• Medicaid Stories: Hiding Assets

    Qualifying for Medicaid to pay for long-term care at home or in a nursing home means meeting strict income and asset limits. In most states, you can have just $2,000 to your name when you apply. This low asset limit coupled with rampant misinformation about what you have to do to meet it drives people to take actions that are…interesting.

  • Ways to Pay for Long-Term Care: Part 2

    In Part 1 of this series, you learned that long-term care is expensive and that there are several different ways to pay for it, including Medicare and long-term care insurance.

    If your Medicare coverage runs out and you don’t have long-term care insurance (or the coverage you have is inadequate or it runs out), what are the other options?

  • How to Handle a VA Pension Poacher

    Have you heard of VA pension poaching? Pension poachers are organizations that help veterans apply for VA pension aid and attendance benefits and then require the veteran to purchase home care services from their organization at inflated prices and with excessive fees. How can you determine whether you’re working with a VA pension poacher? In this article, which ran in April 2022, we talked about the five warning signs, which include:

  • FAQ about Respite Care

    Respite care can be a lifesaver for family caregivers, but many are unaware this service even exists. Those who know about it often don’t know how to access it.

    We turned to an expert for answers. Jennifer Hand, one of the Elder Care Coordinators at Bratton Law Group, a Life Care Planning Law Firm with offices in the Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia areas, is here to answer some of the most common questions she hears about respite care.

  • Navigating Holiday Celebrations When a Loved One Has Dementia

    Living with a person who has dementia often means dealing with one curve ball after another, especially during the holiday season. If you’re responsible for planning holiday get-togethers for your family, how can you create memorable experiences that work for everyone—even loved ones who have dementia? These suggestions will help.

    Get educated.

    Learn all you can about the type of dementia your loved one has. Knowledge brings understanding. If you and other family members understand dementia, you will be less surprised by the inevitable changes.

  • Ways to Pay for Long-Term Care - Part 1

    Have you ever paid for long-term care? If not, brace yourself. Long-term care is expensive and getting more costly every day. According to the 2021 Genworth survey, care in a semi-private room in a nursing home averages $7,908 per month, with care in a private room averaging more than $9,034 per month.

    Do you have that kind of money laying around? Most of us don’t.

  • Bridging the Elder Care Gap

    By Robin Lacrimosa

    I’ve worked for decades in the senior care industry in Georgia. I got my start in the early 1990s when I hired on as an activity assistant in a memory care unit right after graduating from college. I fell in love with the work and haven’t looked back. Since then, I’ve made a career in the elder care field. I led organizations charged with administering federal grants that fund services for older adults. I worked as a patient affairs coordinator for a local hospital. I served as the director of adult daycare centers.

  • How to Mess Up a Complaint – Part 2

    When an elderly loved one is living in a long-term care facility and you see something that needs to be corrected, issuing a complaint is often the right thing to do. How can you make sure your complaints are heard? How can you make sure they are resolved? We posed these questions to Linda Anderson, a Certified Elder Law Attorney and the founder of Anderson Elder Law, a Life Care Planning Law Firm in Media, Pennsylvania.

  • How to Mess Up a Complaint – Part 1

    When an elderly loved one is living in a long-term care facility and you see something that needs to be corrected, issuing a complaint is often the right thing to do. How can you make sure your complaints are heard? How can you make sure they are resolved? We posed these questions to Linda Anderson, a Certified Elder Law Attorney and the founder of Anderson Elder Law, a Life Care Planning Law Firm in Media, Pennsylvania. “People tend to make the same mistakes over and over again,” she said. “Here are three of the most common.”

  • Medicaid Planning Mistakes – Part 4

    What are the most common mistakes people make when attempting to qualify an elderly loved one for Medicaid? Matthew Bravette, one of the attorneys at Bratton Law Group, a Life Care Planning Law Firm with offices in the Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia areas, has helped thousands of clients navigate the complicated and confusing Medicaid application process. He has seen more than his share of mistakes, and one of the biggest is not working with an experienced elder law attorney, the kind you will find at a Life Care Planning Law Firm.