Vincent J. Russo
A federal appeals court has again ruled that 230,000 Medicare Part D beneficiaries who were erroneously mailed a premium refund do not have the right to apply for a waiver excusing them from repaying the money. Action Alliance of Senior Citizens v. Sebelius (D.C. Cir., No. 09-5191, June 18, 2010).
Because of a computer error, in August 2006 approximately 230,000 people were mistakenly mailed refunds for their Medicare prescription drug benefit premiums. The Bush administration insisted that the money, which averaged $215 per beneficiary, be paid back by the end of September 2006.
The Family Health Care Decisions Act became New York Law on March 16, 2010.
The new law covers New York residents (other than the developmentally disabled and the mentally retarded who are covered under a different statute) who lack the capacity to make health care and end of life decisions for themselves, even if such individuals previously had capacity but never expressed their wishes in a health care proxy or living will. This new law was 17 years in the making.
When faced with the possibility of penalizing an ill father for paying for the joyous wedding of his daughter, HRA approved the Medicaid application. Recently a wife sought our advice in obtaining Medicaid nursing home care for her ailing husband. While we were discussing their various assets and transfers it was discovered that only months prior to being diagnosed as terminally ill, the applicant had paid for his daughter's wedding to the tune of approximately $50,000. With the possibility that we may need to go to a fair hearing to have a judge decide their fate, the wife retained our law firm.
We recently received an approval on this application after months of gathering voluminous documentation. We took the position that this was not an uncompensated transfer. Having been shown receipts that all of the wedding expenses were paid directly by the father, HRA did not hesitate to approve this application without a Medicaid transfer penalty.
Congratulations to my associate, Deanna Eble, for the preparation and filing of the Medicaid application and her good work in getting it approved.
When one thinks of abuse, you envision one person physically hurting another, like we hear all too often in domestic violence situations. Unfortunately, abuse comes in many forms: physical, financial, medical and emotional and all too often, the signs of abuse are overlooked or ignored. In general, we also tend to think of those abused in terms of “groups” – young or middle-aged Americans – however it has been reported that older women (67 percent) are far more likely than men (32 percent) to be victims of abuse and a little more than half (53 percent) of the abusers are female. Elder abuse and neglect is a reality for far too many of our seniors today. It is our responsibility as a society to recognize the warning signs, to intervene and to help educate others about how to report and reduce the incidence of this crime.
Abuse can come in many different types: physical, sexual, emotional or psychological, neglect, abandonment, and financial exploitation.
