Medicaid Planning Strategies

A California appeals court has upheld a $2.5 million penalty against a life insurer that used deceptive sales practices to convince older Americans to purchase annuities. More . . .

A New Jersey appeals court blocks a son who is the guardian of his mother from selling his mother's house and transferring a portion of the proceeds to hasten her eligibility for Medicaid coverage of her nursing home care. The...

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 federal government has released data on the quality of care delivered at the 17,000 nursing homes around the nation that care for Medicare or Medicaid patients. But a report terms the data "inacurate" and calls its release "premature."...

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...

A major new study from Canada concludes that care provided in a home setting is significantly less expensive than long-term residential care--sometimes less than half the cost. More . . .

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.