Be Proactive About Your Healthcare Decision Making…’Have the Talk’

April 16th is National Healthcare Decision Day! So often we go through life making decisions on the traditional rights of passage in life: college education, career path, choosing a spouse, having children, buying our first home, vacationing, retirement…you name it! But one key crossroad we often fail to think about is healthcare decision making. We can all agree that most of us don’t think about this until a crisis hits and the pivotal decisions of expressing healthcare wishes can no longer be ignored. As a result of not taking preventative measures, families all-too-often suffer the added burden of having to guess what their loved ones healthcare wishes are.

Not this Saturday…it’s time to ‘Have the Talk!’ Join the discussion on National Healthcare Decisions Day, April 16th, and start talking and documenting healthcare wishes with your immediate and extended family. Forward this blog to your friends, staff, colleagues, lodge/social club members and or/house of worship, telling them that you are participating in NHDD and encouraging them to do the same. Prevention and preparation are the keys to alleviate the familiar burdens of a healthcare crisis. Once you ‘Have the Talk’ and you decide to take action, Oast and Hook is here to offer support, guidance and direction to your healthcare decision making journey.

Oast & Hook’s Estate Planning will address the following issues:

• Who will make healthcare decisions for me if I become disabled?
• What kind of medical care do I want if I am dying and can’t make decisions for myself?
• If I am disabled, how will I pay for my nursing home of long-term care and for the support for those who depend on me?
• Who do I want to manage my assets and personal affairs if I become disabled?
• Who do I want to settle my affairs and distribute my property after my death?
• Where do I want my property to go at my death?
• Do any of my beneficiaries require assistance or protection?
• How can I minimize expenses, taxes (income, probate, and estate taxes) and delays if I become disabled or die?
• When I die, will I have sufficient assets or insurance to pay the expenses and taxes resulting from my death and to provide for beneficiaries?

Schedule your estate planning appointment today!

SAVE THE DATE: Oast & Hook is pleased to participate in this year’s National Healthcare Decisions Day. Oast & Hook attorney Sandra Smith will participate in a program on Friday, April 16th at Westminster Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay. Ms. Smith will be discussing surrogate decision making and other estate planning issues. Learn more about National Healthcare Decisions Day and get free information at www.nationalhealthcaredecisionsday.org.

Vote Oast and Hook for Top Estate, Probate and Elder Law Blog of the Year

We’ve recently been recognized by LexisNexis as one of the Top 25 Estate, Probate and Elder Law Blogs for 2011. The honored blogs contain a wealth of information for estate planning and elder law practitioners, with timely news items, practical information, expert analysis, tips, frequent postings, and helpful links to other sites. LexisNexis is a leading global provider of content-enabled workflow solutions designed specifically for professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting, and academic markets. Through the integration of information and technology, LexisNexis provides customers with access to billions of searchable documents and records from more than 45,000 legal, news and business sources. This includes the valuable information we strive to provide through our blog. As a leader in elder law, assisting seniors and their families, disabled persons and advocates across Hampton Roads and Northeastern North Carolina, our blog provides frequent and timely content in feature areas such as: elder law, estate planning, and life-care planning to our readers. We welcome your comments and appreciate you sharing the information at your discretion, but there is one more thing we need you to do.

We’re in LexisNexis’ Top 25 Blogs, but we’d like to be number 1! You can vote Oast and Hook’s Blog for Top Estate, Probate and Elder Law Blog of the Year! You will need to be registered in order to vote. If you haven't previously registered, follow this link to create a new registration or use your sign in credentials from your favorite social media site. Registration is free and does not result in sales contacts. Once you are logged in, vote next to our check box. Winner will be announced April 20th so vote today!

Benefit for Veterans With No Service Connected Disability

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers the Improved Pension Benefit with Aid and Attendance, commonly referred to as Aid and Attendance which can provide a Veteran (or their surviving spouse) with additional income monthly, up to $23,388 per year. Veterans and their spouses must demonstrate that they have a regular need for the aid and attendance of another individual. The purpose of this non-service-connected benefit is to provide supplemental income to disabled or older veterans or surviving spouses who have low income and/or high unreimbursed medical expenses. Examples of those needing Aid & Attendance are those Veterans or their spouse who have:

• Professional home care providers or family members to provide care in the home,
• Assisted living or adult day care services, or
• Nursing home long-term care services.

The veteran must have served ninety consecutive days on active duty, with one day during a wartime period, and have a discharge other than dishonorable. This Aid & Attendance benefit is not well known or understood and often people are told they do not qualify due to misinformation. Veterans or surviving spouses can qualify for the benefit even if they have relatively large incomes or substantial assets. In order to learn more about Aid & Attendance and other benefits as well as protecting assets from the high cost of long term care, it is important to enlist the assistance of an elder law attorney to properly plan.

Stimulus Payments for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA or Stimulus Bill) includes a one-time payment of $250 to anyone who received any kind of Social Security benefit, including retirement, survivors and disability benefits, Railroad Retirement or Veterans Administration (VA) disability compensation or pension benefits during November 2008, December 2008, or January 2009. Most people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will also receive the one-time payment; however, persons in nursing homes who receive a monthly SSI benefit of $30 will not receive the payment. Most payments will go out this month and all should be received by June 4, 2009. Children receiving Social Security benefits who are under the age of 18 (or 19 if still in high school), will not be eligible for the payment; however, adult children who receive disability payment on a parent’s record will receive a payment. Additionally, children who receive SSI will receive a payment.

Eligible recipients will receive a notice regarding the payment. The payment will go to the recipient using the same means as the regular benefit. For example, if the usual monthly benefit is directly deposited to a bank account, the one-time payment will also be directly deposited. If the usual payment arrives by mail, the extra payment will be mailed as well.

If a person is in a nursing home, and the usual monthly benefit is sent to the nursing home, then the one-time payment will be sent to the nursing home as well. According to ARRA, the nursing home must set aside the $250 payment for the nursing home resident to use as the resident sees fit. The law specifically states that “The entire payment shall be used only for the benefit of the individual who is entitled to the payment.” The nursing home is not permitted to keep the funds and apply them toward the resident’s nursing home costs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has advised nursing home surveyors about the one-time payment and residents’ rights to the payment.

The one-time payment will not count as income for federal, state or local benefits. The amount is also excluded as a resource in the month in which it is received, and for the following nine months without being taken into account for purposes of determining eligibility for Medicaid. If the funds are not spent by the end of the ten month period, then the remaining funds will be counted as a resource. The payment will not count as earnings for Social Security disability benefits. Additionally, the payment also will not count as gross income for income tax purposes.