is incontinent and needs memory help. Can she be forced to accept the approved memory care facility?

My mother has been in a long-term care facility (for dementia) for two months. We cared for her at home as long as we could. The facility recently filed for Medicaid for her and found out she has CDs that we were unaware of (she put me on them as POD).

What should we do now? Should we pay the nursing home out of those CDs, or am I entitled to a portion of them? Obviously she will be denied for Medicaid upon these new findings.

My sister asked me to be joint owner on her checking account. Will being a joint owner open me up to liability to pay any debts not covered by the joint account? Specifically, are my personal finances and property outside the joint account at risk?