DECEMBER 27, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 26 Gilbert Levy, like many Medicare beneficiaries, was attracted by the promise of HMO coverage for his Medicare benefits. The California man shopped carefully, and only signed up with PacifiCare Health Systems after he was sure that he would be able to choose his own primary care physician, and…
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DECEMBER 20, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 25 On December 14, 1999, President Clinton signed the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999. While most of the new federal legislation deals with foster care programs, it also changes the law and practice regarding so-called “Special Needs” trusts. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, administered by but separate…
DECEMBER 13, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 24 Ruth M. Leibig was an active and self-sufficient 78-year-old, living in a senior complex operated by Somerville Senior Citizens Housing, Inc., a non-profit organization, in New Jersey. On May 16, 1994, she was found in her bathtub. Her arm had wedged behind the “grab bar” installed in the…
DECEMBER 6, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 23 In 1998, Gertrude Hoener signed a bank card giving Ronald Hoener power of attorney over her accounts at People’s Bank of Pratt, Kansas. By the time she died in 1995, he had written checks to himself for $140,000 and had liquidated over $250,000 in certificates of deposit held…
NOVEMBER 29, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 22 Homer Cone suffered from dementia. As a result, he was placed in a nursing home in Missouri, run by national nursing home chain Beverly Enterprises. Apparently because of his confusion, he wandered out of the nursing home one winter day, got lost and died of hypothermia. Mr. Cone’s…
NOVEMBER 22, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 21 Kenneth A. Kaneb, like many northern retirees, spent his winters in Florida. Although he lived alone after his wife’s death, he owned the family home in Massachusetts and a second home, a condominium, in Florida. In 1993, at the age of eighty five, Mr. Kaneb found that he…
NOVEMBER 15, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 20 Ballard Creek Community, an assisted living facility in Huxley, Iowa, is operated by a religious organization called Madrid Home for the Aging. Ballard Creek is a new development, and its current residents are mostly financially secure. Can such a facility qualify for a property tax exemption as a…
NOVEMBER 8, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 19 Elisabeth Frudenfeld lives in California. In 1987, she established a revocable living trust. Nine years later, the California courts appointed a professional fiduciary as conservator to handle her affairs. Ms. Frudenfeld’s trust was primarily designed to avoid the probate process, and so she retained the power to revoke…
NOVEMBER 1, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 18 Two programs—Medicare and Medicaid—provide the majority of acute medical and long-term nursing care for America’s senior citizens. In fact, those two programs provide over one third of all medical care for Americans of all ages. With the total cost of those two programs approaching $400 billion per year,…
OCTOBER 25, 1999 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 17 In 1980, a non-profit group in Cleveland, Ohio, applied for federal funds to renovate a former Franciscan Monastery. Our Lady of Angels Apartments, Inc., used the money to turn the former monastery into housing for the elderly and disabled. A decade later, Our Lady of Angels was sued…