Elder Law Today Show #5 VA Aid and Attendance – The Best Kept Secret in Long Term Care
April 30, 2008
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In the fifth installment of his podcast, Elder Law Today, Yale Hauptman, takes Elder Law Today on the road to a Caregiving Symposium he spoke at recently. Yale interviews a geriatric care manager, a contractor who makes modifies homes for the elderly and other vendors who attended the symposium about the variety of services they provide to the elderly.
In the second segment Yale discusses in greater depth the Veterans Administration Aid and Attendance program, which provides wartime veterans and their spouses who qualify, as much as $1800 per month of additional income which can help pay for home based care and assisted living care. Learn the details of this little known program and whyso many people have been incorrectly told by the VA that they donât or canât qualify. Yale talks about terms such as income for Veteran Administration purposes and unreimbursed medical expenses and why they donât mean what you might think.
Listen to Yale explain the income and asset levels that must be met and how they differ from those of Medicaid. Yale cautions that in taking the steps necessary to obtain the VA benefit you must be careful not to leave yourself ineligible for other government benefit programs such as Medicaid that might be needed further down the road of what Yale refers to as the elder care journey. Yale explains how it is possible to preserve eligibility for both programs. This is definitely a program you wonât want to miss.
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Paid Family Leave
April 23, 2008
Two weeks ago New Jersey became the third state (California and Washington being the others) to pass into law a bill requiring companies to offer paid leave to employees. The benefit will operate in a similar fashion to state disability benefits in that all employees will contribute an additional amount from their paychecks to help pay for this benefit.
Employees who are caring for a newborn or a newly adopted child are eligible. In addition, however, employees caring for a sick family member can take the leave, which can be as much as 6 weeks. Companies are concerned about the impact the law will have on their businesses if key employees exercise this option.
The law highlights what has become increasingly obvious, that as our population ages more people are caring for elderly loved ones than ever before. 77 million baby boomers will be reaching senior status in the next 20 years. While the paid leave bill, attempts to, in some way, address the crisis, it is clearly not the best approach. Employees who must take time off from work are dealing at that point with a full blown long term care crisis. It often begins with a call that Mom or Dad is in the hospital, then leads to the need for nursing home care, home based care or assisted living care. It is never best to deal with a problem when it has reached the critical stage.
The better approach is to address long term care issues before they arise, in what we call the preplanning stage. Usually, the signs of aging can be seen long before the crisis hits. If families can sit down and, with the assistance of an elder care attorney and other elder care professionals, prepare a plan before the need arises, chances are the employee will not need to take leave, or perhaps may need to take less time off. Preplanning also reduces stress levels for all involved and leads to better care.
Elder Law Today Show #4 Long Term Care Planning – The Way to Avoid Nursing Home Care
April 1, 2008
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In the fourth installment of his podcast, Elder Law Today, Yale Hauptman, a practicing New Jersey elder law attorney, discusses how long term care planning actually decreases the likelihood of ever needing nursing home care. Learn how the long term care system actually works to push people towards nursing homes when they have no more money. Medicaid home based benefits often pay only a part of the cost of aides needed on a 24 hour 7 day a week basis, but will pay the entire cost of care if provided in a nursing home setting. It is, therefore, important to plan ahead to have the funds available to
be able to stay at home.
Yale also reviews for listeners an unknown Veterans Administration benefit for eligible Veterans that can provide as much as $1800 per month in additional income to cover the cost of home aides and assisted living care. The Veterans Aid and Attendance program can help qualified seniors preserve their much needed assets. But Yale cautions that one must keep an eye on the next level of care so as not to jeopardize eligibility for other benefit programs down the road. This requires the coordination of a long term care plan to meet all levels of care, not just the current one.
In the second segment Yale interviews Angie Hicks of Angieâs List, a website offering reviews by consumers of local home improvement contractors. Yale and Angie talk about how Angieâs List is seeing more inquiries in recent years by children who need help finding services for their parents who live long distances away. Seeing the aging of America, Angie tells Yale that Angieâs List now offers ratings of various elder care services to assist families who are faced with the task of caring for the elderly members of the family unit from a distance.
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