Nursing Home Planning

What is Nursing Home Planning?  From the family perspective, nursing home planning is about finding the right place for your loved ones as they age while still keeping their home and assets with the family.  Sometimes these are done in well planned stages and sometimes they are done quite suddenly when a loved ones suffers a debilitating injury, sickness or trauma.  From the legal perspective, nursing home planning is a complicated emotional process that involves three major legal frameworks which are often changing: Elder Law, Medicaid and Healthcare.

Medicaid - Obtaining Medicaid is often a primary consideration, but this field of the law is exceedingly complex. No legal area is more hazardous for families because of the amount of inaccurate information and wrong advice that people receive from well meaning friends, family members and, unfortunately, other professionals. Because Congress completely revamped the Medicaid laws in February of 2006, new rules and regulations are now in place. What you thought you knew has probably changed.

What is Elder Law?  Elder Law is a relatively new concept in the law. It generally refers to helping seniors and their families better plan for the possibility that a parent or close friend will need extended long-term care in a nursing home situation.

Healthcare - The very best results can be obtained if we can meet with the family well in advance of the incapacity of the loved one. In fact, once the loved one has lost the ability to understand the process, very little planning can be undertaken. Regrettably, many powers of attorney and Wills prepared without a full understanding of the new laws are often inadequate in these devastating situations.

Whatever the situation, you will receive quality legal advice in a supportive, caring atmosphere.