Elder Law News

Medicare's hospice benefit is one of the most comprehensive benefits and can be extremely helpful to both the terminally ill individual and his or her family, but it is little understood and underutilized. 

The older the population gets, the greater the potential for elder abuse. States have laws in place designed to combat elder abuse, but some states are doing a better job than others.

The new tax law makes it harder to claim a tax deduction for charitable contributions. While charitable giving should not be only about getting a tax break, if you want to get a tax benefit from your contributions, there are a couple of options. 

If you are paying for your own insurance, you may think you do not need to sign up for Medicare when you turn 65. However, not signing up for Medicare Part B right away can cost you down the road. 

Technological advances have made it easier to stay connected with loved ones all the time. This has included the ability to install cameras in a loved one's nursing home room. These so-called “granny cams” have legal and privacy implications. 

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is increasing the amount taxpayers can deduct from their 2019 income as a result of buying long-term care insurance.

Hospital patients who need additional care after being discharged from the hospital are usually sent to either an inpatient rehabilitation facility or a skilled nursing facility. Although these facilities may look similar from the outside, Medicare offers very different coverage for each.

With the aging population becoming increasingly tech savvy, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has moved a lot of services online. From applying for Social Security benefits to replacing a card, the SSA has online tools to help.

You are turning 65 and enrolling in Medicare, but as a healthy senior do you really need to also sign up for Medicare's supplemental coverage? Not signing up initially can be very costly down the road.

The median cost of a private nursing home room in the United States increased to $100,375 a year in 2018, up 3 percent from 2017, according to Genworth's annual Cost of Care survey.